From COVID-19 to ‘new normal’? Revisiting Parisian short-term rental markets and their dynamics

This study uses fine-grained data on Airbnb listings and their characteristics in the city of Paris to explore the disruptions associated with COVID-19 in the Airbnb business. The results show some substantial changes during the pandemic in Airbnb's distributions of listings, booking and revenue performance, which varied across locations, COVID waves, hosts and accommodation types. The biggest shift occurred during the first national lockdown. The city centre's advantage was reduced during the pandemic, but this decrease was quite different depending on the Airbnb hosts and users. We also observe a recovery of the short-term rental market during the post-COVID era. These findings provide valuable insights for short-term rental hosts and policymakers to better understand the pandemic-induced short-term rental disruption.