Filenews 9 January 2026 - by Theano Thiopoulou
Bookings from the major online platforms that facilitate short-term accommodation – Airbnb, Booking, Expedia – compete fiercely with hotels in every tourist season and this is evident from the numbers, which are constantly increasing, combined with the good tourist years that Cyprus achieves and the demand for accommodation is rising.
On the other hand, it is a matter of concern that the increase in short-term rentals drastically reduces the available apartments for long-term rental, especially in tourist areas, pushing prices up and creating housing shortages for residents.
Short-term rental accommodation is a popular trend for tourists, as they retain some special features that they do not find in hotels. While the EU as a whole recorded a slower 8.7% year-on-year growth in guest nights in short-term rental accommodation in the third quarter of 2025, the pace varied across countries.
Malta again recorded the sharpest increase (+24.0%), followed by Cyprus with an increase of 19.4%, Sweden (+13.1%) and Greece (+12.3%). Double-digit growth was also recorded in Latvia (+12.3%), Germany (+12.0%), Denmark (+11.6%), Slovenia (+11.3%), Ireland (+10.7%), Finland (+10.4%) and the Czech Republic (+10.2%).
The data shows that short-term rental bookings in the fourth quarter of 2025 in Cyprus were 3,015,632, compared to 1,962,423 in the second quarter, a period that is not at the peak of the summer season and in the first quarter of 2025, 824,501 bookings were recorded.
In Greece, in the third quarter of 2025, short-term rental bookings were 29,338,244, in France 88,882,087, in Spain 73,015,754, in Italy 58,771,045, in Portugal 20,718,878, in Germany 24,301,882.
The overall picture recorded in Europe for the third quarter of 2025 reveals the continued increase in guest nights made through these platforms. All three months of summer are the highest levels recorded compared to 2024. July 2025 reached 148.5 million overnight visitors, an increase of 10% compared to July 2024. August followed with 164.3 million overnight stays, an increase of 8% compared to the same month of the previous year. September 2025 continued the upward trend, with 85.3 million overnight visitors, an increase of 8% year-on-year. Overall, the third quarter of 2025 shows continued expansion compared to the third quarter of 2024, reflecting the sustained demand for short-term accommodation across the EU.
In total, 398.1 million overnight visits were recorded in the third quarter of 2025 through the 3 major platforms – an increase of 8.7% compared to the same quarter of 2024.
In the second quarter of 2025, the Spanish, French and Italian regions remained the most popular destinations for short-term rental accommodation through online platforms, with a coastal area of Croatia also among the top. The top regions were Andalusia in southern Spain (13.3 million overnight stays), Croatia's Jadranska Hrvatska (9.6 million), France's Ile de France (9.0 million) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (8.6 million).
At the institutional level, in order to ensure the implementation of European provisions on the collection and sharing of data related to short-term real estate rental services, the Parliament has unanimously amended the law on the regulation of the establishment and operation of hotels and tourist accommodation.
During the discussion of the bill, it was emphasized that a single framework is now established in order to collect reliable information in relation to short-term rental of real estate in the EU and enters into force on May 20, 2026.
