Airbnb fights back and blames hotels for mass tourism in cities across Spain and the EU

THE Airbnb tourist rental portal says hotels are mainly behind an explosion in mass tourism in cities and has used EU statistics to back up its argument.

It states that nearly 80% of overnight stays within the EU are in hotels and called on officials in the ten most visited cities to address ‘the overwhelming impact of the hotel model as a driver of mass tourism’.

Airbnb’s comments come after Spain’s Consumer Affairs Ministry ordered the platform to strike out over 65,000 listings which did not have license numbers or incorrect authorisation.

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The platform says that between 2021 and 2023, the number of nights booked in the ten most visited cities in Europe multiplied by 2.5 times – more than 200 million additional nights.

Around three-quarters of the rise came from hotel bookings, says the report, prepared with data from Eurostat, the World Tourism Organisation and Airbnb’s own statistics.

“Europe needs more housing, not more hotels, but there are many cities that continue to bet on hotel construction, while housing development falls to lows not seen in almost a decade,” said Airbnb.

It also quoted an example of the old town area of Barcelona ‘where there are seven hotel beds for each one in short-term tourist rentals’.

Likewise, hotels are concentrated in the same urban areas, while ‘most stays on Airbnb take place outside urban centres’, it stated.

The company said its business model, ‘in addition to being an alternative’ to the mass model, ‘allows many families to afford a rental and boosts the local economy’.

It claims that ‘for every euro that travellers spend on Airbnb, an additional €2.50 are generated in shops and services in the area’.