While the mayor of Reykjavik meets with his colleagues from Amsterdam and Barcelona to discuss the negative effects of Airbnb the market for homestays is growing very fast. Today, Airbnb has up to 5000 homes and little less than 2400 rooms available in Iceland in spite of the fact that fewer than 800 licenses have been issued for short term renting (excluding licenses held by companies).
The popularity of Airbnb is differs greatly by nationality of tourists according to a new survey conducted by the Icelandic tourist board. In general, 15% of all tourists in Iceland book home stays while the number is almost three times higher for hotels (42%). But demand for short-term renting is by far the highest among visitors from N-America (20,7%) whereas Scandinavians are least likely to book through Airbnb (10,4%).
