Britain’s holiday let landlords face a wave of cancellations as international travel opens up and the first cracks start to emerge in the staycation boom. 

Cancellations for UK holiday bookings hit the highest level this month since the November 2020 lockdown. This excluded a peak in December when the surge in omicron cases triggered a spike before Christmas.

Travel companies are expecting a surge in bookings for overseas holidays after the Government abolished expensive tests for vaccinated travellers. As demand shifts abroad, British holiday let owners could suddenly be left high and dry.

Staycation cancellations between Jan 5 to 12 rose by 18pc compared to the previous two weeks, according to Guesty, a property management platform. 

It demonstrated the response to the Government’s announcement on Jan 5 that pre-departure tests for UK travel and day two PCR tests for UK arrivals would be scrapped.

The data suggests a change in a market that has so far only boomed, backed by a rapid expansion in lending. Analysis by Moneyfacts, a comparison website, shows there are now 231 mortgage deals for holiday lets, treble the number in August 2020 and a 25pc rise since September 2021.

Cancellations are also rising fast in proportion to bookings: in the second week of January, 36pc of nights were cancelled as a proportion of those booked, according to AirDNA, an analytics company. This was a jump from 31.6pc the previous week.