The four major online platforms AirBnB, Booking.com, TripAdvisor and Expedia can look back on a successful year in Germany. According to the Federal Statistical Office, a total of 38.6 million overnight stays in holiday apartments and holiday homes were booked via these platforms in Germany in 2022. On the one hand, the providers exceeded their results from the travel year 2021, which was still severely limited by the corona measures, and on the other hand, they also surpassed the pre-pandemic figures from 2019.
For this evaluation, the Federal Statistical Office presented for the first time data on the number of overnight stays under the 10 bed limit, which come from the European statistical authority Eurostat. These data complement the previously known tourism statistics, which record only establishments with more than 10 beds.
The fact that the four platform operators report such data to Eurostat dates back to an EU-wide agreement. The EU would like to get a better overview of the private short-term rental market by collecting data and thus be able to better counteract the influences on the housing market.
More bookings from abroad
According to the Federal Statistical Office, 37.2 million overnight stays were booked in Germany in 2019 via the four platform operators. The figures for 2022 were 3.6% higher. Most overnight stays (96%) in 2022 were in holiday apartments or houses with fewer than 10 beds. These are offered by private owners as a sideline.
In particular, bookings from abroad have resumed in Germany. They have doubled to 11.3 million compared to the 2021 numbers. However, the pre-corona level has not yet been reached here. Despite the increase, the number of overnight stays booked by foreign guests was still 17.5% lower in 2022 than in 2019.
In the years 2020 and 2021, booking curves will actually only increase as usual in the summer months. In the winter months, by the way, more restrictions applied.
(Image: Federal Statistical Office)
Overnight stays by Germans in Germany, on the other hand, have increased significantly: The number of overnight stays by German guests was 15.9% higher than before the pandemic. Comparing the years 2021 and 2022, the number of domestic overnight stays booked via online platforms increased by almost a quarter to 27.2 million.
methodology
The data used by the Federal Statistical Office comes from an agreement between Eurostat and the platform operators AirBnB, Booking.com, TripAdvisor and Expedia. The monthly overnight stays booked via one of these four platforms in apartments and holiday homes in Germany and classified as short-term rentals are recorded. In its own statement, the Federal Statistical Office classifies the data as “experimental[] data”.
No data from the hotel or camping sector and data on bookings made through other platforms or directly with accommodation facilities were collected. According to Destatis, the figures given should therefore be regarded as the lower limit of actual overnight stays in holiday apartments and homes. Compared to the number of overnight stays recorded in the monthly tourism statistics (450.7 million in 2022), the data from this platform (38.6 million) was initially a relatively small addition, explains the officebut adds: “However, if you look only at the type of holiday apartments and houses, the data from the platform represents about half of the overnight stays compared to the official tourism statistics (91.7 million).”
(kbe)
