The original concept of Airbnb was for homeowners to make a little extra money from renting out a room or a flatlet on their property, but the opportunity has also created a growing industry of people operating two, 10 or even more rental listings.
In Cape Town a third of properties listed on Airbnb are managed by operators with 10 or more listings, the other two thirds are single listings.
This means, 15,588 of the 25,816 listings in Cape Town are operated by owners with multiple listings. This pattern is common worldwide, except in Paris, where stricter regulations on short-term rentals have altered the landscape.
In Paris, a new cap limiting short-term rentals to 90 days a year instead of the previous 120 days has begun to reshape the Airbnb market.
Similarly, Montreal, Canada, has introduced limits on Airbnb operations, gradually steering operators towards longer-term stays.
The contrast is stark: while 98.6% of Cape Town’s Airbnb rentals are short-term stays, Montreal’s short-term rentals account for only 43.8% of listings.

The data used in this chart can be downloaded from insideairbnb.com