1. What we found

Out of 534 listings reviewed, 192 showed clear signs of underperformance based on our internal scoring model, which looked at review count, Superhost status, rating, and hosting tenure.

Three patterns stood out.

59% of listings had fewer than 20 reviews. In a marketplace where guest trust and listing momentum matter, a shallow review profile can make it harder to convert clicks into bookings.

48% of hosts did not have Superhost status. That matters because Airbnb says ranking is influenced by factors including listing quality, popularity, guest reviews, host responsiveness, cancellations, and Superhost-related criteria. Airbnb also says guests can filter search results to show only Superhosts.

Only 22% of listings had 50 or more reviews. We would treat this less as a universal platform threshold and more as a useful market signal. In our sample, listings with deeper review history tended to look more established and more competitive.

The average rating across the sample was 4.92 out of 5. That sounds comfortably high, but ratings need context. Airbnb’s own Superhost criteria require an overall rating of 4.8 or above, and Airbnb also says ratings and reviews feed into search performance. In other words, rating strength still matters even in a market where most hosts already sit above 4.8.

2. Where the biggest gaps appeared

Not every part of London looked the same.

In our sample, Canary Wharf had the highest share of listings showing weak performance signals, at 55%. Stratford followed at 54%. Greenwich came in at 44%, followed by Clapham at 38%.

These are all areas with real guest demand, but they are also places where listings can start to look interchangeable if hosts are not actively optimising pricing, presentation, and guest experience.

Camden, at 32%, performed somewhat better in our sample. One likely explanation is that more hosts there appear to have mature listings with stronger review history and better-established positioning.

That does not prove one neighbourhood is inherently easier than another. It does suggest that operational quality may be creating a wider gap between the top listings and the average ones.

3. What may be driving underperformance

This is where the article should stay careful. Your data can show patterns, but it cannot prove a single cause on its own.

A more defensible explanation is this: Airbnb says search visibility is influenced by price, quality, popularity, ratings and reviews, cancellations, response behaviour, media quality, and Superhost-related criteria.

That means listings are less likely to compete well when they have some combination of:

• limited review history
• weaker guest trust signals
• slower response or lower booking momentum
• weaker photos or presentation
• inconsistent pricing or availability controls

In other words, many underperforming listings may not be failing because London demand is weak. They may be failing because execution is weak.

That is an important distinction for hosts. If a property is fundamentally viable but poorly managed, there is usually more room to improve than the host expects.

4. The property mix tells another story

The London Airbnb market in this sample was dominated by smaller homes.

70% of listings were one-bedroom flats, and another 19% were two-bedroom properties. Homes with three bedrooms or more accounted for just 5% of the sample.

That creates two realities at once.

For one-bedroom flats, competition is intense. Hosts are often competing against a large number of similar listings aimed at couples, solo travellers, and short city stays. In that kind of market, small quality differences can have an outsized impact.

For larger properties, the competition may be thinner, but expectations are usually higher. When those homes are well managed, there can be more room for stronger rates and better positioning.

5. Why this matters more in 2026

This is not just a story about listings. It is also a story about decisions.

From 1 May 2026, the first phase of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 takes effect in England. That phase abolishes Section 21 in the private rented sector and moves most PRS tenancies to assured periodic tenancies.

Typical holiday lets remain outside those tenancy reforms, because a holiday letting is excluded from being an assured tenancy.

But that does not mean short-term letting is friction-free. In London, unless planning permission is obtained, residential short-term letting is generally restricted to 90 nights per calendar year, and hosts may also need the right permissions from a freeholder, mortgage lender, insurer or landlord.

There is also a national registration scheme for short-term lets in England being developed, but the safest wording today is that the scheme is planned and evolving, not that a live nationwide obligation has already started.

So the pressure point for London landlords is not simply “long lets are harder now”. It is that any switch in strategy needs to be commercially sound and operationally competent.

Thinking about whether short-term letting still makes sense under the new rules?

6. What hosts should do next

If you are self-managing and these findings feel familiar, the practical options are quite straightforward.

You can invest more time into improving the fundamentals:

• listing quality
• pricing
• guest communication
• availability controls
• reviews and reputation
• operations on the ground

Or you can work with a professional management partner that already has the systems, people, and process discipline to do that consistently.

The real takeaway from this dataset is not that London is too crowded. It is that too many listings still look half-optimised in a market that no longer rewards half-optimised hosting.

Hosts who improve execution should still be able to compete. Hosts who do not will find the gap widening.

Want to see whether stronger execution could materially change your numbers?

7. Methodology

Houst analysed 534 active Airbnb listings across 15 London neighbourhoods in March 2026, including Canary Wharf, Stratford, Greenwich, Clapham, Camden, Islington, Fulham, Shoreditch, Hackney, Bermondsey, Brixton, Notting Hill, Battersea, Marylebone, and King’s Cross.

Listings were assessed using internal performance signals including review count, Superhost status, rating, and hosting tenure. Properties identified as belonging to known property management companies were excluded from the underperformance analysis.

This is Houst’s own market analysis. It is designed to highlight patterns in listing quality and market competitiveness, not to establish a universal Airbnb ranking formula.