Airbnb reports that activity it generated in the Balearics in 2016 was worth 551 million euros. Of this, 115 million was the total revenue taken by owners (hosts) from 590,000 visitors. The rest is an estimate as to what these visitors then spent.
The report states there was a 93% increase in the number of guests from 306,000 in 2015 to 590,000 last year. The average guest stayed 5.5 nights. Spain provided 18%, Germany 16% and the UK 15%. The typical profile of a host is someone aged 44 who earns 6,300 euros from "sharing" property for 42 nights a year. Thirteen per cent of hosts use the money to make ends meet.
By island, there were 385,000 travellers in Majorca, an increase of 90%. Palma accounted for 190,000 of these. According to Airbnb, there are currently 24,000 properties in the Balearics on its website, 70% of which are said to be outside the main hotel districts. At the end of 2016, there more than 5,000 active listings in Palma, of which 1,400 were whole houses that were rented out for more than 120 nights. In the rest of Majorca there were 10,800 active listings.
Arnaldo Muñoz, the general manager of Airbnb Marketing Services Spain, says that the strong performance shows how Airbnb supports the middle class and how the economy and local communities benefit.
The number of properties in the Balearics is similar to the figures that the environmentalists Terraferida announced a few weeks ago. Terraferida's updated analysis in March/April for Majorca and for Ibiza/Formentera but excluding Minorca revealed 19,574.