Paris Airbnb bookings swell 400% leading into Summer Olympic Games

With the world set to converge on the French city at the end of July until the middle of August, Airbnb (NASDAQ:ABNB) bookings in Paris have swelled by 400% with the surge spilling over into surrounding cities like Saint-Denis (Olympic village, host of 3 venues), Châteauroux (shooting events), and Lille (basketball and handball). Additionally, the demand for hotel accommodations resulted in a 40% increase of active Airbnb (ABNB) listings.

The vast majority of bookings are being made by U.S. travelers to France, followed by UK tourists with French and German citizens at third and fourth.

In terms of growth, Asian countries take the top spot with the highest increase in travelers coming from Mainland China, followed by India, Hong Kong and Japan.

The agreement between Airbnb (ABNB) and the International Olympic Committee gives the company a foothold in a city that has in the past been adverse to short-term rentals. City officials, in an attempt to limit the number of short-term rentals (ABNB), (EXPE) in Paris, enacted restrictions that included limiting rentals to 120 nights a year and requiring owners to register the property with City Hall. City officials even considered a ban on small lock boxes, used to hold rental keys, calling them an “eyesore” across the city’s neighborhoods.

But with 3 million people expected to descend on Paris in the two weeks during the Olympics, the dearth of available hotel rooms for non-Olympic officials meant the city could either build more hotels or open up the option for non-traditional accommodations. Parisian officials relented and realized the influx of tourist dollars to the local economy offset any concerns about disturbances and crowding in residential neighborhoods.

The good news for tourists is that the increased supply has come with an expected drop in prices. As the games approach, tourists might be pleasantly surprised to find that prices for non-traditional lodging (ABNB), (EXPE) are actually falling. The saturation of homes for rent coupled with the release of over-booked hotel rooms by sport federations means that rental prices have come down by anywhere between 30% to 60%.