I rent out my old home in London and it's fairly central - 15 minutes by tube to the West End. I've been with the same letting agency for a number of years and I live off the income alongside what I get from my ISA.

So far so good. But a friend has suggested I could get a significantly better return through Airbnb and having looked online at what people are charging, she appears to be right.

I do not want the additional work involved, so my friend has said she would be happy to act on my behalf to create and maintain my Airbnb profile, to update availability, to check bookings and accept tenants, to clean the entire property between lets, to wash and change sheets and towels, to check the inventory, to check for damage, to meet and greet the tenant, to hand over keys and collect.

In return for taking the work off my hands for a trial period of say a year, I've offered to give her a 15% commission on total rental receipts and I've said I will reimburse her for all furniture that she herself will go out to buy on my behalf. At the moment the property is rented out unfurnished. If it doesn’t work out, my friend will sell the furniture at the end of the year for me and I’ll take the hit.

Does anyone have any experience of moving from a letting agency to Airbnb and having a friend or agent act as an intermediary with tenants?

I'd be fascinated to learn how you got on.

Had some friends who did it on some of their properties and got mixed feelings.
Financially more rewarding - Yes but
Need effort in managing it all.

One person gave up their city job bought a large-ish property (almost an estate) in Scotland.
Given their quit their career, size of property, no income as such, put it on AirBnB to rent out to attract few guests.

Today they are an additional rate tax payer with all income coming from what was once a temporary gig.

However it has now become an almost full-time job with them managing a small-ish hotel, but they enjoy it. He gets to partake in hie enjoyment of cooking and serves renters lunches and meals and also walking his dog around the grounds. Is constantly busy and the would be large home has become a venue where clients not only reside but host small events and meetings.

Others claim they did not have a BTL to have second job.

I personally looked at and agreed with the view that I did not want a another job on top of my official role in the office alongside the unofficial roles of a taxi service for family, negotiator between the wife and kids, a hotelier for extended family, financier to family not. to mention chief fixer of problems, all of which I am deemed ineffective at. Thus on that basis I left the BTL with managing agents.

Now given you have someone who is willing to manage it - providing you trust them (this is key) then by all means given it a try for at least a year. One thing I will say is to potentially place some stipulations of the types of tenants you would want in your property - this seems to be an important consideration to focus on.

In london there's a 90 night limit on AirBnb and I guess other platforms

Seems to be fairly easy to get around by listing on different platforms but bear it in mind ... the local authority would relish the chance to make an example of you

Thanks Jonathan.

Useful to know. I think I'm anticipating shorter term lets because of the premium being paid over and above going through a letting agent. But will certainly bear this in mind.

I’ve occasionally helped out a relative with their Airbnb. Rural Devon and they have a one bed cottage attached to their thatched farmhouse. It’s quite hard work, especially if it’s only two night weekend stays as the cleaning has to be of a very high standard plus bedding changes and adding all those extra touches like a vase of fresh flowers etc. Surprising how much time is taken up with doing all this so accepting 15% of total takings seems very reasonable to me but will it last? I’m sure contract cleaners who deal in this would charge considerably more. I say this as my relative does sometimes get them in to do the work if she is busy with family matters and there are back to back bookings. I guess it depends on how often you are letting.