Edinburgh Short-term Let Rules

Yes, but only with a short-term let licence, and often planning permission too. If the flat is your main home, a home sharing or home letting licence is usually enough. If it’s a second property, you’ll need a secondary letting licence and, in most cases, planning permission, which the council refuses far more often than it grants. Check both before you furnish the flat or take a booking.

Yes. Every short-term let in Edinburgh needs a short-term let licence from the City of Edinburgh Council before it takes a booking. That applies to a spare room in your own home as much as to a whole second flat. The licence number must appear on every listing. Letting without a licence is a criminal offence, with a maximum fine of £2,500 and a possible one-year ban from holding a licence.

It depends on whether the property is your main home. If it is, you need a home sharing licence (you stay while guests are there) or a home letting licence (you’re away). If it isn’t your main home, you need a secondary letting licence. Secondary letting faces the most checks and, in Edinburgh, needs planning permission too. The council’s fee schedule lists the costs for each type.

Yes, if the property isn’t your main home. The whole of Edinburgh has been a short-term let control area since 5 September 2022, so secondary lets that started after that date need planning permission as well as a licence. Permission is hard to win: 84% of the council’s decisions between January 2025 and April 2026 were refusals. If the flat was let before September 2022, a Certificate of Lawfulness may be an option.

Under the council’s 2025–26 fee schedule, a new secondary letting licence costs £653 for up to three guests, rising to £1,089 for four or five. A new home letting licence costs £120 per occupant. Planning permission for a secondary let under 100 square metres adds £742 from April 2026. Check the council’s current schedule before you apply, as fees are reviewed each year.

Allow several months, and longer if you need planning permission first. You’ll need an electrical safety certificate (EICR), a gas safety certificate if there’s gas, a fire risk assessment, a floor plan showing escape routes, a valid EPC, public liability insurance and PAT. Expired or missing safety certificates are the most common reason applications stall.

Take a look at Edinburgh Council’s “what you need to supply” section but do get in touch with us for up to date knowledge, as the council can changes things without updating all their materials. For example we have been told by Edinburgh Council that the emergency lighting certificate isn’t required but it still appears on their documentation, which can create confusion.

If it’s your own home, you can apply for a temporary exemption instead which takes 60 days to process, whereas the full licenses take up to 9 months – we generally see them taking 4-5 months, but there is no guarantee.

Something we often recommend to clients is a hybrid approach if they want to get started sooner or “guarantee” being covered for certain upcoming periods by doing one or two temp licenses and applying for the full license all at the same time. The extra cost far outweighs the risk of not getting you full license in time.

Edinburgh allows up to three exemption periods a year, as long as they total no more than six weeks. The council fee is £250 for up to five guests.

Apply to the City of Edinburgh Council before your licence expires; renewals can be lodged up to six months ahead. Since May 2025, secondary letting licences with no complaints can be renewed for three years rather than one. Under the 2025–26 schedule, a three-year secondary letting renewal costs £1,053 for up to three guests. Every licence appears on the council’s public register, which is updated monthly.

Yes. Since 24 July 2026, Edinburgh charges a 5% visitor levy on paid overnight stays, including Airbnbs and holiday lets. It applies to the room cost before VAT, for the first five nights of each stay. Stays booked and paid for before 1 October 2025 are exempt. It is the UK’s first city-wide visitor levy.

No. Airbnb’s own guidance says the host must collect the levy and pay it to the City of Edinburgh Council. Airbnb offers tools to add it to bookings but won’t pay it on your behalf. Zizibreezi calculates the Edinburgh visitor levy for our clients.

Returns are quarterly, with the first payment due in October 2026. 

In Scotland, a self-catering property pays non-domestic (business) rates if it is available to let for 140 nights or more in a financial year and is actually let for at least 70 nights. If it falls short of either test, it pays council tax instead. Keep booking records, as the assessor can ask for evidence.

August is the peak by a wide margin, when the Fringe and the International Festival fill the city, and AirROI names it the top revenue month. Hogmanay and Six Nations weekends at Murrayfield bring the next biggest spikes. Festival rates can run upwards of five times the quiet-month prices, so set event pricing months ahead. Outside those dates, realistic pricing fills more nights than holding out for peak rates.

Each ZiZibreeZi Superhost cleans their own properties to a fixed checklist, so turnovers don’t depend on an outside cleaning firm’s availability in August. Because each Superhost looks after no more than five homes, they can plan same-day changeovers around check-in times rather than squeezing them into a crowded rota.