Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / The Visitor Levy Debate That's Holding Back UK Tourism

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The Visitor Levy Debate That's Holding Back UK Tourism · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

0:00
Let's spread the season and spread that tourism out rather
0:05
than this constant thing of penalized, penalized, penalized,
0:09
tax, tax, tax. We've got to stop this and
0:11
change this narrative. Our industry needs help from the
0:16
government, we need people to come in.
0:19
We need more people in our businesses, not less.
0:22
Why does the UK government need to think twice before
0:26
introducing A visitor levy? What is the problem with tax,
0:30
tax, tax on the tourism industry and wider hosts and property
0:34
managers need to attend the House Planet roadshow and short
0:38
stay summit. Andy Fenner from the Short Term
0:40
Accommodation Association is the special guest on the House
0:43
Planet podcast, and he'll be answering all these questions
0:46
and on today's show. Andy, thank you for joining us
0:54
on the Host Planet podcast. What do you make of government
0:58
plans to give mayoralties the power to introduce a visitor
1:02
levy on guests who stay in short term rentals?
1:06
Yeah, it's, it does seem like almost every week, every month,
1:12
there's yet another tax coming in on our sector.
1:16
It the government, and not just the UK government, but
1:20
governments around the world at the moment seem to think that
1:22
the tourism industry is just a gift that keeps on giving that
1:25
but we can. It's an endless pot of money.
1:28
But we know, you know, the people who work across our
1:30
sector that it's not that tourism is an emotive purchase
1:36
for our guests that don't no one has to go on holiday.
1:39
It's not like drinking water, it's not like eating food.
1:43
We've got to bear that in mind. We've got to bear in mind, and
1:46
we want the government to bear in mind that thousands of
1:49
people's jobs, thousands of businesses across the UK rely on
1:53
the tourism industry. And tourism is also a wonderful
1:56
thing for the people who go on holiday go people who spend
1:59
their hard earned money coming on holiday and staying in short
2:02
term Nets because it makes their lives better and we can't keep
2:05
taxing and taxing and taxing our sector.
2:09
Yeah. I mean the the government's
2:11
stated target is growth, growth, growth.
2:15
But how does that marry up when the solution always seems to be
2:19
tax, tax, tax? Yeah.
2:22
I mean, I think we all understand that, that that
2:26
governments, our government, other governments have got
2:30
financial problems at the moment.
2:33
We understand that. I understand that, you
2:36
understand that it's the issue that we've got is that they keep
2:42
coming back to the same through and that's tourism and that's
2:45
our sector. The government keeps talking
2:49
about how people with the broadest shoulders need to share
2:52
some of the the the load of paying tax.
2:55
Well, OK, I'm not entirely sure that the small businesses and
2:59
SMEs across our sector are that place.
3:02
There are other things that the government can do.
3:06
We want to work with the governments across the UK to be
3:10
to bring growth. The government set a target
3:13
under the previous terrorism minister of 50 million inbound
3:16
visitors a year into the UK. Now we know because we work in
3:21
tourism that 50 million inbound tourists a year is going to
3:25
bring vast jobs, investment and money into the country.
3:29
We should be encouraging that. We should be cutting taxes on
3:32
tourism. We should be helping our sector.
3:35
We should be bringing back tax free for tourists, making visas
3:38
easier, cheaper to get, to bring these people into our country,
3:42
bring that investment and bring those jobs in.
3:45
Instead what we seem to be doing is saying, OK, we'll just take
3:48
some easy tax from the tourism ministry.
3:50
We're working to try to get the government to understand that we
3:53
that they can't keep doing this. We need support, not text.
3:58
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Less stress, more bookings. Sorted with hopefully is your
5:17
message to the government regarding the visitor levy.
5:20
Just don't do it. I mean, I mean, what do your
5:22
lobbying efforts and conversations look like in
5:25
relation to the levy? Yeah.
5:27
I mean, it's not that, you know, if you looked at a visitor levy
5:34
as a stand alone, when we get thrown back at us a lot that,
5:38
well, you know, there's a visitor levy in Amsterdam,
5:40
there's a visitor levy in Rome, there's a visitor levy in XYZ
5:44
place and it hasn't changed tourism movement.
5:46
That's fine. I accept that.
