Greece: Over 9.3 Million Overnights at Airbnbs in January-June

Photo source: Eurostat.

More than 9.3 million people visiting Greece stayed overnight at Airbnb-style rentals in the first half of the year, according to the latest data released by Eurostat.

More specifically, in the January-June period this year, 9,308,584 people booked their accommodation through online booking platforms like Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia Group or Tripadvisor.

According to Eurostat data, short-term rental activity in Greece in the first half of the year and by month managed to exceed corresponding levels in 2022 and those of pre-Covid 2019, which was a record year for Greece.

This year, Airbnb-style bookings boomed in May and June.

Short-stay accommodation offered via collaborative economy platforms by months and residence of the guest – experimental statistics. Source: Eurostat

Meanwhile, overall in the European Union, 237 million overnight stays were recorded at short-stay rentals in H1, marking an 18.8 percent rise over the same period in 2022 (+199 million) and by 193 million or 22.6 percent rise compared to 2019.

Indicative of the demand, in the second quarter of 2023, the number of overnight stays at Airbnbs came to 153 million, up by 15.8 percent compared to the same period in 2022.

Month by month, 46.7 million overnights stays were booked in April up by 19.5 percent over the same month in 2022, 47.6 million in May (+22.6 percent compared to May 2022), and 58.7 million in June (+8.4 percent compared to June 2022).

Sea and sun destinations were popular all year round. In winter, the most popular destination for travelers using Airbnbs in Q1 were the Rhone Alps in France (5.2 million overnight stays), the Canary Islands (5 million) and Andalusia (4.3 million) in Spain.

Meanwhile, demand for short-stay rentals in Greece was on an upward trend in September and October. According to AirDNA, Greek destinations are seeing a 31 percent increase in short-term rental bookings for September compared to the same month a year ago and a 30 percent rise in October.