Is Airbnb to blame for rising crime in London?

Does Airbnb drive up crime in London? That’s the question posed of the world’s most successful short-term rental service in new research by the Cambridge Institute of Criminology. The UK’s holiday rental market is enormous, projected to reach £3.5 billion this year. Airbnb eats up a sizeable chunk of that revenue; millions on the move take advantage of what the platform has to offer in the nation’s capital. And surely where there’s brass there’s muck?

Well, sort of. The research claimed a ‘positive association’ between areas of London where there were high levels of Airbnb and increased criminality. Looking at data from 2015 onwards, they suggested that a 10 per cent increase in Airbnbs in an area of the capital could lead to an additional 1,000 crimes a year, including robberies, burglaries and violence.

Several reasons were suggested for this, including Airbnb guests being easy targets in unfamiliar areas and the fact that homes obviously vacant for long periods as holiday lets were more likely targets for burglary.