Housing – Airbnb Impact

Airbnb is more than holiday rentals—we provide critical housing infrastructure that helps communities function and supports the way people live, work and travel. In fact, more than half of Americans who used Airbnb in 2025 booked stays for reasons other than going on holiday.¹ This includes visiting family or friends, travelling for work, studying, receiving medical treatment, dealing with home emergencies or finding a place to live.

When people are displaced by disaster or conflict, Airbnb.org provides free, temporary housing to those in need. Since its launch in December 2020, Airbnb.org has provided 1.6 million nights of free, temporary housing to approximately 240,000 people across 134 countries.

Airbnb also has a long history of helping cities host big events without building new hotels, while generating direct benefits for local families. For instance, the 2024 Paris Olympics was the biggest hosting event in our history, with Airbnb hosts in the region welcoming almost 700,000 travellers.

¹Self-reported by Airbnb guests based in the United States in a survey conducted from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025

Data shows that Airbnb has no significant impact on housing affordability or availability

We know that hosting is an economic lifeline that helps many families afford their homes. Globally, almost half of hosts say the income they earn from hosting helps them afford to stay in their homes. Three in four hosts share one home, with the typical host welcoming guests for a few days a month. In Airbnb's 50 biggest¹ cities around the world, entire-home listings booked for more than 90 nights in 2025 made up only 0.4% of the housing stock overall.² In the US, listings on Airbnb that rent for more than 90 nights a year account for just 0.3% of housing units.

¹ By Gross Booking Value in the 12 months between Q2 2025 and Q1 2026.
² Excludes non-housing listings, such as hotels and listings that do not allow for short-term bookings (less than 28 days). Housing stock estimates include total dwellings by city and come from local statistical agencies using the latest year available.

We recognise that in some cities—especially those facing real housing constraints—there are concerns about concentration. That’s exactly why we’ve worked with over a thousand governments on rules that are tailored to local conditions. We support sensible, targeted regulations that protect the vast majority of everyday hosts who are simply trying to afford their homes.

In New York City, stringent short-term rental regulations promised to alleviate the housing crisis, and yet rents and hotel prices have climbed higher and faster than neighbouring cities, vacancy levels remain stagnant and local hosts lost tens of millions in earnings. We’re seeing similar outcomes in cities around the world, like Amsterdam and Barcelona. Some cities like Edinburgh and Lisbon are reversing too-tight regulations, acknowledging that they didn't impact housing issues and were costing locals additional income that in many cases helps them afford to stay in their homes.

We know the root cause of the housing crisis is a lack of supply to meet demand. According to UN-Habitat, the world needs to build 96,000 new affordable homes every day until 2030 to meet demand projections. Leading factors limiting affordable housing supply, including zoning rules, construction red tape and high interest rates, are not related to Airbnb.

77% of hosts have only 1 entire-home listing.

The typical¹ host shares their space on an occasional basis and earns important supplemental income. For example, the typical Airbnb host in the United States earned $15,000 in 2025.

¹ Typical means ‘median’, host earnings sourced from internal Airbnb data