5:49
However, we're not looking at the tourism levy as they stand
5:53
alone. The tourism levy is just one
5:56
more thing that's coming to our sector.
5:59
You look at places like Rome, you look at places like New
6:02
York, you look at places like Amsterdam.
6:04
Well, they don't have the VAT rules that we have.
6:06
They haven't just lost FHL, they haven't got the EPC's, they
6:09
haven't got the 18 twos, they haven't got this barrage of
6:13
stuff coming against us. And that's what we're trying to
6:16
get the government to understand that actually when you are
6:20
sitting in in the Treasury thinking, OK, well, I'll just do
6:23
this, it's only one thing on tourism.
6:25
Well, actually it's not because this government department and
6:28
that government department and that government department have
6:30
all done it. Now part of the thing that we
6:33
are trying to push with the government is to get more
6:37
understanding, appreciation, if that's the right word, for our
6:42
industry. The government issued an
6:44
industrial strategy for the UK, they issued an industrial
6:47
strategy for Wales. We applaud that.
6:49
We need an industrial strategy, but why is the tourism industry
6:53
not in that? We should be, we're a main
6:56
driver of jobs and investment across our rural and coastal
7:00
communities. No one else is providing the
7:03
level of jobs and business that we do in towns and villages
7:07
across the UK. And yet those people's jobs and
7:11
businesses are not in that industrial strategy.
7:13
They're not respected. And it's, it's got to change.
7:17
If we were and we were pushed forward as an actual business
7:20
and industry, then the government would look at us as
7:23
in the round and say OK, well all of these things are coming
7:26
at once except they so at the moment they don't.
7:29
That's what we're trying to change.
7:30
We've got support from some MPs at the moment who also recognise
7:34
that this has got to change and we're confident that in 2026
7:38
this is going to happen. In relation to the visitor levy
7:41
though, it it feels like a little bit of a lost cause.
7:44
You've got the mayors in London, Manchester, North Yorkshire all
7:48
saying yes, we want to introduce this and and take this cash.
7:52
If it does come in as looks likely, how should it be
7:57
administered? Yeah.
7:58
I mean, we can argue what we want, but we don't want to.
8:02
We don't want this. I, I you know, I've been around
8:05
long enough. You've been around long enough
8:07
to know that. When was the last time any
8:10
government or politician ever said, oh actually, yes, I got
8:13
this wrong, You're right, I'll change my mind.
8:15
It doesn't happen, so it's gonna come in.
8:18
So what we've got to do, the crucial thing now is to make
8:22
sure it is easy to administer. We cannot have this being some
8:27
great burden on the small businesses across the sector to
8:30
report this with the threats of massive fines and this, that and
8:34
the other if you get it wrong. What we need is support.
8:38
We are working with DCMS across England to make sure that when
8:43
this comes in, it's easy. It's not onerous.
8:46
We did that with the registration scheme.
8:49
The CAA argued long and hard to make sure that the registration
8:52
scheme is going to be a light touch registration scheme.
8:54
They listen to us and we got it. We're working with MPs across
8:59
the sector to make sure that this tourism tax comes in in the
9:03
right way. And also we're working to make
9:07
sure that the money that comes from tourism tax is spent in the
9:10
right way. If they're going to tax our
9:13
sector, what we must do is a make it easy, but we also need
9:18
to be able to then spread the benefits of tourism.
9:21
We constantly have and the businesses across our sector
9:24
have this, you know, over tourism, this issue that
9:27
tourists are a problem. You know, you look at Barcelona,
9:30
you look at Amsterdam, you look at these cities where people
9:33
complain about tourism. Well, OK, you can't say that
9:37
anymore Mr. Mayor or Mr. Local politician, if our sector is now
9:40
providing you with millions of pounds of investment.
9:44
But what we need to do is ensure much the same as on your council
9:48
tax forms where it says X proportion is going to the
9:50
police or the fire brigade or anywhere else.
9:53
We want to make sure that people understand the value of tourism.
9:57
So please stop saying there's over tourism because actually
10:00
each one of those people who's staying in that holiday let up
10:02
the road is providing money directly into your local
10:06
authority that's helping to pay for your area, helping to pay
10:09
for the bins, the roads, whatever else it is.
