CAPE TOWN IS AFRICA’S AIRBNB CAPITAL

Even if you combined all the Airbnbs in Amsterda, San Francisco and Singapore, you still won’t have enough to match the offerings in Cape Town.

There are just over 21,000 Airbnbs in the city of Cape Town. The number of listings has grown incredibly since the accommodation booking platform was launched in 2015.

All of this data comes from a collaborative project called Inside Airbnb. The project sourced and visualised data on the different Airbnb listings around the world.

The data will be used to provide factual information to the South African Department of Tourism after the Minister of Tourism, Patricia de Lille said she’s concerned because there’s not a lot of info about the short-term rental sector in South Africa.

“Insufficient information is available about the unregulated short-term rental subsector, and this hampers informed policy decision-making.”

Instead of going against the Department, Airbnb decided to turn the situation around. Airbnb’s regional lead of the Middle East and Africa, Velma Corcoran, said as a company they welcomed the chance to work with the department to regulate the industry in the country.

“We welcome the opportunity to work with the department to develop a clear proportionate national framework for the regulation of short-term rentals… and see huge power in public and private collaborations.”

Image credit: Airbnb