Rates Up. Occupancy Down. RevPAR Up Anyway.

STR Unpacked · Aug 18, 2026 · 2m · transcript

European nightly rates rose 8.2% in July. Occupancy fell. RevPAR still went up 7.7%. 📈

New AirDNA figures reported this week show a rate-led market, not a volume-led one:

📊 ADR €159.20, up 8.2% YoY

🛏️ Occupancy 69.2%, down 0.3pp

🏘️ Supply 4.18M listings, up 1.9%

🌙 Demand nights 61.68M, up just 0.8%

✅ RevPAR grew in 19 of Europe's 20 largest markets

Operators are not selling many more nights. They are selling them for more.

Now Spain, which is the number everyone will screenshot:

🇪🇸 Demand down 11.8%

🇪🇸 Available listings down 12.5%

AirDNA attributes that to regulation. But read both numbers…