8.4 million guest nights booked in short-term rental accommodation through online platforms
Seán McCárthaigh
A record 8.4 million guest nights were booked for short-term tourist accommodation in Ireland last year through leading online booking platforms – up 13 per cent on 2024 levels.
New figures published by the European Commission show almost 980,000 extra guest nights were spent in short-stay accommodation in the Republic in 2025, with a record total of 8,419,318.
The figures, which are based on reservations made by holidaymakers through Airbnb, Booking and Expedia, have increased by almost two million since 2023.
They relate to stays in holiday rentals offered via the three online platforms but exclude bookings in hotels and campsites.
Almost 1.5 million guest nights in Ireland were booked via the three platforms for stays in July alone – a new monthly record.
The figures also confirm a strong performance by that sector of the tourist industry across the EU as a whole, with the number of guest nights booked on such platforms last year up 11 per cent to 951.6 million.
The reliance of the sector in Ireland on foreign tourists was also highlighted, with overseas visitors accounting for almost 6.2 million guest nights booked in short-term tourist accommodation last year – an annual increase of 12 per cent.
However, the rate of increase was even higher among domestic holidaymakers who booked 2.26 million guest nights through the three platforms – almost 325,000 more nights than in 2024, representing an annual increase of 17 per cent.
Nevertheless, the figures show Ireland is more dependent on overseas visitors for bookings in short-stay accommodation than many other countries as they account for 73 per cent of such guest nights in the Republic compared to the EU average of 62 per cent.
A report by the European Commission also provides a breakdown of figures for the three different EU regions of Ireland, although they are currently only available for the first nine months of last year.
They show that almost 2.62 million guest nights were spent in the Southern region, which includes Cork, Kerry, Clare, Waterford, Wexford and Kilkenny – up nine per cent on the corresponding period in 2024.
While the Southern region had the most number of guest nights, stronger growth was recorded in the other two regions over the first three quarters of 2025.
More than 2.25 million guest nights were booked in the Northern and Western region, which includes Galway and Mayo, as well as most counties in border areas representing an annual increase of 13 per cent.
The number of guest nights in the Eastern and Midland region, which includes Dublin and other counties in mid- and north Leinster was up 16 per cent to 2.12 million.
The figures published by Eurostat are the result of a landmark agreement reached in 2020 between the European Commission and leading platforms providing short-term accommodation booking services.
The figures no longer include data on bookings made via Tripadvisor since the start of 2025 after the company exited the short-stay accommodation sector.
New legislation in Ireland is due to come into effect on May 20th which will require providers of short-term letting to register their property with Fáilte Ireland.
Accommodation units, which are available for rent for periods of up to 21 nights at a time, will be issued with a unique identity number, which must be used in all listings and advertisements.
Providers must also demonstrate that the accommodation units are compliant with planning legislation, although those living in towns with a population of under 20,000 have two years to meet planning compliance requirements.
The latest figures show the most popular EU region for booking short-term tourist accommodation through online booking platforms last summer was Adriatic Croatia with 27.7 million nights, followed by Andalucia in Spain (19.5 million) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur in France (16.9 million).
The 20 most popular regions were all located in just six EU countries – with six in France, five in Spain, four in Italy, three in Greece and one each in Portugal and Croatia.
