Tourism’s biggest winner this summer appears to have been short-term rentals, as they were the preferred pick of both foreign and domestic visitors.

According to data analyzed on a monthly basis by AirDNA, demand (based on the number of bookings) for the months of July, August and September increased by 26.5% compared to the corresponding period of 2019, that is, compared to the last year of smooth operation in the market, before the pandemic.

In fact, this is the best performance at a pan-European level, which confirms the assessment that Greece has been a leading tourism destination this summer. Just in July and August, reservations are estimated to have exceeded 1.3 million, from only 600,000 in the same period last year.

In July alone (the data for August are expected in the next few days, reflecting the overall picture even more clearly), AirDNA reports that bookings increased by 30% from the same month of 2019, while the average rental rate was 18% higher than three years ago.

For August, AirDNA estimates that the volume of bookings will be at least 18.7% higher than the corresponding month of 2019, a performance which, if confirmed, will be the third highest in Europe, behind only non-competing countries, i.e. Germany (24.8%) and Belgium (19.3%).

A similar upward trend is observed in the number of available short-term accommodation options. Based on the data of Transparent, a strategic partner of STAMA Greece (Association of Short-Term Property Rental Companies), Greece has 182,971 accommodation units. This number is up 25% on summer 2019 and certainly demonstrates the trend of many property owners shifting to short-term rentals, especially at popular destinations. That figure is reliable, as Transparent records listings on all popular platforms, such as Airbnb, Booking, VRBO and Trip Advisor, removing duplicate entries and ‘illegal’ properties, i.e. those that are not properly registered, as the law requires.

This article was previously published at ekathimerini.com.