Airbnb properties account for 22% of short-term rentals in Quintana Roo – Mexico News Daily

Accommodation platform Airbnb now has more than 30,000 listings in Quintana Roo, according to a data and analytics provider for the US$140 billion short-term rental industry.

AirDNA data shows there are 31,134 Airbnb accommodations in the Caribbean coast state, up from 107,128 hotel rooms at the end of last year, according to statistics from the Ministry of Tourism. Airbnb properties account for 22.5% of combined listings across the state, and significantly higher percentages in some popular destinations.

They represent 43.5% of the combined accommodation offer in Tulum, 43% in bacalar, 35.5% in Lázaro Cárdenas, which includes Isla Holbox, and 31.5% in Isla Mujeres.

Their share of the Playa del Carmen market is more modest at 21.8%, while it is just under 20% in Cozumel and Cancún, 12.7% in Puerto Morelos and 10.2% in the capital of Spain. State, Chetumal.

There is a wide range of Airbnb listings including single rooms, apartments, houses, bungalows and more.

Airbnb listings range from basics to ultra-luxury. This list of Puerto Morelos, which has a cenote, falls into the latter category.

A luxurious Airbnb property nestled in the jungle near Puerto Morelos has its own cenoteor natural swimmable sinkhole.

Another with five separate villas and a private beach across the country in Punta Mita, Nayarit, costs US$38,000 a night and is touted as the most expensive Airbnb stay in the world.

One of Quintana Roo’s Airbnb entrepreneurs is Rafael Solís, who rents rooms in a residential building on Playa del Carmen’s main tourist strip.

“The new way for workers is to be a digital nomad,” the former hotelier told the newspaper Milenio.

“In other words, people who work remotely during the pandemic and decide to continually move to work in a tourist destination,” Solís said.

In Tulum, where there are more than 6,200 Airbnb listings compared to just over 8,100 hotel rooms, growth in category one listings has been driven by new construction.

The number of residential developments in the municipality, located in the southern Riviera Maya part of Quintana Roo, increased from 123 to 625 between May 2020 and July 2021, according to the Mexican Association of Real Estate Professionals.

David Ortiz Mena, president of the Tulum Hotel Association, said rapid growth has caused problems.

Due to a lack of planning, growth in Tulum has been “complicated”, he said, explaining that sustainability has been threatened by the increase in residents and visitors. Providing the necessary services for the growing number of visitors has also been a challenge, Ortiz said.

Rodrigo, an Airbnb host with four apartments in Tulum, said Milenio that demand for short-term accommodation has increased in the resort town during the pandemic, and that the number of people looking to buy property and rent it out on Airbnb has also increased.

“A lot of people want to work in Tulum. For some reason they want to go to the beach…so they usually book long stays,” he said. “We get a lot of bookings for two months…many of them are foreigners from Europe.”

Rodrigo said the price of Airbnb accommodation makes it more attractive than hotels for many travelers.

“Airbnb apartments are extremely cheap, … the average price for an apartment for seven people with a private pool is around 3,000 or 4,000 pesos [US $145-$195 per night]when… it would be a thousand times more expensive in a hotel,” he said.

Ortiz said the increase in violence and drug trafficking in Tulum could be linked to the Airbnb boom.

“It all comes… from demand. If nobody buys drugs, of course, we wouldn’t have this series of problems. In the case of Tulum, I think it is important that it makes us reflect on the type of tourism that we promote. … If we bet on festive tourism, logically this type of consequence will follow,” he said.

“If, on the other hand, we seek to promote sports, leisure, well-being, gastronomic or cultural tourism, I think it would be very difficult for this kind of [violent] atmosphere to permeate.

With reports of Milenio, Travel + Leisure and Luxury launches