Taming Airbnb Locally

European cities have responded differently to the growing number of short-term rentals (such as Airbnb) and proposed a variety of regulations, although little is known about their efficiency. This paper contributes to filling the gap by analyzing both policy documents and spatial distributions of Airbnb listings between 2015 and 2020 using Amsterdam, Berlin, and London as case studies. We also compare the results with those of nine other European capitals. Our results show that cities follow highly individualized approaches. According to the strictness of each regulation, we see different intensities in the growth (and drop) of Airbnb listings, the share of multi-hosts, and the share of apartments withdrawn from the regular housing market. There is also a spatial dispersion of listings from the center to the periphery. Our numbers insinuate that dynamically changing regulations force hosts to adapt continuously–which tames an uncontrolled proliferation, but more research is necessary.