Who's managing Airbnb in town?
The Airmap project provides data on the use of the short-term rental platform Airbnb in major Italian cities.
AirMAP arose from the need to fill an information gap regarding the expansion and historical evolution of short-term rentals facilitated by Airbnb in the Italian context. Institutional databases are often fragmented or incomplete, making it difficult for public decision-makers to assess the true scale of the phenomenon. The project aims to overcome these limitations using datasets from the company AirDNA.
The FULL research centre has developed a bespoke database for fifteen urban areas, with the aim of producing a systematic and comparative mapping of the phenomenon. For the first time, fifteen diverse urban contexts are being analysed using the same methodological framework, enabling a scientific comparison between different contexts.
The analysis is structured across three geographical levels, derived from the relevant Local Labour Market System (SLL): the metropolitan capital city (CM), the other municipalities within the SLL (OM), and the entire SLL as a single aggregate.
The reports combine aggregated annual data (2017–2024) and monthly data for the most recent year (2024), including supply and demand indicators such as nights booked, beds, active units, average nightly rate, occupancy rate and revenue per unit and per host. The analysis also includes the spatial classification of listings in OM municipalities and CM cities.
A specific section is dedicated to the professionalisation of the supply, through the classification of hosts into three categories: small hosts (1–2 properties managed), medium hosts (3–10 properties) and large hosts (10 or more properties). Finally, each report includes a thematic appendix prepared by the local research group, aimed at interpreting specific territorial dynamics.
A report covering the whole of Italy has been produced and, thanks to our partners at local universities, one for each of the following cities:
- Northern Italy: Bergamo, Genoa, Milan, Padua, Turin, Trieste, Venice.
- Central Italy: Bologna, Florence, Rome.
- Southern Italy and the Islands: Bari, Cagliari, Catania, Naples, Palermo, Reggio Calabria.
The coordination group, based in Turin, comprises:
- Marco Allegra (ICS-ULisboa/PoliTO/FULL)
- Francesco Chiodelli (UniTO/FULL)
- Loris Servillo (PoliTO/FULL)
- Matteo Beltramo (PoliTO/FULL)
- Francesca Cassiani (UniTO)
