On 5 November, Airbnb brought together the professional hosts, property managers and host community leaders it works with in Spain for a day in Barcelona. Its Spanish team presented the year’s results, data on who is booking in Spain and the changes coming to the platform, and took questions from hosts. We attended, and in this summary we keep what Airbnb said separate from our own view, looking at what each topic means for owners.
Key points
VAT through Airbnb’s tax toolIf 10% VAT is confirmed, collecting it through this tool means Airbnb’s service fee is not charged on the tax. Catalonia still needs a technical adjustment. New house rulesSeven standard rules, with everything else listed as additional rules. From 20 November, Airbnb will review those additional rules and flag any it considers excessive. A discount for top-rated guestsA 15% discount shown only to guests rated 4.8 or above. Until 17 November, Airbnb is adding a further 5% itself, as a trial in Spain and Italy. Overseas guests book earlierThey book 55 days ahead on average, compared with 39 for Spanish guests, and they stay longer and spend more. Almost half of their bookings are in large cities. More high-end listingsListings above $150 a night are growing, while those below $100 have fallen by between 23% and 37%. Each flat needs to be clear about who it is for. What can lead to a suspensionInaccurate listings, cancelled bookings, cleanliness, indoor cameras and slow replies. Airbnb also explained how warnings and appeals work.In this article
Airbnb’s year so far
Airbnb arrived at the Summit after a strong year. Second-quarter revenue was up 17%, and growth in nights booked in Europe rose from around 5–10% year on year at the start of 2026 to roughly 15–19% between August and October. For hosts, the year has brought a single service fee, a calendar for several listings, an AI assistant in more than 50 languages and the new discount covered below.
The leadership team acknowledged that it has not always explained its changes well, citing the single service fee, and much of the day was spent explaining how the rules, discounts and support processes work. The national register for short-term rentals also came up. Spain’s Supreme Court annulled it on 19 May 2026, so listings still rely on each region’s tourist registration, as we explain on our regulations page.
Who spoke at the Summit
VAT and Airbnb’s tax tool
Under Royal Decree-law 29/2026, tourist stays of up to 30 nights will be subject to 10% VAT from 1 December, provided the decree is ratified, with a vote expected around 12 November. According to the leadership team, Airbnb already has tools to set up taxes for most of Spain, and a technical adjustment for Catalonia should follow shortly.
For owners, the important question is how the tax is collected. When VAT is added through the tax tool, Airbnb does not charge its service fee on it. If the nightly price is raised by 10% instead, the fee is calculated on the higher price and is therefore also paid on the tax. The guest pays much the same either way; the difference lies in how much the platform retains.
For the flats we manage, VAT will be collected through the tool as soon as it is available in each city. The full calculations, with worked examples, are in our guide to VAT on short-term rentals.
New house rules
Airbnb has reorganised house rules. It said the previous format confused hosts and guests alike, and that some rules were so strict, or so difficult to follow, that they were putting guests off booking. There are now seven standard rules, shown in the same way on every listing: maximum number of guests, quiet hours, events, pets, smoking, commercial photography and locking up on departure. Anything else is now listed as an additional rule.
From 20 November, Airbnb will review additional rules on a regular basis. If it considers a rule unreasonable, it will ask the host to change it, and if the rule stays, a small note in red will appear next to the listing until it is edited. Airbnb stressed that listings will not be blocked for this, and that rules required by law, such as collecting guests’ details for guest registration, or by the building itself, remain permitted.
In our view, a long list of prohibitions reads as mistrust, while a rule that comes with a reason, such as why parties are not allowed or what the building requires, is easier to accept and more likely to be followed. In the listings we manage, we have already changed how house rules are presented and adjusted those that did not follow Airbnb’s guidance. If your additional rules were written some time ago, it is worth reviewing them before 20 November.
Who is booking, and how far ahead
The average price per booked night on Airbnb in Spain is €159, 15% higher than a year ago. Airbnb attributes the rise to inflation, a larger share of high-end listings and more guests from abroad, who tend to spend more. Spanish guests remain the largest group, but the fastest growth is coming from the UK and from travellers outside Spain’s main European markets.
Overseas guests behave differently. They book further ahead, stay longer and pay more per night, and almost half of their bookings are in large cities, compared with a third for Spanish guests. According to Airbnb, British guests pay almost 40% more than average for the same type of property, in the same area and season.
| From Spain | From abroad | |
|---|---|---|
| Days booked in advance | 39 | 55 |
| Nights per stay | 3.4 | 5.0 |
| Average price per night | $164 | $192 |
| Bookings in large cities | 33% | 48% |
| Arrivals in June, July and August | 43% | 31% |
For a flat in Barcelona or Madrid, this means that a significant share of income is decided around two months in advance, when the calendar is still open and it is easy to pay less attention to pricing for those dates. More than a third of all bookings are made over two months ahead.
