How UAE's Tourism Boom Is Helping Short-Term Rentals Thrive

Backed by a steady growth in the tourism sector, demand for short-term rentals has increased significantly among travelers to the United Arab Emirates and a lot of it has to do with post-Covid travel preferences coupled with remote work options.

And then, of course, there is the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup in Qatar this November that will further drive visitor numbers to the region.

The growth in the tourism sector of the United Arab Emirates during the first quarter of this year outpaced that of 2019, making it one of the best quarters for the local tourism industry. Dubai alone has received over 7.12 million international overnight visitors in the first six months of this year — a 183 per cent year-on-year increase.

That's prompted the growing interest of some household names in short-term rentals like Airbnb and Sonder.

Ease of accessibility, prominent locations, lack of brand name-driven royalty fees, and competitive rates are the main drivers for the popularity of short-term rentals, noted Mohamed Tahir, brand consultant at Dubai-based The Adroit Agency.

Skift in its earlier feature The Definitive Oral History of Short-Term Rentals has traced the transition of short-term rentals from classified ads in newspapers to a full-blown i