Accommodation via peer-to-peer platforms in national accounts

The development of peer-to-peer short-stay accommodation, mediated by online platforms, is a major phenomenon in the tourism and hospitality industry. This paper explores how it is traced in national accounts, especially for France, the largest European tourist market. The current methodology fails to fully embrace this activity and its associated production. A generic, more comprehensive approach to considering property owners as notional unincorporated enterprises is proposed. This is applied to France by exploiting a variety of sources. Compared to current methods, the output and productivity of the accommodation industry can accordingly be significantly revised upward. A unified approach can also enhance the comparability of this industry across countries.