Airbnb in London

I stayed in a nice small flat in Southwark in May (too small for three). I really liked the area, a few blocks from Borough Market and equidistant from London Bridge and Borough underground stations. The area along the south bank of the Thames is a pedestrian promenade linking London Bridge area to the Globe theater, the Tate Modern, BFI film institute, the London Eye, etc. We were in a real neighborhood full of locals, with shops and cleaners and regular pubs and such, but close to transportation and touristy things. It didn’t feel ridiculously posh or tragically hip, was full of UC London students, and even had council houses on our block with kids playing on the side streets.

I’d stay in the same area again, except I feel like London is such a city of neighborhoods that I want to go back and check out some other corner of the town in-depth. I’d look for something close to either a Tube stop on a line that directly connects to the airport you’re using, or to a train station offering the same.

As of Jan 1 2017 I believe they have a maximum short term rental of 60 nights I believe, it may be 90 but same difference. The city is trying to cut back on them in residential areas, I stayed in a Vrbo first story flat with my wife and 2 daughters under 4 this past June in Bayswater. We paid right at $200/ night for 4 nights. There was a Waitross grocery like 1 block away which we used daily, and we were like 3 blocks from the park which we went to twice.

I would say anywhere on the Inner circle line is safe, from what I saw anyway.

I'd personally not rent from an individual that didn't have multiple properties because of that rule, Airbnb literally only allows them to have 60 nights booked a year and shuts them down after that. I would go with a property management company (most are anyway) just to be safe so they can move you if the place gets shut down.

We stayed in one in South Kenginston it was easy to get everywhere on the Piccadilly and Circle lines. Our Airbnb was crappy, but we went the cheap route. They had some nice ones in the area though but they were a little more pricey (think ours was around $115 a night).