How Many Airbnbs Actually Get Booked? The Dormant-Listing Problem, by Market
Data by Brixfox · · Updated
Every market has a tail of Airbnbs that look active but barely rent — listed, photographed, sitting open on the calendar, almost never booked. The share that actually books is one of the most honest signals of a market’s health: where demand is tight, nearly every listing fills; where supply has run ahead of demand, or owners list speculatively, a bigger slice sits idle.
We measured it night by night for August 2026 across more than 240,000 full Airbnb calendars in 21 markets, almost 200,000 of them readable. The booking rate — the share of listings whose calendar we could read that booked at least 10% of the month’s nights — runs from 95% in Portugal down to 68% in Mexico. Where many calendars were closed end to end, that rate describes the readable ones only, so the table also counts the same bookers against every calendar: 66% in Portugal, 60% in Dubai. Here is the full picture, sorted from tightest to loosest.
Airbnb booking rate, occupancy and estimated revenue, by market, August 2026
Brixfox calendar data, August 2026. Every share counts listings with a full August calendar (25 or more nights observed). Closed calendars = the share closed almost end to end with no detected booking — sold out in advance or blocked; a calendar cannot tell which. Booking rate = of the remaining, readable calendars, the share that booked at least 10% of nights. Booked, all calendars = the same bookers as a share of every full calendar, closed ones included — a floor on the share that rented, since some closed calendars are sold out. Occupancy = median share of August nights booked by performing listings; revenue = the median of each performing listing’s estimated August gross (its occupancy × its advertised nightly rate × 31 nights), USD.
| Market | Booking rate | Closed calendars | Booked, all calendars | Occupancy | Est. Aug revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portugal | 95% | 31% | 66% | 84% | $5,775 |
| Cyprus | 95% | 12% | 84% | 74% | $3,712 |
| Greece | 95% | 16% | 79% | 81% | $6,374 |
| Aruba | 94% | 8% | 86% | 74% | $5,221 |
| Spain | 93% | 19% | 75% | 77% | $4,924 |
| Montenegro | 92% | 16% | 78% | 77% | $4,171 |
| France | 91% | 17% | 76% | 74% | $5,383 |
| Croatia | 91% | 25% | 68% | 81% | $4,527 |
| Austria | 88% | 14% | 76% | 71% | $4,856 |
| Mauritius | 88% | 12% | 78% | 71% | $3,366 |
| Netherlands | 88% | 22% | 68% | 81% | $4,701 |
| Curaçao | 87% | 8% | 80% | 65% | $3,587 |
| Bali & Lombok | 85% | 9% | 77% | 77% | $4,055 |
| Bonaire | 85% | 7% | 79% | 61% | $3,756 |
| Dubai | 84% | 29% | 60% | 74% | $3,392 |
| St. Martin / Sint Maarten | 84% | 10% | 75% | 71% | $4,978 |
| St. Barts | 83% | 13% | 72% | 68% | $22,441 |
| Thailand | 81% | 14% | 69% | 77% | $3,191 |
| Barbados | 78% | 10% | 71% | 58% | $3,856 |
| Turks & Caicos | 75% | 4% | 72% | 58% | $9,030 |
| Mexico | 68% | 4% | 66% | 52% | $2,874 |
Markets with at least 350 performing listings. Vietnam and the Philippines are left out: 37–39% of their booked nights were first seen closed on the night itself, which a same-day booking cutoff also produces. In Turks & Caicos, St. Barts, Bonaire, Mexico, St. Martin, Thailand, Curaçao, Barbados and Mauritius 12–22% were, so read their occupancy and booking rate as high. Occupancy and revenue leave out listings our data engine flags as likely owner-blocked, as in our other August tables; the three shares count every full calendar, flagged or not. August is peak season in the Mediterranean and Bali and low season in the Caribbean, Dubai and Thailand.
What the data says
- Most listings that are open for business get booked. In 18 of the 21 markets at least four in five readable calendars booked 10% or more of August’s nights; the dormant tail runs from about 5% in Portugal, Cyprus and Greece to nearly a third in Mexico.
