The Airbnb website has been vital in boosting last year’s tourist figures, accounting for 6% of all breaks booked in 2015.
Portugal now is the 10th most popular destination using the website, says Arnaldo Muñoz, Airbnb Iberia’s director.
Muñoz says that currently there are 34,000 Airbnb listings for short-term accommodation across the country.
Most listings are in the greater Lisbon area with 12,000. The second most popular region is Oporto with 3,700 listings of private accommodation, most of them not registered as Alojamento Local (AL) properties.
Airbnb’s top four countries where bookings in Portugal come from are France, Germany, the UK and Spain.
The overall Institute of Statistics data shows that Portugal received 15 million guests to October 15th last year with a million coming to Portugal's Airbnb listed properties.
Muñoz says the website has doubled the number of guests in 2015 with the number of houses available for rent increasing 65%, both riding the boom in tourism and helping it along.
The government has failed to match airbnb listings with its list of registered Alojamento Local properties with many owners continuing to let illegally until the AL system changes, or until they are caught out and fined.
