Edinburgh accommodation soars by as much as £1,125 ahead of Fringe festival return

Accommodation prices in Edinburgh are being inflated by as much as £1,125 a night during the Fringe festival sparking backlash across the arts sector.

In one case, festivalgoers could pay as much as £2,000 to stay in a prime Edinburgh location for the night, The Independent has discovered.

The £2,000-a-night Royal Mile flat costs a considerably cheaper – but still expensive – £875 a night including service and cleaning charges in July as opposed to August.

The problem is reportedly worse than ever because of new short-let regulations introduced in Scotland in October 2023, which require hosts and hotels to have a licence or face a fine of up to £2,500.

Other notable examples of the problem include a Georgian townhouse which typically rents for £450 a night on Airbnb (or £702 including the cleaning and service fees), but during this year’s festival, it costs a total of £1,111 a night – once again reflecting an almost 50 per cent increase in the base price at festival time.

While these are extreme examples, even the most basic accommodation will set festivalgoers and performers back a significant amount of money.

The cheapest available private rooms in August, according to Booking.com, will set festivalgoers back just under £100 a night and many of these are available in student accommodation as opposed to actual hotels.

In a lot of cases, this accommodation is already completely sold out, leaving only hotels predominately charging over £300 a night.

Even hostels in Edinburgh, which are the cheapest available option, are expensive during this year’s festival and a bed in a mixed-gender dormitory of up to 24 people will set festivalgoers back a minimum of £64 a night or £1,920 for the month.

The problem is particularly affecting performers, who often attempt to stay in the city for the entire month and have additional costs incurred by the shows they put on.

Becca, a comedy writer who lives in Edinburgh, told The Independent: “It’s awful on every level. First with people who can afford to buy properties to rent out beat first-time buyers who want to live in Edinburgh all year round. Or people who already own to rent out will turf out long-term tenants because they can make more with Airbnb-style letting.

“Then from a Fringe perspective, that kind of pricing means that newer acts or less mainstream acts can’t afford to put on shows up here. It’s not financially worth it, even for some big names and the moniker of ‘Fringe’ is becoming more and more ironic as each year passes.

“The council haven’t made enough of an effort to clamp down on this and it means the prices will just keep climbing. No one wins out of this, apart from the person with the Airbnb host account.”

The Fringe provided case studies to give performers an idea of what to expect financially and even a show hosted in a pub for free will set its performers back around £1,000 a week.

Bigger productions, meanwhile, such as a theatre show in a venue with a capacity of 150, will cost an estimated £25,000 to put on for the entire run.

With the average Fringe ticket costing less than £12 in 2023, this means that even for established names, attending the festival can leave them out of pocket.

Jason Manford, 43, who has almost half a million followers on Twitter/X, highlighted the problem in April.

“Edinburgh Festival prices especially for accommodation are an absolute joke!” he wrote on the platform.

“No idea how anyone starting out is managing to get up there and showcase their talents! I’ve just priced up a week up there and even if every show sells out, I’m still operating at a loss.”

An author who is attending the festival this August similarly told The Independent that if accommodation was not provided by the Edinburgh International Book Festival, they would also be left at a loss despite having a paid and ticketed event.

Meanwhile, television personality and comedian Gail Porter, 53, similarly took to Twitter/X to reveal that she has been priced out of attending the festival this year.

She said: “Was so excited to go the edfringe this year. But I have been priced out by the soaring costs of B&Bs.

“My home town. I feel so sorry for new young performers that won’t be able to afford accommodation.

“I’m gutted Edinburgh has done this. Greed is awful.”

Edinburgh residents are also falling victim to extortionate costs in August.

This includes the homeless, many of whom were recently relocated from their temporary accommodation to locations as far away as Aberdeen (127 miles away) to make way for Taylor Swift fans.

They were paying an average of £597 a night to stay in the city at the same time as the megastar, the Daily Record reported.

Airbnb said in a statement to The Independent: “These listings are not booked and are not representative of prices on Airbnb. The average nightly price for booked accommodation on Airbnb during the Edinburgh Fringe is £281, giving locals an opportunity to earn much-needed additional income at a time when accommodation is in high demand.

“The implementation of short-term let regulations in Scotland is also disrupting the price and availability of accommodations across the board, including a notable increase in hotel prices.”

The Independent has reached out to the Edinburgh Fringe for further comment.