Airbnb hosts can now be paid to make their properties more eco-friendly.
The holiday letting firm has stumped up £1 million for a fund to support hosts with energy efficiency improvements to cut carbon emissions and make long-term savings on their bills to help with the rising cost of living.
Home energy efficiency improvements and renovations - from fitting insulation to replacing an old boiler - can help save on bills and reduce carbon emissions, but often come with daunting upfront costs.
Airbnb is working with Energy Saving Trust to create personalised home energy efficiency checks and action plans for all hosts, including information about potential steps they can take to improve the efficiency of their home.
Hosts interested in making improvements will be connected to local installers and receive a grant of £1,000, or £3,000 if they are a Superhost and apply before the 31 January, towards their renovation bill.
According to Energy Saving Trust, a £1,000 grant could cover around a quarter of the cost of a typical boiler replacement and a sixth of the cost of installing solar panels.
Linda Ayanwale is a Superhost from London and plans to apply for the scheme.
She said, “I bought my property with hosting in mind and share a space in the loft to help cover some of my mortgage repayments. My property is rated D for energy efficiency and is poorly insulated so there is space to make improvements.
"I want to add better insulation and plan to apply for the grant from Airbnb to help with the costs.”
Amanda Cupples, general manager for Northern Europe at Airbnb, said: “More than a third of hosts across the UK say they host to afford the rising cost of living.
"In the face of rising energy bills, we want to support hosts further by helping them with energy efficiency improvements and bringing their bills down in the long-term.
"Getting started with energy efficiency improvements can seem a challenge so our Sustainable Hosting Plan will provide hosts with the backing to take the first step and make positive changes.”
In recent years the topic of refurbishing homes so they are more energy efficient has been thrust into the spotlight by Insulate Britain, who call for a mass project to make the country's houses as green as possible.
Poor wall insulation accounts for between 35-40% of heat loss in homes, according to Northern Energy, making it the biggest source of heat loss
One study predicts that in order to meet UK commitments under the Paris Agreement to stay below 1.5C, emissions from heating and powering homes must be reduced by 78% in less than 15 years and then to zero by 2050.
The grant from Airbnb can be used alongside existing government schemes for energy generation and efficiency improvements to maximise returns.
These include:
- The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) is a government scheme to support households in England and Wales with £5,000 towards switching from their old gas boiler to a low carbon solution such as air source heat pumps and ground source heat pumps, and £6,000 towards the cost of a biomass boiler.
- Households that install electricity generation technologies such as solar PV panels can benefit from selling unused electricity back to the grid as part of the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) scheme. Whilst this wouldn’t support Hosts with the upfront costs, it can accelerate the time it takes to recoup the cost of installation.
Hosts that are keen to be a part of the Sustainable Hosting Plan can register their interest for a grant here.
The scheme will be open to Hosts that are based in the UK and have had two or more stays over the past year.
