Spain: Airbnb, Booking, Vrbo already exceed 1M apartments for tourists

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

The business of tourist houses does not stop growing. The latest data collected by Cinco Días confirms that the volume of rental properties to meet the unstoppable flow of travelers around the world does not stop growing.

The latest forecasts of the World Tourism Organization show that of the 1.4 billion international travelers in 2018 will be 1.8 billion in 2030 and that is being taken advantage of by the three large multinationals that control the market (Airbnb, Booking and Vrbo) to continue growing. At the end of the first quarter of the year, the houses for rent of these three companies around the world totaled 14 million, a new historical maximum. A trend that does not escape Spain, the second most visited country in the world after France, with 82.8 million in 2018 and a forecast close to 85 million for this year.

The data collected by Cinco Días through the companies shows that for the first time in history, the number of tourist flats in Spain would have exceeded the bar of the million (specifically 1.05 million), with a global market share of 7%. If compared with the housing stock in Spain (25.7 million), the weight is limited to 4.1%. Airbnb controls half a million floors, followed by Booking, with 410,000 ads. In last place is Vrbo, the new brand under which Expedia unified all its accommodation brands (among which Home Away, bought in 2015), with 141,000 ads, very concentrated in holiday destinations such as Malaga or Palma de Mallorca.

Of the nearly 14 million ads worldwide, 6 million correspond to Airbnb, 5.7 million to Booking and 2 to Vrbo.

In any case, both classifications will suffer variations in the coming months as a result of the change in strategy undertaken by the three large companies. The most striking is that of Airbnb, which, given the legislative obstacles it has encountered in many cities around the world to integrate its model, has chosen to diversify its business by geographical areas and sectors. In the first case, the priority is to grow in Latin America, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, where the weight of the ads barely reached 15% of the total and four years later it has doubled to 30%. From the exclusivity of shared accommodation, it has become a model in which hotel reservations have a place, as shown by the acquisition of the Hotels Tonight company, specializing in last-minute hotel reservations, culminated last March by an amount close to 400 million euros.

For its part, Booking, so far focused on hotel reservations, has also chosen to grow in tourist apartments. At the end of last year, it had 28 million ads on its website, of which 5.7 corresponded to what it calls alternative accommodation (houses and apartments), with a generated turnover of 2,490 million euros, 20% of the total the turnover

From the online agency they are convinced that they will be able to surpass Airbnb in the short term, thanks to the loyalty of their client base, since they consider that at least 40% of those who traditionally hired a hotel room chose or will opt for what they call an alternative accommodation (houses or apartments).

The last on the list is Vrbo, who wants to distinguish himself from the competition with another type of offer. The catalog of houses is more focused on families and groups of friends and does not include properties with room rental. "We want guests looking for quality properties where travelers have the security of renting a complete house that meets the needs they are looking for," they say from the firm. Of the two million ads worldwide, a very important part is focused on floors, although it also includes bungalows, cabins, holiday resorts, hotels, caravans or rural houses.

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

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