Airbnb And Its Second Largest Market; Can France Rein In Travel Giant?

Since Airbnb unveiled its French platform in 2012 it has gone from strength to strength. At the end of this summer just gone, Reuters reported the platform had been very busy, with over 8.5 million French people using Airbnb between 1 June and 31 August. So why is Airbnb such a draw for French renters and visitors to France alike?

France has a lot of visitors, including the French

Of the 8 million French people using Airbnb this summer–a 35% increase on summer 2018 – Le Parisien reported that 5 million of those chose to stay in France, a trend supported by statistics outside those of the renting platform. It’s not just that French people traditionally support all things French, it’s because France’s geographical location allows for different climates and varying holidays, whether tourists are after picture-postcard countryside villages, national parks and mountains (think the Alps and Pyrenees), or lakes and beaches (the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts). The same is true for the rest of the world too, of course; France offers a panoply of holiday variations, which is the reason why it’s the number one visited country in the world. What’s more, the world can’t seem to get enough of Paris; it’s still the number one visited city worldwide (in 2018, Paris was the most sought after destination on the Airbnb platform). Which means for Airbnb, it’s a priority market.

Property owners can make more on short-term rentals

It’s not difficult to see why France loves Airbnb when property owners stand to gain so much. Unlike other rental options, seasonal rentals can yield bigger returns than longer-term rents, where short-term rentals are 2.6 times more profitable than year-round renting.

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