Athens Gets an ‘A’ as Ideal City to Set Up Airbnb Listing

Acropolis, Athens Photo by GTP

AirDNA, an analytics platform that provides insights on the performance of vacation rental properties worldwide, has graded the city of Athens in Greece with an “A” as a good place to set up an Airbnb listing. The platform records data from the home sharing platforms Airbnb and HomeAway.

AirDNA Chief Revenue Officer Tom Caton.

Speaking during the recent BnB Guest Conference held in the Greek capital, Tom Caton, AirDNA’s chief revenue officer gave interesting facts about the short-term rental market in Athens.

“AirDNA tries to grade markets around the world… It can be anywhere from ‘A’ to ‘E’ as a good place to set up an Airbnb,” he said, adding that the rating of a city depends on the returns an Airbnb host can make in a city and a mixture of the trajectory of earnings in that region.

“We also look into the regulations that are available and how friendly they are and we come up with Athens as an ‘A’,” Caton said.

According to AirDNA, available listings in Athens on both platforms (Airbnb and HomeAway) surpass 12,300.

On Airbnb alone, 88 percent of the Athens’ listings are entire home/apartment rentals, 11 percent are private rooms and 1 percent is shared rooms. Currently 1.5 bedrooms on average, accommodating 4.2 guests.

Athens: Top 10 Airbnb-neighborhoods by RevPAR

Lycabettus, Athens. Photo © Maria Theofanopoulou

During his presentation, Caton revealed that in 2018, the Zappeion, the Acropolis and the Greek capital’s Commercial Triangle led the city’s top 10 of neighborhoods that bring in the most revenue per available rental (RevPAR) to property owners with listings on Airbnb.

According to the data, short-term rentals in the Zappeion area bring an average daily RevPAR of 58 euros, followed by the Acropolis area with 54.27 euros and the Commercial Triangle (Monastiraki, Plaka etc) with 52.58 euros. The fourth neighborhood in Athens that brings in the most RevPAR (average daily) is Kolonaki with 46.04 euros, followed by Thiseio (45.83 euros), Gazi (45.46 euros), Lycabettus (44.70 euros), Koukaki – Makrygianni (41.29 euros), Kerameikos (41.12 euros) and Stadiou Street (40.31 euros).

Up-and-coming neighborhoods in Athens

Plaka, Athens. Photo © Maria Theofanopoulou

Caton also gave data on last year’s top 5 neighborhoods in Athens by listing growth and RevPAR growth.

In 2018, the largest increase in the number of listed short-term rentals in the Greek capital was recorded in the Patissia neighborhood by 100 percent (52 active listings from 26 in 2017), followed by Agiou Konstantinou Street in central Athens by 58 percent (282 active listings from 178 in 2017), the Commercial Triangle of Athens (Monastiraki, Plaka etc) by 41 percent (895 active listings from 633 in 2017), Neos Kosmos by 38 percent (319 active listings from 232 in 2017) and Koukaki – Makrygianni by 36 percent (377 active listings from 277 in 2017).

However, these five neighborhoods in Athens saw either a drop in year-on-year RevPAR or only a slight or no increase, which indicates oversupply.

On the other hand, the top 5 neighborhoods in the Greek capital by RevPAR growth include Ano Patisia (+25 percent), Lycabettus (+10 percent), Goudi (+9 percent), Kolonos (+7 percent) and Gazi (+6 percent).

More professional hosts in Athens

AirDNA data showed also revealed that, while available listings in the city on both platforms (Airbnb and HomeAway) surpass 12,300, there are currently 5,000 active hosts (45 percent) that are leasing just one property.

“These are the amateur hosts,” Caton explained.

More into the data, the Athens market is seeing 54 percent of its listed properties managed by multi-listing hosts. This means that one host has at least two properties assigned to their host ID, which implies that these hosts are taking a more professional approach to the short-term rental market.

Seasonality

AirDNA’s chief revenue officer also pointed out the seasonality involved in the Athens short-term rental market.

“The summer months roar ahead and the winter months are low,” he said, noting that last year in Athens, 55 percent of properties were booked 1-3 months (summer season).

Organized by Smart Press, the BnB Guest Conference aims to establish itself as an information hub for all those involved in the short-term rental market and to provide them the opportunity to offer better services and the chance to maximize their benefits.

GTP Headlines was a media partner to the BnB Guest Conference.