10:12
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10:17
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for further details. And if the money from the levy
11:39
is used, for example, in the north of England, you've got the
11:41
the mayors in like I say, North Yorkshire and Manchester saying,
11:44
yeah, we want to take this cash. If it's used to improve public
11:48
transport, for example, and infrastructure to make it easier
11:52
for people and tourists to get around, maybe at least that's a
11:55
bit of a carrot at the at the end of this.
11:59
It is, I mean, you know, one of the big issues that we've got
12:02
in, in our rural communities and in small towns is not, it's,
12:08
it's not the lack of, of things to go and see.
12:11
It's not the difficult, you know, but you look at cities.
12:15
I'm currently staying in a holiday let in London, which is
12:18
great. And there's a tube down the road
12:20
and get on the tube and go everywhere.
12:23
I don't have a, a car. I, I chose to get rid of my car
12:26
few years ago. I cycle everywhere.
12:28
If I want to go to the Cotswolds on holiday, how do I get there?
12:31
There's no bus. There's no way of doing that.
12:34
So the lack of rural transport across our our communities, it
12:39
stops travellers being able to get around.
12:41
It also stops opportunities for local people to work there.
12:45
That if you are going, if you are somebody who's working in
12:48
the short term net industry, you're housekeeping, you're
12:50
doing maintenance, you're doing whatever you're doing in the
12:53
properties and you're going from this property to that one,
12:55
rushing around, fixing things, doing things.
12:57
How do you do it if there's no public transport?
13:00
So yeah, if we can. But at the end of the day,
13:03
that's a bigger conversation than than you or I can have.
13:07
And I don't think the government's going to turn
13:09
around and listen to us on that one.
13:10
But we can keep pushing for it and we can keep talking to to
13:14
MPs. We worked with the CLA, the
13:18
Country Land Owners Association, on a rural business manifesto
13:22
back in the summer. One of the key parts of that
13:27
rural manifesto, we were working with the CLA National parks,
13:30
English Heritage at the A a various other organizations.
13:35
One of the key parts that everyone identified as a problem
13:38
was transport was getting around the country, getting tourists to
13:44
be able to not just go to London, Bicester Village and and
13:48
you know, wherever else, but getting out into our small towns
13:53
and villages and spreading the benefit and the value of tourism
13:57
around the country. We really need to help get the
13:59
government to help us do this. In your previous answer there
14:02
you mentioned the registration scheme.
14:05
This has been much discussed over the last couple of years.
14:09
We're we're we're all waiting for it to come in.
14:11
What's what's the latest? Should we expect it anytime
14:14
soon? I.
14:18
Think anytime soon is is it depends on your your, you know,
14:24
for a business person, anytime soon means this afternoon,
14:27
tomorrow morning, Monday week at the latest.
14:30
That isn't how you know, government works.
14:33
The wheels are much slower to process.
14:36
I would I would like this to have we've been calling for this
14:41
registration scheme since, you know, 2017.
14:45
Do I want it to come in now? Yes, I do.
14:48
But I would rather if it was going to come in right and be
14:52
done properly and that takes another six months, then we'll
14:54
take the six months. Let's not mess this one up.
14:58
We are working on a regular almost weekly basis with DCMS
15:03
asking us for information on this.
15:05
Can you help us with that? Can you do the other?
15:08
We're very happy to keep doing that on behalf of the sector.
15:11
We're often going back out to members in various parts of the
15:14
country. So, you know, DCMS want some
15:15
data on this or that. Members have been really good
15:18
with providing information, sending it in to to DCMS with
15:23
us. So we are working with them,
15:26
they are engaging with us. There's a lot of engagement, a
15:29
lot of work going into this. We heard, you know, we've heard
15:35
rumors that this is going to come out in the new year, that
15:37
it's going to come out in April, that it's going to come out in
15:39
July. I don't know.
15:41
All I know is that when it comes out, we need to make sure it's
15:45
right. And if that means that it takes
15:47
another two weeks, 3 weeks months, so be it.
15:51
Why is the registration scheme a good idea, especially in
15:56
relation to gathering data about our sector?
15:59
It's a good idea because we know for various reasons you look at
16:08
I did a, a, a evidence session with Brighton City Council back
16:13
last year with, with Airbnb and one of our members, Steve
16:16
Taggart and I lived in Brighton. Steve lives in Brighton's, a
16:22
local guy runs his local business down there.
