At least one Airbnb listing exists in 81% of French municipalities, according to a think tank.

Since 2013, bookings via Airbnb have expanded widely across most of the territory, but remain concentrated in "major national centers of attraction: coastlines, mountains, heritage, major metropolitan areas", the study lists.

"Airbnb's offering relies primarily on the existing residential stock," observes the Terram Institute, of which Airbnb is a member. Thus, what is offered for tourist rental "most often" are "existing properties - primary residences, secondary residences, or vacant properties," this source specifies.

Airbnb rentals, "offered in nearly 29.000 municipalities in France, directly benefit territories including those without hotel offerings," the platform said in a statement sent to AFP.

The study, reviewed by a committee of independent experts, was based on Airbnb data concerning "the evolution of the number of nights stayed, the geographical distribution of listings and bookings, as well as certain usage profiles".

Regarding the impact on the housing market, Jérôme Fourquet, director of the opinion department at the Ifop polling institute and co-author of the study, believes that Airbnb "may have accentuated tensions that already existed before", but not created them.

However, given this methodology, the study misses the "heart of the problem", which "lies in the typology of housing" rented on the platforms, according to Thomas Aguilera, a researcher at Sciences Po Rennes and co-author with Francesca Artioli and Claire Colomb of a book on housing and short-term rental platforms.

To understand whether there is any competition between the housing market and tourist rentals, the researcher believes it is necessary to examine the typology of properties listed for rent on Airbnb: "primary residence, secondary residence" or "only part of a dwelling?".

Assessing the impact of Airbnb on the housing crisis and overtourism also involves a study of "the concentration of supply, the type of supply, the level of professionalization" of landlords, "the intensity of the rental," explains Francesca Artioli, a researcher at the Paris School of Urban Planning at the University of Paris Est-Créteil, to AFP.

Between 2018 and 2024, the number of overnight stays booked in France on furnished tourist accommodation rental platforms more than doubled, according to the European statistical institute Eurostat, reaching 192,4 million overnight stays. This represents more than 40% of all tourist overnight stays.

Between October 2024 and September 2025, AirDNA, a firm specializing in the statistical analysis of short-term rentals, recorded "an average of 1,31 million active seasonal rental listings in France each month," of which 71% were offered on Airbnb, 12% on Abritel, and the remaining 17% were "present on both platforms."