Laurence Dollimore
HOLIDAY rentals have taken over hotels for the first time in Spain.
Newly released figures show that last year there were more beds available in so-called ‘tourist apartments’ i.e. Airbnb accommodation, than in hotels.
The study, by Exceltur, shows that the number of bed space available through short-term home rentals nearly doubled from 2015 to reach 362,493 beds in Spain’s 22 biggest cities.
That figure is 9.76% higher than what was available in hotels.
“In just four years, vacation rental accommodation has exceeded the number of hotel beds created during entire decades of tourism-industry development,” said José Luis Zoreda, executive vice-president of Exceltur.
Airbnb has been growing at a pace of nearly 100% in recent years, and now represents 54.2% of all available vacation rentals in Spain.
