In the world of short-term rentals, EU growth continues, according to Eurostat data 209 million overnight stays in short-term rental accommodation in the EU were recorded in the second quarter of 2024. This number is up 16.2% compared to the corresponding period in 2023, when a 15.8% increase was recorded compared to the same period in 2022.
The 208.8 million (exact number) of overnight stays refer to bookings through the Airbnb, Booking, Expedia Group and TripAdvisor platforms, with which there is a cooperation agreement.
This is the fourth straight year of double-digit YoY growth in the second quarter, despite this, overall growth slowed. The recovery from pre-pandemic times has been strong as we can see in the following growth stats: 2021: +141.6% from the previous year, 2022: +153.7% and 2023: +25.0%
Greece with 11,383,094 overnight stays in the second quarter of the year recorded a 21.2% YoY growth compared to the same quarter last year. In fact Greece has had steady growth in short-term rental overnight stays every Q2 since 2018 right up to and including this year.
Monthly Q2 performance, 2024:
** In April there were 53.5 million overnight stays, a slight decrease of 1.8% compared to April 2023. It’s important to take into account that Easter Sunday in 2023 was on April 9, while Easter Sunday in 2024 was on March 31, which may explain the slight decrease in April, compared to the strong growth in the other months.
** In May there was 73 million overnight stays across the 4 platforms (+31.7% compared to May 2023)
** June, saw 82.3 million overnight stays, which marked an increase of 17.8% compared to June 2023.
The countries with the highest performances in the second quarter
In the second quarter of 2024, the highest growth rates in the EU were recorded in Malta (+40.6%), Slovakia (+25.4%) and Sweden (+23.6%).
France, Spain and Italy, the most popular destination countries in the second quarter of 2024, saw growth rates of 13.4%, 19.0% and 17.3% respectively.
EU growth
In Q1 2024, growth rates across EU member states ranged from 16.5% in Austria to 49.6% in Malta, with growth of 28.3% across the EU.
In Q4 2023, the EU growth average was 22.7%, with growth rates ranging from 8.7% in Croatia to 51.9% in Malta.
Whereas in Q3 2023, the EU growth average was just 13.8%, (from 7.5% in the Netherlands to 39.5% in Malta).
The most popular regions in the first quarter of 2024
The most popular areas for short-term rental accommodation in the EU, booked through online platforms in the first quarter of 2024, were the Canary Islands in Spain (7.8 million nights). Followed by: the Rhône-Alpes region in France (7.5 million overnight stays) and Andalusia (7.3 million overnight stays).
In Q1, of the top 20 EU regions 5 were in Spain, 5 were in France, there were 4 Italian regions, Austria and Portugal both had 2 and Poland and Hungary each had 1 region in that top 20.