London: when demand rises
London never really has an empty month: leisure visitors, business travel and a dense calendar of fairs and sport overlap all year. That makes it a city where flat pricing leaves the most money on the table, because the same flat can face a quiet Tuesday in January and a sold-out weekend a few weeks later. The useful question is not "is it high season?" but "which crowd is in town that week, and where are they staying?"
Demand by month
Show the figures
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.6% | 5.5% | 6.8% | 8.1% | 9.4% | 10.9% | 12.6% | 11.0% | 7.3% | 7.7% | 7.1% | 7.9% |
In this data, the three strongest months are June, July, August; the three weakest are January, February, March.
Share of guest reviews per month on active entire homes, 2024-09 → 2026-08 (proxy for when stays happen; an even year would be 8.3% per month). Source: Inside Airbnb, collected 17 September 2026, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. Method.
School holidays
Each London borough publishes its own term dates and individual schools can differ; the dates below are those published by Tower Hamlets, shown as an example of the London pattern.
| What | When |
|---|---|
| Autumn half term | 26–30 October 2026 |
| Christmas break | 21 December 2026 – 1 January 2027 |
| February half term | 15–19 February 2027 |
| Easter break | 29 March – 9 April 2027 |
| May half term | 31 May – 4 June 2027 |
| Summer break | from 26 July 2027 |
Source: London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Recurring demand drivers
Dates were read on the source shown on each line. "dates published by the organiser" means the next edition was not yet announced on the organiser's site: check the link.
| When | What |
|---|---|
| 16–18 March 2027 | The London Book Fair Trade fair / conference ExCeL London Publishing's spring trade fair: weekday, business-led demand in east London. Source: londonbookfair.co.uk |
| 24–25 April 2027 | TCS London Marathon Sport The organiser announces a two-day edition for 2027, with runners and their supporters arriving before the weekend. Source: tcslondonmarathon.com |
| 2–4 November 2027 | WTM London (World Travel Market) Trade fair / conference ExCeL London The travel industry's autumn trade show, in an otherwise calmer month. Source: wtm.com |
| dates published by the organiser | The Championships, Wimbledon Sport Two weeks around late June and early July; strongest effect in south-west London. Source: wimbledon.com |
How to price this city
Treat London as a set of overlapping micro-markets. A fair at ExCeL mostly fills the east of the city and the lines that serve the Docklands; a big sporting day concentrates demand around one venue and one night. Raise the nights that sit closest to the event, keep the surrounding nights reasonable so you do not end up with an empty gap, and look at school half-terms as family weeks where larger homes benefit more than studios.