16:24
And we were being told, we know that Brighton survives on
16:29
tourism. It is a tourist city without
16:32
tourism. Brighton is dead.
16:34
It's provides the jobs, provides the life.
16:37
It is Brighton and I know how, you know, roughly.
16:42
Yeah. I mean, there are there are
16:44
holiday let's in the middle of Brighton.
16:45
That's where you want to go and stay.
16:47
It's a fantastic place to go and stay.
16:50
But the government or the government, the council rather
16:51
came back and said to Steve and I that there were, I think they
16:55
said there were 6 1/2 thousand holiday let's in the middle of
16:59
Brighton. And you think, oh gosh, you
17:00
know, that's news to me. Steve went away, did his
17:04
research as he always does. We checked how many holiday
17:07
let's there actually were and there were about 1200 according
17:12
to our estimates. What they'd done was the the
17:15
data poll that the research they'd used was too Brighton,
17:18
was too small. So they'd actually taken the
17:21
entire South Coast from Worthing to Eastbourne and as far up as
17:24
Crawley Gatwick Airport and said, OK, well we'll just do
17:27
that and just say that's Brighton.
17:29
So the figures were completely wrong.
17:31
So they were using this as a stick to beat local businesses
17:35
that provide jobs and stuff like Steves and saying you've taken
17:38
6000 houses off people but we haven't.
17:42
What we've done is, is put 1200 holiday let's in which are
17:45
providing jobs and putting people into the pubs and the
17:48
restaurants and the bars in Brighton.
17:50
So this registration scheme is going to enable proper decision
17:54
making on our sector. It's going to enable councils
17:58
like Brighton and when we're talking to them to say actually
18:02
what you're saying is a problem isn't a problem.
18:04
It's a massive benefit and we should have more holiday let's
18:07
in Brighton, not less. More holiday let's is more
18:11
tourists, it's more money, it's more jobs, it's more income.
18:15
So that's going to really help us.
18:17
We also know that the sector and I've been involved in this in in
18:21
tourism for 2530 years. I've been doing and I first had
18:25
my first holiday let's 15 years ago.
18:28
Sectors, changing sectors, you know, we are professionals, we
18:33
are proper part of the tourism industry and now respected as
18:37
such. So having this registration
18:39
scheme will enable us to to increase the professionalization
18:43
of the sector. And that's something that
18:46
talking to hosts, property managers, you know, associated
18:51
businesses across the country for the past few years, everyone
18:54
is calling for. Let's raise the game in our
18:57
sector, get us recognized as a professional body that we are,
19:01
and that will take away a lot of the issues that we've got in the
19:04
industry. Speaking of issues, there are
19:06
quite a few in Wales, not least the 182 day threshold there,
19:13
which is causing hosts and property managers a lot of
19:17
issues. The Welsh Government has
19:19
recently been running a consultation on 182 and the
19:23
wider short term rental sector. What's your message to the Welsh
19:27
Government in relation to the 182 in particular?
19:30
Yeah. I mean, we're working, we've
19:35
been working, you know, with Welsh government, with the Welsh
19:40
Revenue Authority on the various pieces of legislation.
19:43
They've got very similar situations to across England
19:48
where, you know, everything is not in isolation.
19:51
You've got all these different things coming at the sector over
19:54
there. We had one of our, our directors
19:58
was over. We were asked to give evidence
20:00
again to. To Welsh Government about two
20:04
weeks ago. They are listening.
20:09
It's a slow process and unfortunately politics gets in
20:13
the way of everything. And you know, we know that, you
20:19
know, the elections are coming up in Wales in May.
20:24
So we're going to get through into the new year and things are
20:27
going to start to slow. Things are.
20:29
It's a bit like, you know, everything for the, for, for us
20:33
non politicians, it's a, well, I'll do it after Christmas.
20:36
For politicians, everything will be after the election because
20:39
they suddenly start to focus on the idea that some of them might
20:42
actually lose their jobs. And we need to get this changed
20:49
because it's affecting businesses, it's affecting our
20:53
members across Wales. My holiday let's were in Wales.
20:57
I lived in in Wales, just outside of Abergavenny.
21:01
The issues that we were just talking about with rural
21:03
transport, everything else amplified massively.
21:06
In Wales we've got businesses that are hanging on and they are
21:11
like my business, the only provider of jobs.
