One month before the Olympics, renting your accommodation doesn't bring in that much

One month before the Paris Olympic Games, residents who thought they would supplement their summer months by renting their accommodation at a high price to tourists are becoming disillusioned, and are lowering their prices or giving up altogether.

“We already saw ourselves with wads of cash to go on vacation,” laughs Giulia. But this 28-year-old Parisian, who rented her apartment on Airbnb for the Olympics, did not see the lucrative reservation fall through.

In January, this employee of a real estate group, who lives in a working-class area of the 18th arrondissement, north of the capital, asked for an “exorbitant” rate of 550 euros per night.

"Afterwards, it went down to 350, then to 250, and still no one..." It was when she lowered her rate to 160 euros, compared to 130 normally, that a reservation came through, an American who will stay 14 nights while she stays with her parents.

“It’s a plus, it will allow us to have a great vacation,” she is satisfied.

Adrien Coucaud, an advertising executive who lives in the 12th arrondissement, in the east of the capital, has not had as much success.

For the sake of profit, he tried to entrust the apartment where he lives alone to a concierge service, to be able to welcome tourists during his vacation.

The experience turned sour.

The concierge service was absent, and the prices set were far too high to attract reservations during the Olympics (July 26-August 11).

Even after he regained control of his ad and lowered his prices, to 166 euros per night, it was impossible to find a host for the period, so he preferred to give up. “I’m stopping the adventure there, I’m disgusted,” he confides.

“A little seen coming”

“As anticipated, the increase in supply available during the Games regulates prices,” acknowledges Airbnb in a statement sent to AFP, without revealing precise data on the prices charged.

Despite these difficulties, “Paris 2024 is on track to become the largest event in Airbnb history, with more travelers staying with local hosts on our platform than at any event before,” says the tourist rental giant.

“Nights booked in the first quarter for stays during the Games period were more than five times higher than they were in the Paris region at the same period the previous year,” adds the American platform.

“We kind of saw it coming,” notes Barbara Gomes, elected official responsible for regulating tourist accommodation at the City of Paris. “There was a phenomenon of inflation at first, with a lot of fantasies about the rental prices that could be made during the Games”, then “a drop in prices”, explains the elected communist.

She attributes this phenomenon to the departures on vacation of Parisians, who take the opportunity to rent their accommodation, combined with the abundance of hotel offerings.

“It’s never bad news to be able to be accommodated at a lower cost,” she believes, saying she has “no problem with someone going on vacation wanting to put a little butter in the spinach (...) It doesn’t take away housing from anyone.”

The elected official adds that she is "attentive" to respecting Parisian regulations, which make it very difficult to rent accommodation that is not a primary residence.

“For everything that is low-end and mid-range, there is no goose that lays the golden eggs,” says Raphaël Lorin, president of Archides, a group specializing in luxury tourist rentals, “since out of 15 million tourists there are 13 million French people.

French people attending the Olympics are in fact more often staying with relatives, he says.

“On the other hand, foreigners can be people with very big budgets and consumers of very high-end hotels,” says Raphaël Lorin.