In 2025, Germans rediscovered their own country with quiet but historic force: 68.3 million nights were booked through online rental platforms, a record that stands 83% above pre-pandemic levels and speaks to something deeper than mere travel statistics. It is domestic travelers — not foreign arrivals — who are driving this transformation, doubling their bookings since 2019 and filling the coastal cottages and rural guesthouses that official tourism surveys have long overlooked. The data, released by Germany's Federal Statistical Office, illuminates an entire shadow economy of small, family-ru
Germany's Online Vacation Rentals Hit Record High, Driven by Domestic Travel
Germans discovered the flexibility of renting rather than booking hotels
Mark
Why did domestic travel surge so dramatically? What changed for German travelers between 2024 and 2025?
Mimi
The data doesn't tell us the why—just the what. But you can infer something: Germans discovered or rediscovered the flexibility of renting a cottage or apartment rather than booking a traditional hotel. It's cheaper, often more spacious, and you can stay in smaller towns and villages that hotels don't serve.
Mark
So this isn't really about more Germans taking vacations. It's about how they're taking them.
Mimi
Exactly. The total number of vacation days probably hasn't changed much. What's changed is the distribution—away from hotels and toward platforms. And the platforms make it easy to find a place in a rural area or a small city that you might never have considered before.
Mark
The regional split is striking. Why would Berlin be so different from Schleswig-Holstein?
Mimi
Berlin is a city. Cities attract international visitors—business travelers, cultural tourists, people visiting from abroad. Schleswig-Holstein is beaches and countryside. Germans go there for a weekend or a week. International tourists mostly don't.
Mark
And the fact that 94% of these bookings are at tiny properties—under 10 beds—that's significant?
Mimi
It means the official tourism numbers have been blind to most of what's actually happening. Germany's tourism statistics were built for a hotel-based market. This new market is distributed, decentralized, mostly invisible to traditional counting methods.
Mark
Does this growth feel sustainable?
Mimi
That's the real question. The platforms have normalized short-term rentals. But property owners are now dealing with regulations, taxes, and local resistance in some cities. The growth rate might not hold. But the market itself—it's not going away.
The Pulse
- Germany's online vacation rental market shattered records in 2025, with 68.3 million booked nights representing a 13% leap from the prior year and leaving pre-pandemic figures far behind.
- The real disruption is domestic: German travelers more than doubled their bookings since 2019, accounting for 48.5 million nights and reshaping who the market actually serves.
- Sharp geographic fault lines have emerged — coastal states like Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania draw 90% German guests, while Berlin tilts the opposite way with nearly 68% foreign visitors.
- A vast, previously invisible layer of the accommodation economy is coming into focus: 94% of platform bookings occur at properties with fewer than 10 beds, entirely outside official tourism counts.
- Even as TripAdvisor exits the short-term rental space, overall growth accelerates — raising questions about whether small property owners can sustain the boom as the market matures.
In 2025, Germans rediscovered their own country with quiet but historic force: 68.3 million nights were booked through online rental platforms, a record that stands 83% above pre-pandemic levels and speaks to something deeper than mere travel statistics. It is domestic travelers — not foreign arrivals — who are driving this transformation, doubling their bookings since 2019 and filling the coastal cottages and rural guesthouses that official tourism surveys have long overlooked. The data, released by Germany's Federal Statistical Office, illuminates an entire shadow economy of small, family-run properties that have become the quiet backbone of how a nation chooses to rest.
Germany's online vacation rental market reached historic territory in 2025, with travelers booking 68.3 million nights through platforms like Airbnb, Booking.com, and Expedia — a 13% jump from 2024 and more than 83% above pre-pandemic levels. The Federal Statistical Office released the figures Tuesday, drawing on Eurostat data.
The surge is not being led by foreign tourists but by Germans themselves. Domestic travelers accounted for 48.5 million of those nights, up 15% year-over-year and more than double the 2019 figure. Foreign visitors added 19.8 million stays, growing nearly 8%. Notably, this momentum came even as TripAdvisor exited the short-term rental market entirely.
Regional patterns reveal a country of contrasts. Bavaria leads in volume with 10.6 million overnight stays, followed by Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia at 8.1 million each. But the composition of guests varies dramatically: coastal states like Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein draw roughly 90% domestic visitors, while Berlin sees nearly 68% of its bookings come from abroad. Cologne and Düsseldorf's broader region attracts international guests for 42% of its nights.
Perhaps the most significant revelation is what these numbers expose about the accommodation economy itself. Around 94% of all platform-booked nights occur at properties with fewer than 10 beds — small apartments, rural cottages, modest guesthouses — that fall entirely outside Germany's formal monthly tourism statistics. The Netherlands leads foreign arrivals with 2.9 million stays, followed by Poland and the United States. As domestic demand becomes the market's primary engine, the question is whether the small property owners at its heart can sustain what they have quietly built.
Germany's online vacation rental market has entered uncharted territory. Last year, travelers booked 68.3 million nights through platforms like Airbnb, Booking.com, and Expedia—a figure that shatters both the previous year's total and everything the country saw before the pandemic struck. The Federal Statistical Office released these numbers on Tuesday, drawing on data compiled by Eurostat, the European Union's statistics agency. The growth is substantial: a 13% jump from 2024, and more than 83% higher than 2019 levels.
What's driving this surge is not a sudden influx of international tourists, but Germans themselves. Domestic travelers accounted for 48.5 million of those nights, representing a 15% increase from the year before. Since 2019, the number of bookings by German citizens has more than doubled. Foreign visitors contributed 19.8 million overnight stays, up nearly 8% compared to 2024. This pattern holds even as TripAdvisor, once a major player in the short-term rental market, has exited the space entirely—a departure that makes the overall growth even more striking.
The geography of German tourism reveals sharp regional divides. Bavaria leads in absolute numbers, with 10.6 million overnight stays across its vacation rental properties. Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia each recorded 8.1 million. But these raw figures mask a more complex picture when you look at who is actually booking.
Coastal and rural regions draw almost exclusively German visitors. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein, roughly 90% of guests come from within Germany. The story flips dramatically in urban centers and western regions. Berlin, as a major international destination, sees foreign guests accounting for 67.7% of all bookings. North Rhine-Westphalia, which includes Cologne and Düsseldorf, attracts international visitors for 42.3% of its nights. Baden-Württemberg, home to Stuttgart and other business hubs, records 40.8% foreign bookings.
These figures paint a portrait of a market that official German tourism statistics largely miss. The platforms capture bookings at properties with fewer than 10 beds—small, often family-run operations that fall outside the country's formal monthly tourism counts. Around 94% of all nights booked through these major platforms occur at such small properties. This means the data reveals an entire layer of the accommodation economy that traditional surveys don't capture: the private apartments, rural cottages, and modest guesthouses that have become the backbone of Germany's short-term rental landscape.
The source of international visitors also tells a story about Germany's place in European travel patterns. The Netherlands leads by a significant margin, with 2.9 million overnight stays. Poland follows with 2.1 million, and the United States accounts for 1.3 million. These numbers suggest that Germany's appeal to international travelers remains strong, even as domestic demand has become the primary engine of growth. The question now is whether this momentum will hold—and whether the small property owners who have benefited from this boom can sustain their operations as the market matures.
Notable Quotes
The platform data provide a broader picture of the country's short-term accommodation market than official statistics capture.— Federal Statistical Office analysis
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