One further point is worth reading alongside this. Worldwide, half of all Airbnb bookings are for one or two nights; in Spain the figure is only 13%, and half of bookings are for three to seven nights. Even so, many searches in Spain are also for short stays, and accepting them in the calendar brings a listing into more searches, even if the booking that follows is longer.
More data: spending by country, who travels and age
More high-end listings on the same platform
Of Airbnb’s listings in Spain, 72% are outside the large cities, with Madrid accounting for 7.4% and Barcelona for 6.7%. The most striking data concerned the direction of supply. Over the past year, listings priced below $100 a night have fallen by between 23% and 37%, while those above $150 have grown by between 16% and 38%.
In our view, as more high-end flats compete for the same guests, it matters increasingly that each one is clear about who it is for and lives up to its price. Before a flat goes live, we decide which guest it is for. A flat near the Fira, Barcelona’s trade fair venue, is marketed to people coming for a trade fair; a luxury flat on the seafront, to a guest looking for something quite different. That decision shapes the photographs, the description, the price and what we buy for the flat.
Discounts: when they pay off
On Airbnb’s figures, listings offering a discount book 45% more nights and generate 27% more in booking value than those without one. These are averages across the platform. In weeks when a flat would fill anyway, a discount reduces the income from each night without bringing in extra bookings; on quieter dates, it may be what fills the calendar. That is why discounts are best decided flat by flat and date by date.
The size of the discount matters too, because Airbnb rewards it with visibility. At 10%, a listing shows a struck-through price and an extra line in the price breakdown. At 15%, it is also highlighted on the listing page, and only at 20% does it appear in the emails Airbnb sends to guests. In some areas the struck-through price is not shown.
The most useful figure concerned early-booking discounts. Only 7.9% of listings offer one, yet those that do book 33% more nights and 38% more in value. Hosts choose how far ahead it applies, from one to 24 months (Airbnb suggests three to six for the high season), and it only works if the calendar is open that far ahead. As Airbnb put it, a last-minute discount rescues nights, whereas an early-booking discount protects the price.
The discount for top-rated guests
This was the announcement Airbnb gave most weight to, and Antonio Gómez, Senior Market Manager, devoted his whole session to it. Hosts can offer a 15% discount shown only to guests with an average rating of 4.8 or above, at least three completed stays, at least three reviews received and written, and no breaches of Airbnb’s rules. The percentage is fixed, Airbnb applies it automatically and it can be combined with length-of-stay and early-booking discounts, so the host simply decides whether to switch it on. Until 17 November, Airbnb is adding a further 5% itself, as a trial in Spain and Italy. After that, the discount returns to 15%, funded entirely by the host.
The discount applies to the nightly price, a limited number of high-demand nights can be excluded, and it can be switched on or off at any time. In return, the listing appears in search results with a struck-through price and a discount label, and has its own filter. Airbnb estimates that, globally, listings offering it achieve around 19% more in booking value and 24% more nights, and are 43% more likely to be booked by a highly rated guest.
For hosts, the appeal lies in the type of guest. Someone with a clean record across several stays is, in principle, a lower-risk guest, and according to Airbnb is also more likely to leave a five-star review. This matters more the longer the stay. Whether the 15% pays off depends on the same questions as any other discount, namely which dates it applies to, how much net income is given up per night and whether it brings in bookings that would not otherwise have arrived.
Airbnb also previewed Airbnb Days, its largest promotional campaign in Europe, designed to encourage earlier bookings and expected to reach 156 million people. No dates or terms were given, although the mock-up shown on screen read 11–24 January, with discounts of up to 30%.
What affects search ranking
More than a hundred factors determine the order of search results, but in its optimisation workshop Airbnb singled out four that carry the most weight, all of them within the host’s control. These are the total price, cancellation flexibility, availability and the quality of the listing.
Guests compare the total price of the stay rather than the nightly rate, and the cleaning fee is included in full. It weighs far more on two nights than on ten, so two flats with the same nightly rate can look very different for a weekend. Airbnb allows a separate cleaning fee for stays of one or two nights, and its advice was to review that fee before lowering the nightly price.
On cancellations, Airbnb’s figures suggest that flexibility costs less than many hosts assume. In 2025, guests cancelled around 13% of all bookings and fewer than 16% of those under a Flexible or Moderate policy. A non-refundable option, discounted by 10% by default, brought listings an average of 31% more unique views, but it does not improve ranking if the underlying policy is Strict. Airbnb recommends a Flexible or Moderate policy with the non-refundable option alongside it, and it is also introducing seasonal policies that can be stricter on high-demand dates.