21:15
We used to keep the pub open at the end of the road.
21:17
It was, there was nothing else that would keep these people
21:21
going. We've got to get this changed.
21:23
We've got to get them to listen to us.
21:25
Problem with these elections, you know, we are spread thinly
21:28
already across the sector, campaigning for the sector.
21:31
We're now having to deal with the current government and the
21:35
different itinerations of the likely next government and the
21:38
various different people there. Because it's all well and good
21:40
as making the current government change if it if, if the new one,
21:45
if, if it does change, if a new government comes in in May and
21:48
there's all new people, we can't start from a standing start.
21:52
We have to keep that momentum going now.
21:55
So it's a lot of work, it's a lot of effort.
21:58
If any of our members across Wales are watching and want to
22:02
get involved and help with what the STIA is doing across Wales,
22:05
please get in touch. Please let us know.
22:09
I'm going to be over in Wales for a lot of January with
22:12
various of the team really pushing this forward and would
22:14
really appreciate any help or support any of the members in
22:17
Wales can give us. I mean, most people in Wales are
22:19
saying, you know, 182 is is not feasible.
22:22
It's far too high. It's putting people out of
22:24
business. What do you think that number
22:25
should be? I don't think that number should
22:27
be there at all. I don't think there should be a
22:28
number. I don't think there should be
22:30
anything like that. I think that people's
22:31
businesses, you know, you, you set up a business which is
22:35
viable and it runs and it has people in it.
22:37
It's we should have no restriction on this on the
22:42
holiday letting in rural Wales. It's nonsensical.
22:45
When I have my holiday let's in Wales, yeah, in the summer
22:48
holidays we're busy, but it's the problem is not having day
22:52
limits or anything else. It's getting people there.
22:54
How many businesses across Wales in holiday letting your problem
22:59
in March, in February, in October is getting people in
23:03
there. What I want is for the
23:04
government to think right, stop spending your money on these
23:07
advertising campaigns and doing this that and the other to
23:09
penalize the industry and help us get more tourists into Wales.
23:13
Stop, you know, charging the ones you've got.
23:17
If we want to spread the season, if we want to say OK, well, you
23:22
know, Snowdonia is really full in tourism in Maine, says well,
23:25
help us and do things where the councils do free parking in the
23:31
middle of the week in the offseason.
23:33
Help us where transport is free in the middle of the week in the
23:35
offseason. Let's spread the season and
23:39
spread that tourism out rather than this constant thing of
23:44
penalized, penalized, penalized, tax, tax, tax.
23:47
We've got to stop this and change this narrative.
23:49
Our industry needs help from the government.
23:54
We need people to come in. We need more people in in our
23:58
businesses, not less. Yeah, you feel that more help
24:03
will actually deliver more to the coffers in the long run.
24:06
So hopefully, hopefully the government can listen and and
24:09
we'll get there away from away from tax, tax, tax then.
24:14
So we're very close now to the opening leg of the host Planet
24:17
Roadshow kicks off in Cornwall on the 5th of February.
24:21
We're very proud to have the STAA as a strategic partner for
24:25
this event. What can people expect Andy, and
24:29
why should they be joining for these roadshow events?
24:32
Yeah, what's really exciting is you're coming back down to
24:36
Cornwall, you know, place that I've stayed in holiday let's in
24:42
for when I was a kid 30-40 years ago.
24:46
Fantastic place. Really looking forward to the
24:49
road shows. We're going to be able to, it's
24:54
going to be a sessions of of education, of sharing, of
24:58
talking about best practice. We are going to invite
25:02
councillors and MPs to come along and talk to us.
25:06
Whether they do or not is entirely up to them.
25:08
But us as an industry, we're open, we're welcoming, we want
25:12
to engage and listen to people. So we're going to have a room
25:15
full of enthusiasm for our sector in Cornwall and we need,
25:20
you know, one of the issues we're going to be talking about
25:22
I suppose is, is, you know, the sad demise of Visit Cornwall.
25:26
What is going to replace it when that replacement comes in?
25:30
Making sure that the voice of our sector is properly heard in
25:34
whatever comes because our sector, as we all know is
25:37
absolutely key to tourism in Cornwall.
25:41
Without short term lettings there is no Cornish tourism.
