Airbnb launched a frontal attack on hotels over the burden of over-tourism on EU cities on Thursday 12 June, calling on city leaders to rethink the role of large hotels and strengthen tourism decentralisation. The platform’s intervention is accompanied by a new report entitled “Overtourism in the EU”, which is based on data from Eurostat, the World Tourism Organization and the company’s own statistics.
Hotels are responsible for most of the problem
According to Airbnb, almost 80% of tourist nights in the EU in 2023 and 2024 were spent in hotels and similar accommodation, mainly in city centres. In the EU’s ten most visited cities, overnight stays increased by 200 million between 2021 and 2023 – more than doubling – with hotels accounting for 75% of this increase.
Airbnb’s Vice President of Public Policy, Theo Yedinsky, said:
“If cities really want to tackle over-tourism, they need to face up to the huge impact of hotels. Europe needs more housing – not more hotels,” adding that house building in the EU is at an all-time low.
Burden on the centre – Pressure on the neighbourhoods
The report highlights examples of over-concentration of tourism infrastructure in city centres:
- In the centre of Amsterdam there are 15 times more hotel rooms than Airbnb listings.
- In the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, for every one bed in a short-term rental there are seven in hotels.
- In Prague ‘s Praha 1 and Lisbon‘s Santo Antonio , there are three hotel rooms for every five inhabitants.
In 2024 alone, 40,000 new hotel rooms were added in Europe, with another 250,000 in the construction or planning phase. In Spain, over 800 new hotel projects have been approved that will add 75,000 rooms by 2026.
Airbnb contributes to the decentralisation of tourism
By contrasting its own services, Airbnb argues that it contributes to the decentralisation of tourism. In 2024, its users visited 110,000 destinations worldwide, with almost 60% of overnight stays in the EU taking place outside cities. In the EU’s ten most popular cities, more than 260,000 Airbnb guests stayed in neighbourhoods without hotels, with stays in such areas increasing by 60% between 2022 and 2024.
50% of Airbnb guests said they would not visit the neighbourhood they stayed in if there was no accommodation available on the platform – an argument the company uses to highlight its contribution to the emergence of new areas.
Unwelcome increase in visitors and prices where Airbnb is restricted
The report notes that in cities such as Amsterdam and Barcelona, where restrictions on short-term rentals were imposed in 2018, the number of overnight stays continues to increase – mainly due to hotels. Between 2021 and 2024, hotels are responsible for 93% of the increase in overnight stays in Amsterdam and 76% in Barcelona. At the same time, prices have shot up – by 50% in Amsterdam and 35% in Barcelona between 2019 and spring 2025.
According to Airbnb, when accommodation options are reduced, it increases the concentration of tourists in downtown hotels and limits the benefits for local communities. Instead, it argues, every €1 spent on accommodation through Airbnb translates into €2.5 of additional spending in the local economy. In 2024, the platform supported 627,000 jobs in France, Germany, Italy and Spain, contributing $44.6 billion to their GDP.
Yedinsky concluded by saying:
“When guests stay on Airbnb, they discover new communities, help families meet the cost of living and support local businesses. Cities need to look beyond the hotel sector and embrace forms of tourism that strengthen communities.”
