Greek short-term rental industry heading towards saturation

Greece: According to data by AirDNA, an increase in the country’s available listings and booked nights, coupled with a decrease in occupancy and revenues, points to market saturation.

Last year, between the end of December 2018 and the end of December 2019, the number of available ‘entire place’ listings increased by 23.9 per cent across Airbnb and HomeAway.

During the same period, RevPAR fell by 9.4 per cent while occupancy rate declined 15 per cent.

“What this suggests to us is that Greece is at a critical point. Its heading towards market saturation which is an indication that supply is much higher than the demand,” said Aimee Trusler, international sales manager at AirDNA.

The island of Andros in the Cyclades led the top five markets, with a rise of 25.02 per cent of daily RevPAR growth. Lesvos (+19.5 per cent), Thessaloniki (+14.18 per cent), Kavala (+4.28 per cent) and Naxos and the Small Cyclades (+3.77 per cent) then followed.

In terms of the number of listings, Crete, Athens and Corfu were the top three destinations respectively.

“Athens has a huge amount of growth in professionalisation… This means being available 365 days a year, reaching an occupancy rate upwards of 50 per cent, and having booked days for more than half of the year,” Trusler said.

According to AirDNA, active listings in Athens on both platforms (Airbnb and HomeAway) surpass 13,634 (12,213 listings on Airbnb and 1,421 listings on Homeaway), up year-on-year from some 12,300.

Looking at the global market, Trusler said that short-term rentals are becoming more popular, with 23 per cent increase in people staying at alternative accommodation in the last two years. 

“We can see now that short term rental demand is going up. We can see that a large percentage of people have stayed in a short-term rental in the last two years…That’s why it’s becoming more and more important to build your brand,” she said.