site.btaBulgaria’s Southwest Leads in Online Short-Term Accommodation Bookings as EU Sees Strong Growth in Q1 2025

Bulgaria’s Southwest region led the country in short-term accommodation bookings through online platforms in the last quarter of 2024, with 439,434 nights reserved, Eurostat reported on Wednesday. Across the European Union, bookings for such stays rose to 129.6 million nights in the first quarter of 2025, marking a 4.8% increase compared to 2024 and a 34.5% rise from 2023, signalling a positive outlook for the year.

The most popular regions for short-term rentals booked via online platforms in the final quarter of 2024 were Andalusia (8.7 million nights) and the Canary Islands (7.6 million) in Spain, followed by Ile-de-France in France with 7.2 million nights.

Among the top 20 regions, five are located in Spain.

In Bulgaria, after the Southwest region, the South Central region ranked second with 95,615 nights booked, followed by the Northeast region with 71,549 nights, the Southeast region with 53,296, the North Central region with 33,947, and the Northwest region at the bottom with 12,412 nights.

The data reflects growing demand for short-term rentals through platforms such as Airbnb, Booking.com, and Expedia across the EU.