The best verified answer for besançon airbnb listings growth 2020 2021 2022 2023 historical is that city-only annual counts are not publicly published for every year. Besançon had 320 Airbnb offers in 2023, while the wider Doubs supply rose from 1,426 listings in 2020 to 2,169 in 2023.
Besançon Airbnb Listings Growth 2020 2021 2022 2023 Historical Data at a Glance
People searching for besançon airbnb listings growth 2020 2021 2022 2023 historical usually want one clear thing: a year-by-year picture of how fast short-term rental supply grew in Besançon, France. The honest answer needs a little care. A fully comparable public count for Besançon city alone is available for 2023, but public records do not provide matching city-level totals for 2020, 2021, and 2022.
That does not mean the story is impossible to read. A reliable regional report using AirDNA data provides a useful proxy for the Doubs department, where Besançon is the main urban market. It tracks tourist furnished rentals, including Airbnb-style properties, that were available to rent at least once during the month. This broader measure shows a sharp rise over the full four-year period, with one brief slowdown in 2021.
| Year | Doubs Airbnb-Style Listings | Year-Over-Year Change | What the Trend Suggests |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 1,426 | +26.0% | Supply increased despite a disrupted travel year. |
| 2021 | 1,414 | -0.8% | Listings were basically flat after the first pandemic shock. |
| 2022 | 1,693 | +19.7% | Supply expanded as travel demand recovered. |
| 2023 | 2,169 | +28.1% | The strongest annual increase in this period. |
From 2020 through 2023, the Doubs total grew by about 52.1%. Looking back to 2019, when the department had 1,132 available tourist furnished rentals, the 2023 count was up about 91.6%. That is powerful evidence that the local short-term rental market became much larger, even though it should not be treated as an exact Besançon-only listing count.
What Is the Verified Besançon Airbnb Count for 2023?
For Besançon itself, a local housing observatory reported 261 entire accommodations and 59 private rooms on Airbnb in 2023. Together, that equals 320 Airbnb offers. The same report listed an average nightly price of €81 for an entire place and €35 for a private room.
This 320-listing figure matters because it gives a grounded city-level reference point. It also shows the character of the market. Entire homes made up most of the Airbnb supply, with 261 out of 320 offers. In simple terms, about four out of every five offers were whole homes or apartments rather than rooms inside an occupied home.
That distinction has real value for renters, hosts, and local planners. A private room can help an owner earn extra money while still living in the home. An entire apartment used for frequent short stays has a different effect. It can serve tourists, business travelers, visiting families, and students between housing arrangements, but it may also compete with long-term rental housing when supply is tight.
Why Besançon and Doubs Listing Numbers Cannot Be Mixed
The biggest mistake in besançon airbnb listings growth 2020 2021 2022 2023 historical research is comparing numbers that do not measure the same thing. The 320 figure is a city-level Airbnb snapshot broken into homes and rooms. The Doubs figures cover the whole department and refer to Airbnb-style furnished tourist rentals available at least once in a month.
Doubs includes Besançon, but it also includes smaller cities, villages, countryside stays, mountain-area accommodations, and properties near leisure destinations. Besançon likely represents an important share because it is the largest city in the department and has business, university, health-care, and cultural travel. Still, no responsible analysis should claim that all 2,169 Doubs listings in 2023 were located inside Besançon.
There is also a difference between an online search result and an active listing. Search pages change based on dates, guest count, booking restrictions, season, and platform rules. A host may appear for one travel date and disappear for another because the home is already booked, has a minimum stay rule, or is only offered during part of the year.
For that reason, a good historical report should always state its unit of measurement. Is it counting active properties? Individual listings? Entire homes only? Listings with at least one available night? Offers shown in a single search? These details sound small, but they can change the result by hundreds of properties.
How the Besançon Short-Term Rental Market Changed by Year
2020: Supply Rose, but Travel Was Uncertain
The 2020 pattern is more complicated than many people expect. Travel restrictions and public-health uncertainty reduced normal tourism, especially during the early part of the year. Yet the Doubs supply count rose from 1,132 in 2019 to 1,426 in 2020, an increase of nearly 26%.
There are several possible reasons. Some owners may have listed homes after long-term tenants moved out. Others may have tested short stays during periods when traditional rental plans felt less predictable. Flexible booking behavior also became more common, particularly for people visiting family, changing jobs, studying, or working away from home for short periods.
The key lesson is that listing supply and guest demand do not always move together. More properties can appear online even while occupancy falls. A host reviewing 2020 should avoid assuming that added supply meant strong income. It mainly shows that owners were willing to place more units in the short-term rental market.
2021: A Flat Year for Airbnb-Style Supply
In 2021, the Doubs count slipped slightly from 1,426 to 1,414 listings. That is a decline of less than 1%, so the better description is “flat” rather than “falling.” The market appears to have paused while travelers, hosts, and property managers adjusted to changing restrictions and uneven booking confidence.
For Besançon, this likely meant a mixed environment. The city is not only a leisure destination. It also draws people for business trips, university needs, hospital visits, family events, and regional administration. Those demand sources can keep bookings moving when vacation travel is less predictable. Still, a host could not rely on a simple seasonal pattern during this period.
