Space Invaders? The Role of Airbnb in the Touristification of Urban Neighbourhoods

The rise of peer-to-peer booking networks for accommodations such as Airbnb has significantly altered the tourism landscape and has had broad implications for destination management. Apart from providing direct competition to the traditional hospitality sector, concerns have been raised about urban gentrification effects—through an influence on housing prices—and neighbourhood touristification. Subsequently, many European cities have started to design policies in order to control or limit Airbnb activities in their destination. This study investigates the impact of Airbnb in the city of Amsterdam on: (a) the average housing value per m2 and (b) the business growth in a tourism-centric local economy. A large dataset is collected from Inside Airbnb on the supply of Airbnb listings and associated hosts. Neighbourhood data on demographics, as well as on housing, spatial, and economic indicators, was collected from the official statistical agencies of Amsterdam. The dataset spanned 5 years (2015–2019) and was collected at the detailed level of 99 neighbourhoods in the city. Fixed effects Panel-Corrected Standard Errors models were used and a significant effect of Airbnb listings was found on both the property value per m2 and the touristification of neighbourhoods—modelled as the percentage of tourism-related activities in total neighbourhood business activities. At the same time, other explanatory variables appeared to be equally significant, and therefore contradict a myopic view on the drivers of neighbourhood touristification.