Airbnb homes rely on Greeks now

Short-term property rentals in Greece via leading online platform Airbnb are more or less an exclusively Greek affair these days.

Based on the picture up to the end of May, there may have been a considerable increase in new bookings for properties in Greece, but they are almost exclusively from Greeks, not foreigners. This is according to data presented on Thursday at the Delphi Economic Forum by Giacomo Trovato, Airbnb’s country manager for Italy and Southeast Europe.

The impact of the pandemic is such that the areas with the biggest activity in short-term rentals have been Halkidiki, Thessaloniki and Athens, with the islands seeing far less demand, led by Corfu and Crete. This means areas that are easily accessible by car are taking precedence.

This constitutes a full reversal of the picture from the period before the pandemic, when 80% of guests at short-term rentals were foreigners. “Since early May the picture has started improving, not only in terms of new bookings that are doubling every two weeks, but also in the total number of properties, which now add up to 123,000, some 4,000 more than in 2019,” said Trovato.