DS Experimental statistics > Collaborative economy platforms > Block 1 > EN > REVAMP

Why are these statistics needed?

The need for such statistics is two-fold.

Firstly, existing European statistics on tourism provide only limited coverage of this part of the short stay accommodation sector. This is because data on holiday homes, apartments and rooms in otherwise private buildings are often outside the scope of tourism registers and surveys.

For this reason, the targeted segment of the market is currently underrepresented in official statistics.

The new, experimental data will therefore contribute to improving the quality – in particular the completeness – of the existing European statistics on tourism compiled pursuant to EU regulation 692/2011.

Why are they experimental?

Unlike the traditional official accommodation statistics collected via business surveys or via local authorities, the data is collected using previously unexplored channels, namely data on listings and bookings obtained from four major booking platforms – Airbnb, Booking.com, Tripadvisor and Expedia Group – acting as intermediaries.

Service providers, the property owners renting out accommodation in this segment of the market, are not well covered in registers and difficult to survey. This innovative approach uses the digital footprint that they leave on the online platforms.

How are they produced?

The statistics are compiled based on datasets transmitted by the above-mentioned international platforms, following the 2020 non-disclosure agreement with Eurostat.

The major innovation lies in the nature of the data collection. Digital information from the platform with the listing or booking itself is used, not the service provider.

This production process highlights new approaches to quality assessment and managing data flows within the ESS. Bilateral agreements on data exchange with NSIs were signed with most countries at the end of 2020 and early 2021.

The project is aligned as much as possible to the existing accommodation statistics regarding concepts and definitions. See also the methodological manual for tourism statistics. 

For further details, please consult our  methodological note.

Access to the statistics

Database

Data navigation tree

News articles

Asset Publisher

DS Experimental statistics > Collaborative economy platforms > Feedback > EN > REVAMP

Feedback

To help Eurostat improve these experimental statistics, users and researchers are kindly invited to give us their feedback by email:

  • What have you used this data for?
  • What do you think is the main added value? How do you assess the representativeness of the four platforms to cover the segment of short-stay holiday rentals offered via online collaborative economy platforms? Which other important international or national players are missing?

Further reading