Short-Stay Accommodation Offered Via Online Collaborative Platforms In Romania. A Pre- And Post-Pandemic Comparison

The tourism industry has experienced significant growth in recent years, except for the COVID-19 pandemic. The pre-pandemic period was quite favorable for accommodation platforms, but the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on them between 2020 and 2021, which however were able to recover in the post-pandemic period. Once the travel restrictions were imposed in 2020, the possibilities for international travel were also limited, both in terms of the legal regulations imposed by the authorities and the desire of people to avoid unnecessary exposure to health risks. However, in 2021, some countries have lifted restrictions, which has led to a gradual recovery. In this article we want to analyze some statistics on short-stay accommodation in Romania in the period 2018 – 2022. The article is based on data provided to Eurostat by four international platforms (Airbnb, Booking, Expedia Group and Tripadvisor). Following the analysis of the data at the Romanian level, we could observe that in the pre-pandemic period the number of nights spent via collaborative platforms registered an increase, after which the pandemic period determined a significant decrease in the number of nights spent. After the pandemic period the number of nights spent was again on an upward trend, even exceeding the pre-pandemic period. However, the ratio of domestic to foreign overnight stays changed in the post-pandemic period. In Romania, the share of domestic guest nights has increased.