Very much not my experience in Europe. I’d happily live in Airbnbs full time if the price was +~20% long term lease but in my experience the price is >100% even for 1 month stays.

The problem, at least in Europe, is that so many Airbnbs are now being operated as “rent to rent” where a company (or individual) rents property long term specifically so they can then in turn rent it out on Airbnb (often through an intermediary that manages the property for them). The margins they need for confident profitability (considering voids etc) are ~100% over the long term rental cost.

I’m astonished you’ve found that the prices are so similar: which location(s) is this in?

I just moved out of an Airbnb I stayed in for a month where my average nightly cost was, quite literally, 200% over the amount that I would pay if I leased the property myself — and that’s not in peak season, and after negotiating.

5 years ago the cost was pretty similar but not now that Airbnb has become an industry and people have worked out how to squeeze every drop of profit out of it.

Same in UK, price is 2.5 - 3x of the long term lease rate

I am actually doing it right now, I pay about 1.2k for something that should be around 900 all included. Yes it's more but it's not double or triple as you suggest.

Where in the UK? I won’t go as far as to say it’s impossible that this is true, but I haven’t come across anywhere like that in the last year. Are you renting a full home or a room? A desirable location (a major city) or the middle of nowhere? I can’t imagine any UK city where you could find an apartment on Airbnb for £1200/month — at best you’d get a room for that price. If you’re willing to rent a room then sure, you’ll be able to benefit from people who don’t care about the economics, but for actual apartments, the economics don’t make sense.

(And if you’re willing to rent a room, you can pay less than the long term local price with some savvy)

Yes in London and it's a room in a houseshare but maybe it's more like 800£ all included than 900.

Yeah — house shares are a totally different prospect. For clarity, I’m talking about whole homes, as an alternative to renting — I thought that was the context of the discussion, sorry if that wasn’t clear!

More like 100-200% above local lease rates from my experience.