On availability, Airbnb recommends opening the calendar as far ahead as possible (new listings default to 12 months), accepting shorter stays and opening orphan nights, the gaps between bookings that are shorter than the minimum stay. On its global figures, listings that lowered their minimum stay generated 27% more in booking value over the following year, and those that opened orphan nights 17% more. Each short stay also means another clean and another check-in, so the calculation is best made with the short-stay cleaning fee in mind.
Quality carries considerable weight. In 2025, more than 40% of all views on Airbnb went to listings with the Guest Favourite badge, which book more than twice as many nights as other listings. On average, they differ from other listings as follows.
| Other listings | Guest Favourites | |
|---|---|---|
| Photographs | 22 | 30 |
| Words in the description | 215 | 307 |
| Amenities listed | 28 | 42 |
Airbnb added that listings with a photo tour, showing each room and its features, receive 2.5% more five-star ratings, and that titles work best when short (the limit is 32 characters), written in words rather than emojis and leading with what sets the flat apart. It also linked higher revenue to air conditioning (+102%), self check-in (+66%) and a dedicated workspace (+44%), while making clear that this is a correlation rather than a cause.
Quality, suspensions and appeals
This was the most practical part of the day. Airbnb’s support team set out what leads to warnings or suspensions. This includes listings that do not reflect reality, including the use of AI to disguise flaws, cancelling confirmed bookings or changing dates or prices without the guest’s agreement, and properties that are not clean or safe. Repeated low ratings are treated as a sign that a listing is falling short.
Airbnb also expects timely replies. Hosts have up to three days when check-in is more than five days away and twelve hours for routine enquiries, but only one hour during the day when arrival is close or there is an emergency. The one-hour expectation is demanding, but it applies to the moments when a slow reply has real consequences for the guest, such as an arrival or a fault in the flat.
Two further rules lead directly to suspension. Cameras inside a property have been banned in all circumstances since April 2024, and discrimination is not tolerated at any stage, including when accepting or cancelling bookings. Assistance animals cannot be refused or charged for.
A first breach usually results in a warning. If it is repeated or serious, Airbnb follows these steps:
- Quality message After low ratings, Airbnb may contact the host to help them meet guests’ expectations.
- Warning If a breach is reported, Airbnb explains the rule or asks the host to remove anything that is inaccurate.
- Temporary suspension The listing disappears from search and cannot take new bookings. In some quality cases, it lasts five days and cannot be shortened.
- Listing removal If the problem continues or is serious. Bookings with later arrival dates are cancelled, unless an appeal succeeds.
When a guest causes the problem, the deadlines for claims are short, with 14 days from check-out for damage through AirCover and up to 60 days for additional costs such as exceptional cleaning. Claims always start in the Resolution Centre, and Airbnb support steps in if the guest does not pay within 24 hours. The support team asked for photographs and videos showing the date and time, invoices with the property address, and the full context in a single message.
Suspensions can be appealed. For each complaint, Airbnb wants to see what caused it and what has changed, such as the plumber who fixed the hot water or the replaced lock cylinder. Arguing that a review is unfair is not enough, since reviews are removed only if they breach Airbnb’s policies.
If support rules against them, professional hosts who work with an Airbnb Market Manager can request a second review, carried out by Airbnb’s Market Coordinator team with the full context, usually within a few days. Not every decision is reversed, but the reasons are explained. We work with a Market Manager, and when a decision affects one of the flats we manage, we escalate it this way, with the evidence organised from the outset.
Our reading
Airbnb wants earlier bookings and guests who look after their rating, and it is prepared to fund part of the discount to achieve them. In return, it is asking hosts for accurate listings, prompt replies close to arrival and reasonable house rules, while more high-end flats compete for the same guests each year.
None of this changes the fundamentals of the business, but it does raise the level of detail involved in running a flat well: the price for each date, the guest each listing is aimed at, how its rules are presented and what happens when something goes wrong. We will continue to report on changes here, starting with VAT once the decree has been voted on.
Sources
- Airbnb, Airbnb Summit Spain 2026, Barcelona, 5 November 2026. Sessions ‘Strategy in Spain’, ‘Q&A with the leadership team’, ‘Commercial vision and strategy’, ‘Data and trends’, ‘More bookings, better travellers’ and ‘How to work with Airbnb Support’. Airbnb data on its bookings in Spain.
- Spanish Supreme Court: annulment of the national register for short-term rentalsPress release from the General Council of the Judiciary on the judgment of 19 May 2026 (in Spanish).
- Airbnb, ‘Pro Host Summit 2026 · Optimisation workshop · Workbook’, handed out at the Summit (in Spanish). Global Airbnb data, mostly for 2025.
Would you like to know how your flat fits into all this?
- Which guest your flat is for, and the price it could achieve.
- Which discounts suit it, and on which dates.
- How its house rules and listing measure up against Airbnb’s requirements.
We have been managing short-term and mid-term rentals in Barcelona and Madrid for 16 years.