In this article (9)
In short
- Public estimates of short-term rentals in Milan range from 12,559 to 30,887 listings: they are not mistakes, they count different things (platforms, boundaries, what 'active' means).
- On Airbnb, within the Municipality of Milan, there were 25,338 listings in September 2026, but only 17,669 had received at least one review in the previous 12 months.
- 82% of listings show a correctly formatted CIN. Among active listings only 7.6% lack one; among dormant listings the share rises to 42.5%.
- In one year 7,703 new listings appeared and 5,298 disappeared: the net change is +10.5%, but turnover is far larger than growth.
- The market is concentrating: the 299 hosts with 10 or more listings manage 38.4% of supply (35.3% in 2025).
“Milan has 20,000 short-term rentals.” “It’s over 30,000.” “They’re down 16%.” All of these were published in 2026, all with a source. Can they all be true? Yes, because they measure different things. We lined up the public estimates, explained where the differences come from and redid the maths on an open dataset: every Airbnb listing in the Municipality of Milan collected by Inside Airbnb in September 2026, compared with the same scrape from September 2025.
Public estimates: from 12,559 to 30,887
| Source | Number | When | What it counts |
|---|---|---|---|
| BnbCalc | 12,559 | May 2026 | Airbnb and Vrbo, “Milan, Bergamo, Monza” area |
| AirROI | 15,271 | September 2025 | Airbnb listings active in the past 12 months |
| GuestFavorites | 18,184 | June 2026 | active Airbnb listings |
| Airbtics | 18,390 | October 2026 | active Airbnb listings |
| AirDNA | 19,490 | August 2026 | Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking, “Milan” market |
| Confcommercio Milano | over 20,000 | March 2026 | homes listed on Airbnb |
| Inside Airbnb | 25,338 | September 2026 | all Airbnb listings in the Municipality of Milan |
| Ministry of Tourism, BDSR | 29,960 | April 2026 | registered accommodation units, hotels included |
| AirDNA | 30,887 | May 2026 | Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking |
The trends don’t match either. BnbCalc reports a 16% drop in a year, AirDNA a 5.6% drop between May 2025 and May 2026, Confcommercio a 21.5% increase. In the Inside Airbnb data, which repeats the same scrape one year apart, listings grow by 10.5%.
Why the numbers don’t match
The differences come from three choices that are almost never explained when the number ends up in a headline.
1. Which platforms. Airbnb alone, or Booking and Vrbo too. The same flat listed on several platforms can be counted once or several times, depending on how well the source detects duplicates.
2. Which boundaries. The Municipality of Milan (about 1.4 million residents) or a wider area. BnbCalc, for example, combines Milan, Bergamo and Monza. AirDNA’s own public pages report 30,887 listings in May and 19,490 in August for “Milan”: the gap is too large to be purely seasonal and suggests different market definitions, which the pages do not explain.
3. What “active” means. This choice weighs the most. With the same Inside Airbnb data for September 2026, changing only the definition gives:
| Definition | Listings |
|---|---|
| All published listings | 25,338 |
| At least one day available in the next 12 months | 22,494 |
| At least one review in the past 12 months | 17,669 |
| Both conditions | 16,153 |
From 16,153 to 25,338 is a 57% difference on the same listings. The commercial “active” estimates (18,184-19,490) sit close to the third row, so they mostly count listings that actually operate.
And the ministry database? Its 29,960 are not listings but registered units: they include hotels, B&Bs and holiday homes, including those not on Airbnb. On Airbnb we found 18,322 distinct CINs from the Municipality of Milan: the minimum number of registered units that had at least one listing on the platform in September 2026.
CIN codes in listings: less irregularity than it seems
Since January 2025 every listing in Italy must display the national identification code (CIN). We checked the “licence” field of every listing. Note: we only verified that the code has the correct format (IT, six digits for the municipality, a letter and nine characters), not that it actually exists in the ministry database.
| September 2026 | Listings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Correctly formatted CIN | 20,740 | 81.9% |
| of which with a Milan municipality code | 20,595 | 81.3% |
| No code shown | 3,851 | 15.2% |
| “I applied for a CIN but haven’t received it yet” | 486 | 1.9% |
| Code with a wrong format | 159 | 0.6% |
| Declared exempt | 102 | 0.4% |
The figure that changes the picture is another one: among listings with at least one review in the past 12 months, those without a correctly formatted CIN are 7.6%. Among listings with no recent reviews the share rises to 42.5%. A good part of the listings “without a code” are dormant pages that probably no longer receive guests. Counting them all as irregular activity inflates the phenomenon.
Some anomalies are worth reporting:
- 252 listings located in Milan show a CIN from another municipality, including codes from Rome and Florence and obviously made-up codes (such as “IT123123…”, which matches no municipality).
- 1,258 CINs appear on more than one listing, 3,479 listings in total. There is often a normal explanation: the same host lists the whole flat and the single rooms. But 206 codes are used by different hosts, where the explanation is less obvious (co-hosting, a change of manager, or a copied code).
- In 2025 a single CIN appeared on 96 listings; in 2026 the maximum fell to 24.
Compared with 2025, the share of listings with a correctly formatted CIN is practically unchanged (81.8% vs 81.9%), while listings “waiting for the code” fell from 691 to 486.
More listings, but above all more turnover
| September 2025 | September 2026 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total listings | 22,933 | 25,338 | +10.5% |
| With reviews in the past 12 months | 16,143 | 17,669 | +9.5% |
| Entire homes | 20,151 | 22,309 | +10.7% |
| Minimum stay of 30 nights or more | 4,021 (17.5%) | 3,510 (13.9%) | -12.7% |
| Hosts | 10,698 | 11,475 | +7.3% |
The net figure hides much larger turnover: of the 22,933 listings in 2025, 5,298 were gone a year later (23%), while 7,703 new ones appeared. Almost one in three listings in September 2026 did not exist twelve months earlier.
