For the very first time, a short-term let owner in Edinburgh has been convicted for operating without a licence.
News that the landlord was fined £600 - following a complaint from a neighbour who said they once saw 19 people staying in the flat above and later received £500 in compensation - was announced last week by the council, which said it has a dozen more similar cases pending.
It is a significant milestone in the effort to crack down on short-term let operators who don't play by the rules. So it is no surprise the local authority is keen to highlight the case.
Still, some will be left asking: what took so long?
It was three years ago this month that Edinburgh Council launched its STL licensing regime in a bid to tackle the unchecked growth of homes used as holiday lets, minimise the impact on residents, and curb unscrupulous operators.
It is no secret that the wheels of local government and justice turn slowly, but few would have expected it to take a full 36 months to secure a conviction for an unlicensed STL, and there is thought to be no shortage of them in the city.
Whether regulation of the sector - which for years has been accused of 'hollowing out' communities like Edinburgh's Old Town and worsening the housing crisis - has met its stated aims remains up for debate.
In a report last year, council officials said the number of properties listed on Airbnb in Edinburgh had fallen from 14,000 in 2019, 8,000 of which were whole-house lets, to 7,000 in December 2023, including around 4,600 entire homes.
The figures, then planning convener Cllr James Dalgleish said, "shows our policies are working and they are making a difference".
However another theory is that the regulations - coupled with alleged gaps in enforcement, resource challenges, and operators evading the rules - have simply pushed parts of the market underground, creating a hidden 'black market' of unlicensed lets.
In recent years, Facebook groups where short-term lets are advertised - often without a licence displayed - have grown rapidly, attracting thousands of members. Each summer, the pages fill with listings for festival-season accommodation, when demand in the city is at its highest.
Fiona Campbell, CEO of the Association of Scotland's Self-Caterers, the leading trade body for STL operators across the country, said there is now a "burgeoning black market of unlicensed accommodation in the capital, thereby undermining the entire purpose of the regulations".
Paul Philips, who owns a holiday let in Edinburgh city centre, said the city's STL black market is "pretty significant" and "all year round now". And he said it is often difficult to catch the perpetrators.
"If you go on Facebook and see somebody say 'I've got a three bedroom property in the Old Town and it's available at this point,' if you're an enforcement officer in the council, the only way you're going to find it is if you actually book it," he said.
This means enforcement is heavily reliant on residents reporting suspicions that they live next to an unlicensed let.
Whether the council's trumpeting of successful legal action against unlawful operators will deter others from doing the same remains to be seen.
The council's regulatory convener, Cllr Neil Ross, said the first conviction "sends a clear message that operating without a licence is illegal" and "demonstrates that our enforcement team is effective and that a conviction will result in financial penalties".
For some, that might be enough to make them think twice.
But for others, the prospect of a £1,100 penalty - a fraction of what many short-term let operators can earn in a year - may simply be seen as a risk worth continuing to take.