DUMFRIES, UK. September 14th, 2026 – Scotland’s self-catering accommodation sector is facing a growing squeeze from rising business costs, changes to the tax and regulatory landscape and increasingly unpredictable booking patterns, according to the founder of a Scottish holiday cottage platform.
The warning comes as independent operators contend with the impact of the 2026 non-domestic rates revaluation, the introduction of visitor levies and weaker forward bookings.
Figures from the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers’ Autumn Barometer Survey, based on responses from 444 operators, found that only 7% of operators reported stronger forward bookings, while almost half said winter bookings were worse or much worse than the previous year. 43% described themselves as pessimistic about the next 24 months, while 91% identified the rising cost of doing business as a moderate to major challenge.
The impact of the latest rates revaluation is also causing concern, with industry leaders warning that some businesses could face substantial increases. Analysis published alongside the ASSC put increases for some property managers as high as 400%.
At the same time, Edinburgh’s visitor levy came into effect on 24 July 2026, with other local authority schemes expected to follow.
However, Alasdair Walker, founder of Scottish self-catering directory Best Scottish Cottages, believes owners should also look at the costs they have more direct control over.
Alasdair said: “An owner can write to their MSP about the rates revaluation, and they should, but they cannot vote it away this season, and they cannot opt out of the levy.
“The one line on the profit and loss they can genuinely move is commission. Most of the large platforms take somewhere between 15% and 25% of a booking, and once you factor in preferred placement and promotional tools the effective rate climbs higher again. On a property doing thirty weeks a year, that is the difference between being viable and not.”
He also argues that the issue extends beyond the commission itself, as bookings made through third-party platforms can leave owners without direct access to the customer relationship.
“You also hand over the guest’s email address,” he said. “The guest remembers the platform, not the cottage. So next year you pay to acquire the same person twice.”
Walker said booking behaviour was also changing, with travellers increasingly either booking at short notice or securing popular dates well in advance.
“School holiday weeks are going early and going fast, because those are the dates families cannot move,” he said. “Almost everything else is being decided at the last minute.”
Best Scottish Cottages operates as an advertising directory rather than a booking agent, allowing guests to contact accommodation owners directly without the platform taking a percentage of bookings.
The curated directory currently features 154 Scottish properties and recorded 8.8 million organic social media content views during 2025. Of those, 7.2 million came from people who did not already follow the platform. The platform also runs Match, a concierge service at match.bestscottishcottages.co.uk that connects guests with suitable owners directly when search alone has not worked.
“Not a penny of that was paid for, and more than eight in ten of those views reached someone who does not follow us,” Alasdair said. “That is the part that matters to an owner. Putting a cottage in front of an audience that already follows a Scottish holiday account is the easy half. Getting it in front of people who have not started looking yet is the hard half, and it is the half an owner cannot do alone from their own page.”
Walker said the figures demonstrated the importance of reaching potential guests before they begin actively searching for accommodation.
“Owners who read a soft forward book as a demand problem and start discounting on the platforms are paying commission to solve something that was never the problem. The ones who come out of this season in reasonable shape will be those who spent the quiet months building a channel they own rather than paying to rent one.”
