EU Rental Nights Hit 951M, Platforms Grow Faster than Hotels

Short-term rental accommodation booked through Airbnb, Booking, and Expedia kept growing across the European Union in 2025.

Eurostat said guests spent 951.6 million nights in these properties during the year, up 11.4 percent from 2024.

In the final quarter alone, they spent 172.3 million nights, which was 10.9 percent more than in the same period a year earlier.

These figures cover short-stay accommodation booked through online platforms, including holiday apartments, private homes, and similar properties.

Demand stayed strong beyond the summer peak

The fourth-quarter growth shows that demand remained strong even after the main summer season ended. Eurostat’s monthly data showed higher platform-booked stays in October, November, and December, with the biggest increase in December.

This suggests short-term rentals are supporting more than peak summer tourism. They are also being used for city breaks, holiday travel, family trips, and other off-season stays.

Southern Europe remained the main hotspot

The busiest region for platform-booked short stays in the third quarter of 2025 was Jadranska Hrvatska in Croatia, with 27.7 million nights. It was followed by Andalucia in Spain and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur in France.

Eurostat said the top 20 tourist regions were all located in just six countries: France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal, and Croatia.

Short-term rentals are growing faster than the wider lodging market

The broader accommodation market in the EU also grew in 2025, but more slowly. All tourist accommodation establishments, including hotels, recorded nearly 3.1 billion nights last year, up 2.2 percent from 2024.

The next phase will likely bring more oversight

The new Eurostat figures also fit a wider travel trend highlighted in the 2026 travel forecast: overtourism is becoming harder to separate from distribution and accommodation growth.

As platform-booked stays keep expanding across Europe, especially in the region’s most crowded leisure markets, the pressure on cities and resort areas is no longer only about visitor numbers, but also about how that demand is spread, regulated, and absorbed by local housing and tourism systems.

Photo by Léonard Cotte on Unsplash