Short-Term Rentals: A Market Shifting Toward Ultra-Luxury

Major short-term rental platforms are facing new challenges. Customers are turning away from listings whose prices have been inflated by competition, while stricter regulations in saturated megacities have curtailed what once seemed like limitless growth. In Barcelona, for instance, radical restrictions came into effect on July 1, including a halt to the renewal of tourist licenses, designed to gradually cool the surge that short-term rentals had sparked in the housing market—freeing roughly 10,000 residences by 2028–2029. New York saw a similar contraction: its short-term rental inventory fell from 22,000 to fewer than 4,000 following stricter laws introduced in September 2023.

Around a hundred cities worldwide are implementing comparable measures, with North America feeling the impact most strongly, compounded by a 12% drop in international arrivals this year—a decline attributed by the Washington Post to Trump-era policies.

These pressures are reflected in the numbers: while Airbnb reported a net profit of $264 million in Q1 2024, it reported only $154 million in Q1 2025 (Airbnb Newsroom).

Yet, some analysts see this less as a crash than as a market reaching maturity, stabilizing after years of dizzying growth. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky often recalls that the startup took years to become profitable and evolve into the multinational it is today. Founded in 2008, Airbnb remained unprofitable until 2019, only to face a sharp decline in activity during over two pandemic years, leading to a 25% staff cut. The company went public at the end of 2020 and recorded its first full profitable year in 2022. Seen from this angle, the current stabilization can be considered as reassuring—perhaps even desirable.