The share of listings accepting only stays of at least 30 nights, i.e. mid-term rentals published on Airbnb, is falling: from 17.5% to 13.9%. It suggests that some of those renting “by the month” last year have gone back to short stays.
Who manages the listings: a concentrating market
| 2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosts with a single listing | 8,383 (78.4%) | 9,066 (79.0%) |
| Listings managed by hosts with 2+ listings | 63.4% | 64.2% |
| Listings managed by hosts with 10+ listings | 35.3% | 38.4% |
| Listings managed by hosts with 50+ listings | 16.6% | 19.2% |
| Hosts with 10+ listings | 251 | 299 |
Four hosts out of five have a single listing, but they manage a minority of supply. The 299 hosts with at least 10 listings control 38.4% of all listings, and the share is growing. The four largest accounts each exceed 230 listings; the largest reaches 468. The image of short-term rentals as “a private owner’s second home” describes most hosts, but not most listings.
Where the listings are
Milan’s 87 neighbourhoods are very different. The ten with the most listings in September 2026:
| Neighbourhood | 2025 | 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buenos Aires - Venezia | 1,862 | 2,050 | +10.1% |
| Duomo | 1,626 | 1,798 | +10.6% |
| Centrale | 1,004 | 1,168 | +16.3% |
| Sarpi | 1,004 | 1,116 | +11.2% |
| Brera | 923 | 1,060 | +14.8% |
| Navigli | 858 | 962 | +12.1% |
| Loreto | 924 | 956 | +3.5% |
| Ticinese | 882 | 951 | +7.8% |
| Isola | 716 | 793 | +10.8% |
| XXII Marzo | 644 | 718 | +11.5% |
Growth is still concentrated in the centre and the inner ring: Buenos Aires, Duomo, Centrale and Brera alone add over 650 listings. Among mid-sized neighbourhoods, Lodi - Corvetto (+19.7%) and Porta Romana (+16.4%) grow strongly. Twenty of the 87 neighbourhoods lose listings, but only slightly (at most 11 fewer), and almost all are on the outskirts.
The share of listings with a correctly formatted CIN varies little: from 86.0% in Duomo to 73.1% in Tibaldi, among neighbourhoods with at least 150 listings.
For those who know our area: in Portello listings went from 120 to 140 (+16.7%), in Tre Torri from 22 to 20.
What we take from this
1. Before quoting a number, ask what it counts. “20,000 short-term rentals” and “30,000 short-term rentals” can both be correct. Without platforms, boundaries and a definition of active, the number on its own says little.
2. The most useful number for public debate is active listings. For the Municipality of Milan on Airbnb that is around 16,000-18,000, not the 25,000 published listings.
3. Irregularity should be measured on active listings. Overall, almost one in five does not show a correct CIN. Among those that actually host guests, fewer than one in ten.
4. The market is growing, but above all professionalising. The share held by multi-listing hosts rose three points in a year, and annual turnover runs into thousands of listings.
Limits of this analysis
- Inside Airbnb covers only Airbnb, and only the Municipality of Milan. Flats listed only on Booking or other channels are not included.
- Airbnb slightly shifts listing locations for privacy: attribution to border neighbourhoods may be imprecise.
- Reviews understate activity: not every guest leaves one.
- The CIN check covers only the format. A correctly formatted code may still be invalid, and an “anomalous” code may have a legitimate explanation.
- We compare two single snapshots, one year apart, both at the end of September: values in other months may differ.
Sources and data
- Inside Airbnb, “Milan, Lombardy, Italy” dataset, scrapes of 20-21 September 2026 and 22-24 September 2025, insideairbnb.com, CC BY 4.0 licence.
- Italian Ministry of Tourism, BDSR infographic April 2026, data extracted on 30 April 2026.
- Market estimates: AirDNA, Airbtics, GuestFavorites, AirROI, BnbCalc, Confcommercio Milano.
- Download the neighbourhood data used on this page: affitti-brevi-milano-quartieri-2025-2026.csv (87 neighbourhoods, listings 2025 and 2026, share with a correctly formatted CIN; column names in Italian).
If you spot an error or want the data in another format, write to us: we update this page with every new Inside Airbnb release.
We also analysed calendars for the Salone 2027: how short-term rentals are filling up for Salone del Mobile 2027.
Frequently asked questions
How many Airbnbs are there in Milan in 2026?
According to Inside Airbnb data collected on 20-21 September 2026, there were 25,338 listings in the Municipality of Milan. Those with at least one review in the previous 12 months, an indicator of real activity, numbered 17,669.
Why are estimates of short-term rentals in Milan so different?
Because sources count different things: Airbnb only or also Booking and Vrbo, the Municipality of Milan or a wider area, all published listings or only those with recent bookings. With the same Airbnb data you go from 16,153 to 25,338 listings just by changing the definition of 'active'.
How many Airbnb listings in Milan display a CIN?
In September 2026, 81.9% of listings (20,740) displayed a code with the CIN format. 15.2% showed no code at all. Among listings with reviews in the previous 12 months, those without a correctly formatted CIN were 7.6%.
What is the difference between listings and registered properties?
A listing is a page on a platform; a registered property is a unit with a code in the Ministry of Tourism database. The same flat can have several listings (including for single rooms) and many registered properties are not on Airbnb. On 30 April 2026 the BDSR counted 29,960 accommodation units in Milan, hotels included.