Flat supply can sometimes help existing hosts because there is less new competition. But it does not guarantee stronger revenue. Pricing, cleaning standards, response time, cancellation rules, parking, walkability, and reliable Wi-Fi could make a much bigger difference than the market-wide listing count.
2022: Recovery Brought More Listings
The 2022 increase was clear. Doubs Airbnb-style supply climbed to 1,693 listings, up almost 20% from 2021. This matches the broader return of travel, events, weekend breaks, and in-person work trips. As visitors became more comfortable planning ahead, more owners likely saw short-term rentals as worth the effort again.
Besançon had reasons to benefit from that recovery. The old city, river setting, Citadelle area, museums, rail access, universities, and nearby Jura landscape make the city useful for several kinds of stays. A visitor may come for one night before moving through the region, while another may stay longer for work or medical reasons.
Still, a growing listing count creates tougher competition. By 2022, a plain apartment with dim photos and vague house rules was less likely to stand out. Hosts needed to show what made their place easy and comfortable: a clean kitchen, a proper bed, simple check-in, fast internet, nearby transit, parking details, and honest descriptions.
2023: The Fastest Supply Growth Year
The strongest growth in the four-year Doubs series came in 2023. Supply rose from 1,693 to 2,169 listings, a gain of roughly 28.1%. This is a major increase in one year. It suggests that more property owners, small operators, and professional managers were entering or expanding in the short-term rental space.
At the city level, Besançon had 320 Airbnb offers recorded in 2023, including 261 entire accommodations and 59 private rooms. That gives researchers a useful point to anchor later analysis, but it does not prove how many were active in every month. A listing may have been seasonal, newly created, paused, or available only for selected dates.
For hosts, 2023 was a reminder that demand alone is not enough. More supply means guests can compare photos, ratings, amenities, location, and total price in seconds. The best-performing properties often solve real travel problems. They make arrival easy after a train ride, offer a quiet place to sleep, provide workspace for business travelers, or fit a family without hidden surprises.
What Drove Airbnb Listing Growth Around Besançon?
I would not point to one single cause. The data shows supply growth, but a healthy reading requires looking at the local travel mix. Besançon serves leisure visitors, yet it also has year-round reasons for travel. Business activity, education, medical visits, cultural events, family travel, and regional transit can all support shorter stays outside peak holiday periods.
The Doubs market also has a wider appeal than the city alone. Rural homes, outdoor stays, and properties near hiking, cycling, winter sports, and cross-border travel routes can pull in visitors who are not looking for an urban apartment. This helps explain why departmental supply can grow much faster or differently than supply within Besançon city limits.
Another factor is professional management. As more owners use local managers, smart-lock systems, automated guest messaging, and cleaning teams, operating multiple listings becomes easier. That can increase the number of available properties quickly. It can also raise guest expectations, because travelers become used to smooth check-in, clear instructions, and hotel-like cleanliness.
How to Use Historical Listing Growth Without Making Bad Decisions
Listing growth is useful, but it is not a green light by itself. A growing market can mean more demand, more competition, or both. Before buying or converting a property, I would compare supply growth with occupancy, average daily rate, revenue per available night, local rules, cleaning costs, furnishing costs, insurance, taxes, mortgage payments, and long-term rental alternatives.
- Use matched definitions: Compare Airbnb-only data with Airbnb-only data whenever possible.
- Use the same geography: Do not compare Besançon city totals with Doubs totals as if they were equal.
- Check monthly patterns: An annual average can hide weak winter months or event-driven peaks.
- Study comparable homes: A studio near the station should not be measured against a large countryside house.
- Keep costs realistic: Gross booking revenue is not take-home profit.
Current market portals show why definitions matter. One source may count Airbnb listings only, while another may combine Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, direct bookings, and duplicate listings removed across platforms. A listing count can also shift if a provider changes its activity rule or adds new data partners. Good analysis records the source, date, market boundary, and definition before drawing conclusions.
How to Build a More Exact Besançon Historical Dataset
If you need a precise chart for Besançon from January 2020 through December 2023, use a paid short-term rental data provider with monthly export access. Request the exact city boundary and ask for the same listing definition throughout the series. For example, choose “active Airbnb listings” and keep that rule unchanged for all 48 months.
Then build a spreadsheet with monthly active listings, new listings, removed listings, occupancy, average daily rate, revenue, and available nights. Mark unusual periods such as restrictions, major festivals, school calendars, large conferences, and changes in local rules. This creates a more useful picture than a single number for each year.
A practical formula for annual growth is simple: subtract the prior year’s listing count from the current year’s count, divide by the prior year’s count, and multiply by 100. But the formula only works when both years use the same area and definition. Accurate math cannot fix mismatched data.
Bottom Line on Besançon Airbnb Listings Growth 2020 2021 2022 2023 Historical
The most defensible conclusion for besançon airbnb listings growth 2020 2021 2022 2023 historical is that Airbnb-style supply expanded strongly across Doubs after a nearly flat 2021. The department moved from 1,426 listings in 2020 to 1,414 in 2021, 1,693 in 2022, and 2,169 in 2023. Besançon itself had 320 recorded Airbnb offers in 2023, but public city-only totals for the earlier years are not available in a matching series. Use the Doubs figures as context, not as a substitute for exact Besançon counts.