- The Mediterranean books almost everything in August, its peak: Portugal, Cyprus and Greece 95%, Spain 93%, Montenegro 92%, France and Croatia 91%. That is a peak-season reading, and our archive has not yet observed a Mediterranean winter.
- The Caribbean splits. Aruba (94%) and Curaçao (87%) book reliably even in their August low season; Barbados (78%) and Turks & Caicos (75%) carry the largest idle tails outside Mexico.
- Mexico is the loosest market we measured: 68% of readable calendars booked, and the listings that did rent filled only 52% of nights — the clearest sign of slack in this set, though August is outside Mexico’s winter peak.
- A closed calendar is its own warning. In Portugal (31%), Dubai (29%) and Croatia (25%), a quarter or more of listings with a full August calendar were closed almost end to end with no booking we could detect. Some are sold out in advance, some are blocked by owners or let away from Airbnb, and a calendar cannot tell those apart. Counted against every full calendar, the share that provably booked falls to 66% in Portugal, 60% in Dubai and 68% in Croatia; the true share sits between that floor and the booking rate, depending on how many closed calendars were sold out.
- One reading trap sits in the calendars themselves. A night that was open the day before and first seen closed on its own date counts as booked, but a host’s same-day booking cutoff closes it the same way. In the Mediterranean markets such nights are 1–4% of the booked total. In Turks & Caicos, St. Barts, Bonaire, Mexico, St. Martin, Thailand, Curaçao, Barbados and Mauritius they are 12–22%, so read their occupancy and booking rates as high: counting none of those nights, median occupancy falls 6–13 points and the booking rate 3–10. In Vietnam and the Philippines they are 37–39%, which is why both are left out.
Why booking rate matters more than the headline count
Listing counts are the number most often quoted about a market, and they are among the most misleading. Booking rate asks a sharper question: of the listings actually open for business, how many are winning bookings? A high rate means demand is absorbing supply; a low rate means you would be entering a field where a larger share of listings struggle to rent at all.
It is a market-level filter, not a verdict on any single property. Even in the loosest markets the best-located, best-run listings book beautifully — oversupply just widens the gap between the top performers and the idle tail. The point of a number like this is to tell you how hard the field is before you start, and how much your selection and management will have to do once you are in.
How this is measured
Figures come from Brixfox’s data engine, which tracks 1.4M+ short-term-rental listings across 30+ countries and territories and, for the listings whose Airbnb calendars it reads, keeps each night’s final booked-or-open state in a night-by-night archive that began on 22 July 2026. This post covers August 2026, the first complete month that archive covers, and every listing in each market’s tracked regions with a full August calendar (25 or more nights observed). A listing whose calendar was closed almost end to end with no detected booking is counted as a closed calendar and left out of the booking rate, because a calendar cannot distinguish a home sold out in advance from one its owner blocked. Of the rest, the booking rate is the share that booked at least 10% of the month’s nights; a night closed on the calendar counts as booked, including one first seen closed on its own date after being open the day before, which a same-day booking cutoff produces as well as a late booking; the table note names the markets where such nights are common. The next column counts those same bookers against every full calendar, closed ones included, which gives a floor on the share that rented. Occupancy and revenue are medians across those performing listings — revenue being each listing’s own occupancy × its advertised nightly rate × 31 nights — leaving out listings our data engine flags as likely owner-blocked; nightly rates are what hosts advertise for August stays, so revenue is an estimate. Figures are Airbnb only. Informational, not investment advice.
See also
Portugal
Portugal, August 2026
Occupancy, advertised nightly rates and estimated revenue for 12 Portugal areas in August 2026, from Brixfox Airbnb calendar data.
St. Martin
St. Martin Airbnb by Area
Airbnb occupancy, nightly rates and estimated August revenue across nine areas on both sides of St. Martin / Sint Maarten, from night-by-night calendar data — measured in the island’s low season.
Austria
Austria Airbnb by Area
Airbnb occupancy, nightly rates and estimated August revenue across 18 Austrian resort areas, from night-by-night calendar data — a summer snapshot of markets that mostly earn their year in winter.
Montenegro
Montenegro Airbnb by Area
Airbnb occupancy, nightly rates and estimated August revenue across Montenegro’s six coastal areas, from night-by-night calendar data.