The Airbnb system gets more and more successful in Hungary

The Airbnb service system has a growing success in Hungary, as the number of its guest nights increased by six times compared to previous years, whereas in the case of hotels it only grew by 40%, writes hvg.hu.

The site shares the data of BDO Hungary, a consulting company, showing that the number of Airbnb guest nights grew by six times in the period of 2010-2015. The demand for hotel accommodation increased by 40% in the same period.

Dynamically growing, 20% of the market is realized at the social portal’s private accommodations: about 4800 active hosts located in Budapest are registered in the Airbnb system and 1200 of them have not only one, but several units. This number, though, is the 1/7 of the facilities in Paris, and 1/3 of those in Barcelona.

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Analysing the structure of demand, and its proportion to the traditional hotel market, HVG shows that the social accommodation sector performs excellently in the common holiday destinations, such as Lisbon, Paris, Barcelona, or Firenze. By booking such accommodations, the journey can be far less costly even for big families, and these services are suitable for opening new markets, as well.

However, social accommodations in destinations, which are rather business profiled, or have a strong demand in business, such as Vienna or Frankfurt, are noted to be less significant. The proportion of holiday tourists in Budapest is favourable for social accommodations, therefore, they are in competition with the middle category hotels, according to Attila Hegedűs, managing director at BDO.

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Furthermore, there seem to be companies in Budapest, which operate more than 10-15 apartments, or even full floors of houses. But that is where a borderline separates the service’s social and supplementary income-creating function from the industrially operating companies’ profit-making and economic system.

Leasing social accommodation, whether mid-category or luxurious, has a business value, and banning such services or eliminating them from the market does not seem to be the solution, as competition on the market should be fair.

Copy editor: bm

Source: hvg.hu