Nights booked through online booking platforms such as Airbnb, Booking, Expedia and TripAdvisor rose by 18.8% in the European Union last year, to reach 854.1 million nights.
This compares to 719 million nights booked through these platforms in 2023, with each month of 2024 – except for April – seeing an increase in the number of nights spent in short-term accommodations, Eurostat data showed.
The biggest year-on-year increases were recorded in March (+48% compared to 2023), May (+31.7%), August (+21.6%) and November (+21.5%). The year-on-year decline in April rentals, which was 1.8% lower, was due to the timing of Easter this year.
In the final quarter of the year, online platforms hosted some 155 million short-stay guest nights – marking a 17.4% increase compared to the same period in 2023.
Regional favourites
In the third quarter of 2024, meanwhile, the most popular EU destination for short-term rental accommodation booked via online platforms was Jadranska Hrvatska in Croatia, which recorded 25.2 million nights, a 6% increase on the corresponding period a year earlier.
Elsewhere, Andalucía in Spain (17.2 million nights, +23.1%) and the French Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (15.6 million nights, +26.2%) were also popular destinations for online booking enthusiasts in Q3 2024.
Six of the top 20 tourism destinations were located in France, five each in Spain and Italy, two in Greece and one each in Croatia and Portugal, Eurostat noted. Read more here.
