Greece a European ‘Power Market’ for Airbnb-style Demand

Greece marked a 61.8 percent rise in total summer demand for short-term rentals against 2021 and posted some of the strongest results this summer in terms of nights booked, said AirDNA this week.

More specifically, according to AirDNA’s “Europe Market Review” released on Wednesday, Greece was one of nine of the largest countries for short-term rentals in Europe (out of 20) which saw nights booked over June, July and August increase by 24.1 percent over pre-pandemic 2019.

Besides Greece, the strongest results in Europe for the same period and compared to 2019 were recorded in other “power markets” Germany (24.8 percent) and France (21.9 percent).

Athens, Greece.

According to the AirDNA report, all of the top 20 European countries saw higher demand this year compared to last summer with destinations in Southern Europe winning the crowds. Indicatively, six of the Top 10 city-break destinations expected to see even more demand to the end of the year are in Italy, Portugal, Greece, and Germany.

AirDNA analysts said Athens was high in demand in the first nine months of 2022 and was expected to continue its growth in the coming months. Estimated demand for Athens in the last months (September-December) of the year is up by 124.9 percent over the same period in 2021.

Munich is recording the strongest demand growth into Q4 with 164 percent more nights booked than in 2021, followed by Porto and Lisbon, Rome, Napoli, Milan, Turin, Venice, and Florence.

Overall, in Europe in August, demand for night stays at Airbnb-style rentals was up by 35.9 percent over 2021 and by 0.2 percent against 2019.

Average daily rates (ADR) increased by 1.2 percent over 2021 and by 16.5 percent compared to 2019. Available listings rose by 13.8 percent from 2021 but were down by 10.8 percent over 2019. Occupancy levels reached 76.5 percent – a 4.3 percent rise over 2021 while total revenue was up by 30.1 percent compared to the same month in 2021 and by 16.7 percent over 2019 levels.