LONDON: University students in Glasgow are cashing in on this month’s UN environmental summit in Scotland by moving out of their rented apartments and sub-letting them for thousands of dollars to COP26 delegates.
Many of the city’s hotels are sold out ahead of the two-week summit which, along with world leaders, will bring an estimated 30,000 delegates from 197 countries to the city on the west coast of Scotland.
Glasgow is home to two large universities and several entrepreneurially minded students are moving back to Mom and Dad’s for the duration of the summit and charging delegates without accommodation up to $12,000 to rent their digs for six nights.
One student told Arab News: “It’s a no-brainer. Most of our university classes are still online because of COVID-19 so we don’t need to be in Glasgow all the time. The people we’re renting to are paying us almost four times our normal monthly rent to stay for just two weeks. They’re paying us so much we can employ proper cleaners to come in and tidy the place before they arrive.”
One homeowner reportedly offered their three-bedroom city center penthouse to rent for almost $62,000 on the website Booking.com.
Another student told Arab News that the money he and his four roommates were making by renting out their apartment would pay for them all to take a “lads holiday” in Spain and enable him to put a deposit down on a new car.
He said: “It’s great, I love climate change.”