European short-stay accommodation bookings continue double-digit growth

678.6 million guest nights booked via Airbnb, Expedia, Tripadvisor and Booking.com in 2023

The number of guest nights spent in short-stay accommodation in Europe booked via one of four leading platforms grew by nearly 14% last year.

There was a total of 678.6 million guest nights in short-stay accommodation in 2023 booked via Airbnb, Expedia, Tripadvisor and Booking.com according to new European Commission data.

Data shows this is the third year of double-digit growth in the sector, which continues its recovery after Covid-19 lockdowns.

The number of guest nights booked on the four platforms had grown by 33.9% in 2021 vs 2020 and by 63.9% in 2022 against 2021.

In the fourth quarter of 2023, a record number of guest nights were recorded each month; 55.3 million in October, 31.8 million in November and 45.3 million in December, representing increases of 21.9%, 20% and 25.8% respectively.

The EC’s Eurostat service, which has a data sharing agreement with the four major online booking platforms, reported a 22.7% growth in Q4 2023 against Q4 2022.

Spain, France and Italy were the most popular destination countries in Q4 2023. Malta saw the highest growth rate (51.4%) in the quarter.

All but one EU country, Liechtenstein, saw increases in bookings via the platforms last year.

More detailed data for Q3 2023 were also released, showing the most popular regions within EU countries for short-stay bookings.

Of the top 20 regions, 6 were in France, 5 were in Spain, 5 in Italy, 2 in Greece , 1 in Croatia and 1 in Portugal.

The three most popular were: Jadranska Hrvatska in Croatia (23.7 million guest nights), Andalucía in Spain (14 million) and the French Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (12.2 million).

The data covers holiday rentals, excluding hotels and campsites.