Short-term rentals in 2025: one in four landlords will use the house for themselves

Perhaps it is the need to reduce expenses, perhaps it is the clouds gathering over the economy in the war on tariffs. The fact is that this year the number of owners who have homes for short-term rent and have opted for longer or shorter periods in the high season is on the rise. The trend is captured by an analysis for Il Sole 24 Ore by the Italianway study centre. Out of the 2.1 million nights available in the 7,000 homes managed by the network, there are almost 600,000 that - as of today - have been blocked by the landlords themselves (for themselves or for family and friends).

In a market strongly characterised by widespread ownership, Italianway calculates that in 2025 a quarter of hosts - i.e. owners of short-term rental accommodation - will choose to holiday in their second family home. All the more so if it is located outside the most popular tourist areas. This is an interesting element, which offers an unprecedented insight into a phenomenon that is often difficult to frame correctly.

"Short-term rental units are often seen as homes taken out of the long-term rental market, as if the two solutions could be equated, but this is not the case," explains Marco Celani, managing director of Italianway. "What we are noticing," he continues, "is that there is a huge increase in direct utilisation by owners, even in these spring holidays, which is a period in which there is usually a very high level of rental, I am thinking of Tuscany or Liguria and the big cities. In some cases, it may also have been due to the bad weather, but there is a more generalised and deeper motivation'.

There are probably two explanations. On the one hand, there is the situation of Italian families who, due to a real economic difficulty or simple prudence in the face of uncertainty, are choosing to reduce the travel budget and focus on 'domestic' holidays. On the other hand, there is some slowdown coming from bookings and this may have led some landlords to adapt in view of a tourist season that does not promise to be exciting. Celani comments: 'There will probably be more turbulence this year, after a 2024 that was already less bright than 2023.

The most obvious phenomenon according to Italianway's data is thecrisis in Germany. "Germans are not booking long-haul holidays and are waiting until the last moment for the traditional road trip," Celani notes. Theweak dollar, on the other hand, is making bookings more expensive not only from the United States - whose balance in March and April marks -1% year-on-year - but also from Asia and South America, areas where the dollar is used as an international currency. There are also curious phenomena: some American travellers are asking to pay now, well in advance, to avoid further devaluation of the greenback against the euro, and there is a small boom of Canadians fleeing the States (+23% of nights booked in these weeks on an annual basis).