Using Monzo for Airbnb income

I have recently listed my home on airbnb since I won’t be living there for a long time (travelling, staying with family etc. for around a year or more).

I spoke to an accountant because I figured they might be able to help me save some money on taxes somehow. The accountant suggested I get a separate bank account for my Airbnb income and expenses to make everything easier to track. I’m pondering a few options here and not sure what the best option is.

Should I just put everything relating to this into an “airbnb” pot? Unfortunately, DDs and income don’t go directly through pots since income can’t automatically go to pots and need to be moved and DDs go through my main account and Monzo just moves my money out of the pot before paying. So it’s not quite good enough from what I can tell.

The other option is to open a business account. Can I do this though when I don’t have a registered business? Would there be any downsides to this? I believe it could solve my issue if I’m allowed to do this despite it not really being a business.

The last option is to just open a bank account with a different bank which means I’ll need to use a different platform to manage that account as well, when I’d rather do it all in Monzo. I can have my other account show up in Monzo to help get a bigger picture of my finances, but will not be able to do everything through Monzo any more.

Those seem to be my only options. It’s a shame I can’t just open another bank account in Monzo from what I can tell. Do any of you have any experience with rental or Airbnb income? Do you use Monzo for that or a different bank to keep it all separate?

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This is what I’d do. You’re not really a business, so I wouldn’t cause the extra drama by making it like that.

You could open a Starling account tonight, get the notifications, card/ApplePay etc. Keep it simple.

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Back in the day if legacy bank accounts, people did exactly that open a second current account with the same bank. To have a second sort code, debit card, etc.

It is a shame that Monzo doesn’t offer more than one current account per person.

Indeed pick any other bank to handle all of your related things. It will simply things for yourself tooz to see how you are doing w.r.t. income and expenses.

Starling is a good choice. But you can equally do any other bank as well - i.e. Virgin Money might be better too (because if the interest it accrues on its current & savings account).

Given the presented scenario, I’d also go with an external bank account. Probably something like Revolut Pro because what you’re doing is almost a business. RevPro is removed from Monzo and so protects your Monzo account. Simply receive Airbnb payments into Revolut and transfer from Revolut to Monzo as-and-when (if you want to)

:point_up: not financial advice

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You don’t have to be a registered business to open a business account with Monzo. You can be a sole trader, generating a bit of income on the side or full time. I would just apply for a basic Monzo business account and see if they’ll give you one. If so, great. It’s a nice account and would be perfect for what you’re doing. If not, open an account with another bank.

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I’d go down this route too.

If you’re just earning money from Airbnb, with no business related spending or expenses then you might be able to get away with a personal account.

However if you’re going to be paying any fees like for cleaning services, any maintenance, tax etc then a business account is the better option because you won’t fall foul of any T&Cs which restrict business activity on current accounts.

You don’t need to be a business to have a Monzo account. I have one for some of the plant sales I do (& when I take card payments for my Dad when he goes to local fairs and markets selling honey!)

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Thanks for your replies guys. I tried opening a business account and they declined my application. Refused to tell me why for some reason. I’ll think I’ll either dust off my old bank account from pre-Monzo days or open a Starling account. Apparently they let you have 2 accounts now so might just move everything there for convenience, but we’ll see.

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