The Airbnb website has been vital in boosting last year’s tourist figures, accounting for 6% of all breaks booked in 2015.
Portugal now is the 10th most popular destination using the website, says Arnaldo Muñoz, Airbnb Iberia’s director.
Muñoz says that currently there are 34,000 Airbnb listings for short-term accommodation across the country.
Most listings are in the greater Lisbon area with 12,000. The second most popular region is Oporto with 3,700 listings of private accommodation, most of them not registered as Alojamento Local (AL) properties.
Airbnb’s top four countries where bookings in Portugal come from are France, Germany, the UK and Spain.
The overall Institute of Statistics data shows that Portugal received 15 million guests to October 15th last year with a million coming to Portugal's Airbnb listed properties.
Muñoz says the website has doubled the number of guests in 2015 with the number of houses available for rent increasing 65%, both riding the boom in tourism and helping it along.
The government has failed to match airbnb listings with its list of registered Alojamento Local properties with many owners continuing to let illegally until the AL system changes, or until they are caught out and fined.
Comments
Far too often over the years a Portuguese prankster masquerading as another British has written some drivel deliberately intending to mislead a British citizen to come here. And, as a Portuguese can do in the UK - 'make good'. Describing some nirvana that Portugal is just like the UK. That the Portuguese 'like us British'.
With the tourist guide books equally devoid of detail and not therefore having any other reference point - the Brit. comes here to better himself. And joins the thousands already failed. Learning far too late, with their money dwindling, that nothing 'British' sells in Portugal except the luxury status brands and that a few celebrity Brits like Cliff, being useful hooks to the rest of us mugs, are 'allowed' to do OK.
It just does not register that a stranger wants to know how their experience went and should they make a judgment based on it. To also stay there or choose another. So dozens of fake positives from friends and family are thrown into the mix.