London landlord charges $1530 to camp in living room of Airbnb

A UK rental listing has come under fire for a setup that caused such outrage it was deleted. 

The listing, with house-share platform SpareRoom, stated the tenant must sleep in a sofa bed and run the landlord’s Airbnb, cleaning two rooms for paying guests. 

The sofa bed is located in an open-plan kitchen which is shared with the Airbnb guests – meaning that tourists could wander past the bed at all hours of the night. 

The renter must pay £750 per month ($1532) to camp in the living room. They would not be paid for managing the Airbnb. 

The flat is located in Crouch End, north London, and, according to the now-deleted listing, is described as a “furnished studio with pull out sofa bed.”

It was advertised as a two month let, with the possibility of extending the lease past that timeframe. 

“Looking for a live-in Airbnb host to manage 2 other rooms, which are generally rented for week to 2 weeks stays,” the listing read. 

“Some guests occasionally use the kitchen which is open plan but hours can be restricted for privacy. Guests self check in, would just require preparing rooms 6-8 times per month.” 

The listing sparked ire on X, where Londoners expressed shock at the rental conditions. 

A viral post featuring the listing has amassed over 738,000 views and 1200 reposts so far. 

“Modern slavery, and desperate people will fall for things like this,” one user commented. 

“So they want this person to pay for doing a job,” a second person wrote. 

Another user said: “The only way I’d do this would be if I could live there for free.” 

SpareRoom has since removed the listing from the site. 

“We removed this ad from our site for two reasons,” SpareRoom director Matt Hutchinson told Luxury Property News. 

“Firstly because the room, located in the open-plan living room and kitchen area, was deemed by our moderators to be unsuitable. Although described as a studio, the kitchen was to be used by other guests, which meant that it didn’t offer enough privacy for the tenant. 

“Also, while we do allow some ads which offer work in exchange for cheaper rents, we review these on a case-by-case basis to make sure the requirements are reasonable. 

“In this case, this ad reads more like a job that comes with accommodation, rather than a room that comes with a few hours of work.”