Booking and Airbnb are bursting at the seams. Poland records a historic result

The popularity of short-term rental in Poland is growing every year. The latest Eurostat data shows that the number of nights booked via online platforms reached an all-time high in 2025. Experts from the RynekPierwotny.pl portal point out that the scale of the market is almost three times larger today than a few years ago.

Booking and Airbnb under the microscope of statisticians

The data analyzed by experts of the RynekPierwotny.pl portal comes from a project carried out jointly by Eurostat and the largest booking platforms, such as Airbnb, Booking, Expedia and Tripadvisor. The collaboration has been ongoing since 2020, but also includes historical data dating back to early 2018.

As experts emphasize, the statistics do not show the number of reservations, but the number of overnight stays understood as the product of the number of guests and the number of nights spent by them.

– It is worth noting that we are talking about a quite specific way of counting overnight stays. For example, if a family of three rents a flat for six days online, in Eurostat statistics it will mean 18 nights – explains Andrzej Prajsnar, an expert at the RynekPierwotny.pl portal.

Eurostat also emphasizes that the presented data do not include hotels or campsites, but only concern short-term rentals offered via online platforms.

The upward trend is back in full force

Statistics show a clear impact of the pandemic on the tourism market. In 2020, the number of overnight stays dropped to almost 13 million, but the following years brought a very dynamic rebound.

The number of nights booked in Poland via online platforms was:

• 2018 – 15.59 million

• 2019 – 19.69 million

• 2020 – 12.97 million

• 2021 – 15.03 million

• 2022 – 26.35 million

• 2023 – 32.74 million

• 2024 – 39.02 million

• 2025 – 44.39 million

RynekPierwotny.pl experts point out not only the increase in the number of reservations, but also the clear seasonality of the market.

– What is certainly noteworthy is the seasonality of the number of nights in short-term rentals, with a visible culmination in the summer months. When it comes to holiday results, it should be noted that August 2025 brought a new Polish monthly record in the number of nights from short-term online rentals – emphasizes Andrzej Prajsnar.

Interestingly, domestic tourists are still responsible for most of the bookings. Both in 2024 and 2025, their share in the total number of overnight stays was 61%.

Polish regions are getting stronger on the tourist map of Europe

The greatest activity in the summer season is recorded in the Lesser Poland, Pomeranian and West Pomeranian Voivodeships. In August 2025 alone, each of them exceeded the mark of one million nights booked via online platforms.

The leader was Małopolska with 1.57 million overnight stays. The Pomeranian Voivodeship recorded slightly less (1.54 million), and the West Pomeranian Voivodeship took third place (1.24 million).

– The result of three Polish voivodeships exceeding one million meant qualification for the broad EU leaders. However, we must remember that the statistical regions from the top ten recorded results ranging from 3 million to 12 million overnight stays – explains the expert of the RynekPierwotny.pl portal.

Poland has already overtaken Croatia

Although we are still far behind the largest tourist powerhouses in Europe, Poland is systematically improving its position. According to data for 2024, our country has already overtaken Croatia in terms of the annual number of accommodations booked via online platforms.

– In terms of the annual number of overnight stays from online platforms, in 2024 the entire Croatia will be overtaken by Poland. In last year’s statistics, our country ranks seventh in the EU – between Portugal and Croatia. However, the distance from the top three EU countries (France, Spain, Italy) remains huge, notes Prajsnar.

However, everything indicates that with the upcoming holidays and the growing popularity of online bookings, records on the short-term rental market may be broken again in the coming months.