Caracterización y concentración de la oferta de Airbnb en Málaga

Resumen:En este artículo se realiza un estudio empírico de la oferta de alojamiento canalizado a través de la plataforma Airbnb en la ciudad de Málaga, dentro del contexto de la economía colaborativa y de los retos que plantea su regulación en el ámbito de las principales ciudades españolas. Se presta especial atención a la concentración de este mercado, tanto desde el punto de vista de la actividad profesional como en el plano territorial.Abstract:Introduction Airbnb, as a p2p platform that facilitates short term rentals, has recently shown a significant impact in the city tourism accommodation sector. A growing academic literature is focused on several aspects of this disruptive new business model. However, only the biggest cities are usually included in the studies on this topic. The effects of the irruption of Airbnb in the city of Málaga, the sixth one in number of inhabitants in Spain, and the seventh in number of hotel bed places is still scarcely studied. This is the main motivation for the empirical study in this article. The city of Málaga is a provincial capital surrounded by mature coastal destinations that is promoting a tourism mix based on a combination of several segments like cultural tourism, cruises and conferences along with very favourable weather conditions along the whole year. As a consequence, the tourism activity is showing an increasing trend in last years, with more than 30000 bed places in 2018. Although the hotel sector is growing with positive rates, it is Airbnb the segment that showed the greatest increases, reaching slightly more than 20000 places in 2018. Moreover, around 40% of Airbnb supply was firstly used and reviewed in the last year, which is an indicator of the explosive trend in the very recent years in Málaga. In this paper, we characterize the Airbnb business model in the context of the shared economy, stating the main challenges for its regulation, especially in the biggest Spanish cities. Subsequently, we empirically analyse Airbnb’s accommodation supply in Málaga, including the study of the concentration of this sector, from a professional and territorial points of view. The spatial analysis of the concentration of Airnbn supply is also compared with the hotel supply distribution along the city. Finally, the main conclusions are summarized. Methodology The main data source used in this paper is the microdata corresponding to the city of Málaga provided by Inside Airbnb, an independent, non-commercial service that compiles from Airbnbn public web a comprehensive database of more than 30 cities worldwide. Data are updated to September 2018. In addition, hotel supply data are taken form the Official Registry of the Regional Government (Registro de Turismo de Andalucía) and population data come from the National Statistics Institute. All the entries in our database have been georeferenced for the spatial analysis. The spatial aggregation used in this paper to calculate density and pressure indexes and to make the maps is the set of census sections –administrative territorial units defined by the National Statistics Institute– in the city of Málaga. The main variables included in the empirical study are the type, number of bed places, number of nights available, date of first user review and price of each Airbnb listing in the city of Málaga; and the number of active listings by host. Standard exploratory statistical techniques have been used in this paper to characterize the accommodation supply. In addition, the Gini index and the associated Lorenz curve are used to analyze the concentration of this market. This index, which is widely known in the field of income inequality analysis, is also used in the tourism field as an indicator of seasonal concentration. Main results The accommodation supply of Airbnb in the city of Málaga is comprised of more than 5500 listings, with an average price of 76.1 euros per night. These listings are mainly whole houses or apartments (81.4%). Private rooms only represent the 18% of the total supply and shared rooms are practically irrelevant (less than 1%). As a consequence of the explosive growth of this segment, 67% of the listings were used and reviewed by users in the previous two years (40% in the last one). Regarding the controversial topic of hosts professionalism, we found that in the city of Málaga there are a 29% of hosts with more than one active listing. This figure is consistent with similar studies in Barcelona (27%) or Madrid (24%), but higher than those ones found in European cities like Berlin, Munich, Amsterdam or Paris (below 15%). Our results also indicate a rather high level of concentration. The estimated Lorenz curve shows that hosts with more than one listing accumulate the 66% of the active listings. Moreover, hosts with five or more listings –that represent only the 6.8% of the total number of hosts– are offering almost 40% of the active listings. These results are confirmed with a high estimated Gini index. The spatial distribution of Airbnb listings is highly concentrated in the city centre, in the same way as the hotel sector. But in the case of Airbnb the area with high levels of density is wider, containing the sections where traditionally hotels are located and also adjacent zones, which are very close to the main tourist and cultural attractions. However, the pressure levels of Airbnb supply, measured as number of places by ha is higher than the corresponding to the hotel sector, being the estimated average Airbnb density 7.9 compared to 2.3 for hotel places. A recent study in Barcelona also showed a higher density in the case of Airbnb, but with a smaller difference with the hotel sector (6.2 vs. 5.7). The estimated Gini indexes confirm the very high level of spatial concentration of Airbnb supply in the city of Málaga, as well as the hotel supply, being slightly higher the index in the latter case. Conclusions The irruption of Airbnb accommodation supply model in most important cities is generating significant challenges for understanding and regulating this phenomenon. Málaga, which is included in the group of the 10 biggest cities of Spain and shows a growing tourism activity, can be considered a relevant case study. There have been some innovative regulation efforts in other cities of this group, like Barcelona, Bilbao or Palma de Mallorca, all of them using mechanisms in one way or another based on some spatial criteria, like zoning restrictions. These mechanisms, that must be appropriate without breaching competition, as the authorities warn, require detailed and updated analysis of the characteristics and spatial distribution of the accommodation supply, being this the main rationale of this study. Our study confirms the important presence of commercial hosts (with more than one active listing) in Airbnb listings in Málaga, that account for around 30% of the hosts in the city. However, the relevant figure regarding concentration is the volume of listings they accumulate, which in our case is estimated in 66%. In addition, an even smaller group of hosts (7%) control 40% of the listings. These results, confirmed with the estimated Gini index, suggest a high level of concentration in this marker, being this one of the main conclusions of our study. The spatial distribution of Airbnbn listings in Málaga is also highly concentrated in the city centre, with a pattern slightly wider than the corresponding to hotel supply. However, the pressure over the territory is higher in the case of Airbnb supply, due to the presence of almost twice number of places in a marginally broader area. Moreover, the number of sections with very high density is higher in the case of Airbnb than in the case of hotels. Our results also indicate that the current structure of urban districts is not the most appropriate for zoning restrictions, as Airbnb supply is beginning to appear with high intensity in some specific areas of the districts surrounding the Centre district. As a consequence, these districts show a high degree of internal heterogeneity regarding accommodation supply. Finally, the results and conclusions of our study may be of great interest for local planners and regulators, not only for a better understanding of this recent phenomenon, but also as an additional basis to inform their design and planning of urban policies regarding urban land uses, infrastructures and services.