Comment: Thinking laterally pays when owning or renting a home

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?

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…

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.