25:44
Have to get that through to these guys, make them understand
25:47
that we've been there for 30-40, fifty years, but we are the
25:52
future of Cornish tourism. You and I have been to lots of
25:56
industry events, but I'm sure there's a lot of house and
25:58
property managers listening, watching this who perhaps have
26:01
never been to 1. So what's the value of coming
26:05
along to an event like this? Yeah, it's, I mean, I remember
26:10
when I did my first event, when I was, you know, before I did
26:14
this job, when I was a property owner, that it's really, it was
26:20
like a weight being lifted off to be in a room with other
26:23
people who just had the same challenges, the same issues that
26:28
I had to be able. They learned so much.
26:32
Yes, the speakers are great. And obviously I'm going to say
26:35
that because you and me are going to be on stage and that's
26:37
fantastic. But actually one of the things I
26:39
really learned from was just talking to other people who were
26:42
doing the same thing I did when they said, oh, you know, I said,
26:45
yeah, I had that problem and this is how I solved it.
26:47
And you said, yeah, Blimey, that's and that's great because
26:51
one of the things that we have in our sector, when you are at
26:56
an SME in Cornwall in Wales, where we were, it can be quite
27:00
lonely. You meet hundreds of people
27:03
because you're meeting your guests and you're meeting your
27:05
team. But how many times as a property
27:09
owner or a property manager do you meet and talk to someone
27:12
else who does the same job you do?
27:15
If you work in an office, you're talking to people all the time,
27:19
but how many times do you actually talk to someone who
27:21
does the same job you do? It's almost an effort.
27:25
So this is just a fantastic opportunity to come down,
27:29
listen, learn and you will get something from this.
27:35
It's like going to to the summit in London.
27:37
I would almost guarantee you, you come to this event, you will
27:43
leave at the end of the day better off and you will leave at
27:46
the end of the day thanking yourself for being there.
27:49
It is going to be worthwhile coming.
27:53
You may even meet your local counsellor and we can, you know,
27:55
that would be fantastic if they do come.
27:58
And you know, one of the things we want to do with with the
28:01
counsellors when they're there is get them to engage with
28:04
property managers, with the people who run businesses across
28:07
the area. When counsellors see the passion
28:11
that people in our sector have, when they see that actually this
28:14
holiday letting industry is run by local people living in their
28:18
local communities, employing local people, they see the value
28:21
in what we do. Because so often these
28:24
councillors and MPs and politicians, the same way that
28:27
we're quite lonely in our industry, sometimes they don't
28:30
see our industry as people, they see it as something on a
28:33
computer, a booking site, whatever.
28:35
When they see the real people behind it, they change their
28:38
minds. And that's why we'd encourage
28:40
everybody come down. What else are you going to do on
28:43
a rainy day in February? Come and see.
28:46
Come down to the roadshow instead. 100% yeah.
28:49
Come along, join us and help to shape the STR conversation in
28:54
your area. I think that's that's one of the
28:56
key things. So the first event, 5th of
28:59
February in Cornwall, this is at the Oceanside Hotel in March.
29:04
4th of March we're heading to Portsmouth, the National Museum
29:08
of the Royal Navy, which I know you're excited about visiting
29:12
Andy. And then in London, the 23rd of
29:15
April will be at the Royal Overseas League in Saint James
29:18
games as and our London event is the day after the short stay
29:22
summit, of course, which house planner is very proud to be the
29:25
headline media partner for summit coming up, one of the
29:29
best events in the world for short term rentals, certainly
29:33
top event UK in Europe. Andy, what can we expect from
29:37
the summit this year? Because I know we've got a bunch
29:39
of events going out going on throughout the week and a few
29:42
people, I think Graham Donahue's been calling it short stay week.
29:45
I think if you're involved in the industry you've got to be
29:47
got to be heading, heading to London for that week.
29:50
Yeah, the summit this year is, I mean, every year I think I say
29:54
the same thing. This year is going to be better
29:56
than last year. It's going to be the biggest one
29:57
ever. This year.
29:59
We've got so many things that are happening around it.
30:04
The summit itself, the big day. Yeah, it's, we've already got
30:09
most of the speaker line up sorted out.
