HomeAway’s Economic Impact Report, which was compiled by the London School of Economics and released in late November, has highlighted the growing impact that the holiday rental sector is having on the UK economy.
SuperControl’s Managing Director, Robert Kennedy, was invited to participate in the round-table discussion between selected industry experts and journalists that took place on 2 December. He said: “This report highlights the enormous value to the economy of the self-catering industry.”
Some of the main findings were that the self-catering industry:
- Generates more than £4.5bn in expenditure.
- Supports around 100,000 jobs.
- Contributes £100m in tax revenue.
The report looked at the UK as a whole, but also focused on the self-catering industry in three specific areas – London, Cornwall and North Yorkshire.
Robert Kennedy added: “Around 14,000 UK properties use SuperControl and I can confirm that the report’s findings correlate with our own regional revenue data. For example, one-quarter of the self-catering units in Cornwall use our system and our booking totals tally with those in the report.”
Sector trends
Some interesting trends were identified. Namely:
- The holiday rental sector is growing – over the past five years, the volume of domestic holidays taken in a rental property has increased by 20%, while the value of the market has increased by 38%. The volume of domestic visits spent in holiday rentals is expected to increase by 6.2% by 2018.
- Guests who stay in holiday rentals stay longer and spend more per trip than those who stay in traditional serviced accommodation (hotels and B&Bs).
- Quality and standards have risen.
As impressive as the figures are, the report failed to include groups such as letting agencies and companies like SuperControl, which earn revenue, employ staff, pay taxes and have their own effect on the national economy. Therefore, it seems, these figures could be on the conservative side. In any case, more research is needed to fully clarify the financial impact of the self-catering sector.
The full report can be found here.
