Comment: Thinking laterally pays when owning or renting a home
Desperate times may call for desperate measures. Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto - Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
Have you seen the one about the Airbnb owner who’s offering up a tent in her back garden complete with cat litter-lined alfresco amenities for £8 a night?
Seriously! Squashed into a back garden on the Isle of Sheppey, this place wouldn't suit every holidaymaker's needs, but may make an interesting pit stop for budget-conscious solo travellers.
Believed, not surprisingly, to be Britain's most affordable Airbnb, the tent is next door to a caravan which is also available to hire via the online bookings site.
You've got to admire the owner's ingenuity. If you've got a garden you don't really use, why not make a bit of money out of it?
Renting out your drive is all the rage, with homeowners next to train stations and hospitals making a mint, so why not this?
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Personally, the thought of disposing of the bin bag full of used cat litter turns my stomach but I'm not judging.
As our ongoing failed attempts to find a decent place to rent continue, this does open up another option…
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Because it turns out that no amount of offers of rent up front or pictures of our cats and dog posing non-threateningly are enough to secure us a rental property when the landlord just isn't keen on pets.
I still feel we're doing the right thing by declaring their existence, however.
One place we saw online looked fabulous and we were keen to book in a viewing. Sadly, the landlord declared this a pet-free zone. We were glad we hadn't attempted to deny our animals before smuggling them in when we found out he'd built himself a new house on what had once been the bottom of the rental place's garden. Which might have made convos over the back fence a little awkward.
See, honesty really is the best policy, even if it does find us renting a student-style hovel 20 years too late. And if this plan also fails, we can always pitch a tent.