30:11
We're months ahead of where we we normally are because, you
30:15
know, people often think that the the summit has this huge
30:19
professional team behind it and all of these people are there,
30:21
but it doesn't. We're running it with
30:24
volunteers. We've got me, Diane, Andrea,
30:28
Mark Simpson putting this together because what we want to
30:32
do is make sure all of the money that's raised at the summit, the
30:35
STAA, that's what we fund the association, that's the money
30:40
that we then use to go and fight for our sector.
30:44
We don't, we want to keep as much of it and use it for the
30:47
purposes of looking after the sector now with that small team.
30:51
Yeah, we've, we've really ramped it up this year.
30:57
We've got an amazing speaker line up.
30:59
We're finishing it off now. We've got almost every stand.
31:03
I think we've got 2 exhibition stands left.
31:08
We've got the night before we have the icebreaker party at
31:14
East Cheap Records. Mark Simpson's going to do his
31:18
bingo night there. But that's, yeah, that's going
31:21
to be an amazing night. I'm really, really looking
31:23
forward to that one. Earlier on that day we've got
31:27
the Global Association network lunch, which this year is going
31:32
to be in the in Parliament where in the House of Lords.
31:36
And that's where us as an association, we bring together
31:41
all of the other associations across the sector from across
31:44
the world and in the UK to share our ideas and share best
31:48
practice. One of the things that as a
31:51
trade association we're not in competition with anybody.
31:54
We're not a business, we're not trying to be better than them or
31:57
better than this person. Anybody who is helping our
32:02
sector helps our members. My job is to make the business
32:07
environment and the regulatory environment better for our
32:10
members and our sector. If we can do that by helping
32:14
other associations, then we do so.
32:16
They come along, we share ideas, we've got MPs coming, we've got
32:21
ministers coming to that event and it, it's going to be
32:25
hopefully last year was really good.
32:27
Hopefully this year we're going to, to have some really good
32:30
insightful sessions. So then we go to East Street
32:33
Records to Marks Bingo 9, then the summit and the day after.
32:36
It's a proper short stay week at the Royal Overseas League with,
32:40
yeah, the roadshow. Royal Overseas League's a
32:42
cracking venue, bit tricky to find, but make sure you use your
32:46
Google Maps and it's worth it when you get in.
32:48
It's a fantastic place, great venue, right in the heart of
32:51
London and yeah, it's going to be a a fantastic week.
32:57
You've got, if you're in our industry, you have to be there.
33:00
100% you sure do. If you need a ticket for the
33:04
Short Stay Summit, head to Short Stay summit.org.
33:09
Tickets for the roadshow are selling fast, so if you want one
33:12
of those, host Planet dot Club. They're just 40 lbs each for a
33:17
ticket to any of the events. Cornwall, Portsmouth and London.
33:20
We've got four more events later in the year.
33:23
Finally, Andy, then your New Year's resolution for the short
33:28
term rentals industry. Be proud and be positive.
33:36
I I'm much more positive about sector than I was a year ago and
33:42
I really want other people in our sector to do to be the same.
33:46
Be proud of what you do. Be positive about what you do.
33:51
What you do as a business out there is amazing.
33:55
You're out there working on your own small businesses across the
33:58
country, providing jobs, providing investment.
34:01
Ignore all of this over tourism. Ignore these people who say they
34:06
don't want this, they don't want that, they don't want the other.
34:08
Be proud of what you do. Get out there and shout about it
34:11
because what you do as small businesses across our country is
34:15
something which is amazing. Most people, they don't have the
34:18
ability to do what you've done. Get out there, leave your job,
34:21
start your own business. That's fantastic.
34:24
Be proud of it and be positive about our sector because this
34:27
year is going to be a lot better than last year, I promise you.
34:31
Superb. Be proud and positive people.
34:33
We'll see you at the roadshow and at the summit.
34:36
Andy, I will see you in Cornwall the night before 4th of Feb and
34:40
then 5th of February for the event.
34:42
Looking forward to it. Have a great new year as well.
34:45
2026 Here it is. Thanks very much.
34:47
Thanks, James. Thanks everyone.
34:48
Bye bye. Great to chat to Andy Fenner
34:50
there from the STAA. Make sure you join us in
34:53
Cornwall for the opening leg of the House Planet Rd. show on the
34:56
5th of February and the Short Stay summit of course in London
35:00
this April. That's just about it for today's
35:02
episode. Remember, this podcast is
35:04
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35:11
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35:42
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35:44
Until next time, happy hosting.