The Most Expensive Countries in the World to Rent an Airbnb

Curious to find out which were the most expensive countries in the world to rent an Airbnb, I trawled through data to get an average price for each country.

I found that, of 155 countries I was able to gather data for, Monaco was the most expensive country to rent an Airbnb at $178 a night with Seychelles at $143 and Iceland at $127 making up the top three.

There were also lots of other interesting statistics I found:

• The most expensive continent to rent an Airbnb is Oceania at $81, $14 a night more expensive than North America
• Of the cheapest 10 countries, seven of them are in South America
• South Korea costs $47 a night, $1 more than neighbouring North Korea
• There are 20 places in Monaco that will cost you more than $900 a night to stay in, including a luxury yacht listed at just under $14,000 a night
• At $70, Uruguay is $43 a night more expensive a night than any other country in South America
• Despite being the third-cheapest continent, Africa had the second, sixth and tenth most expensive country to rent an Airbnb – Seychelles, Somalia and the Central African Republic (though I have challenged the Somalia data in the article below)
• The most common cost per night was $37, with seven countries reporting this figure, a diverse group that included Mexico, the Russian Federation and Cameroon
• The cheapest place to stay in Europe was Armenia with 114 stays available for less than $12 a night

^{*If you wish to reproduce any of the charts or information on this page, I am happy for you to do so, but please link back to this article as the original source.}

The Most Expensive Countries to Rent an Airbnb

1. Monaco ($178)

At an average of $178 Monaco was the highest average Airbnb cost of any country in the world.

That shouldn’t be too much of a surprise given that Monaco is the most expensive city for real estate in the world, with a square foot priced at around $5,500!

On my search of Airbnb I found only 57 places listed in Monaco, with a remarkable 20 of those setting you back more than $900 a night!

The most expensive Airbnb building I found in Monaco was priced at $3,224 a night, but this wasn’t actually the most expensive stay available. There is a four-bedroom luxury yacht listed that, at the time of writing would make a dent in your bank account to the tune of $13,914.

Ouch.

2. Seychelles ($143)

I have first hand experience of the cost of an Airbnb in Seychelles.

Back in 2017 We spent 10 days on Praslin Island for my wife’s 30th birthday. We stayed in a beautiful beachside bungalow which cost us around $190 a night at the time.

There were 22 properties listed at above $900 a night, but unlike Monaco, there are many more available overall – with over 300 listings.

It is possible to find cheaper alternatives in Seychelles though.

I found a private room available in a shared house for only $57 a night. Ok, so that’s still the same price as the average Airbnb in Germany and more expensive than the average price of an Airbnb in 91 other countries on this list, but still, if you’re going to visit a country ranked in the top 20 most expensive to live in on earth, then what do you expect?

3. Iceland ($127)

According to a study by Numbeo.com Iceland had the third-highest cost of living in the world in 2020. Top place Switzerland came 14th on my list of expensive Airbnbs with second-place Norway down in 27th (maybe it would be less expensive to rent an Airbnb in Norway than to rent an apartment!?).

With 31 properties over the $900 mark, this was more than either Seychelles or Monaco however, a number of these seemed to be huge houses catering towards groups of 10+ people, pushing the overall price up, but the actual price per person would actually be a bit lower.

There were over 300 places available at above our average of $127 a night, but at the other end there were five rooms available for less than $30 a night, so some cheaper alternatives available.

4. Bahamas ($123)

Around 20% of the GDP of the Bahamas comes from tourism, with just under 50% of the country’s population employed in the tourism industry.

The average price of a night in an Airbnb in the Bahamas was $123, though the top end of the pricing was astronomical. I saw 85 properties available for over $900 a night and 26 available for over $2,500 a night.

The most expensive property I saw was listed as a ‘Luxurious Golf Course Home’, with space for six guests and costing $9,395 a night.

5. Antigua and Barbuda ($109)

Another very expensive island in the Caribbean, Antigua and Barbuda rounds out the top five most expensive places to rent an Airbnb in the world.

BudgetYourTrip.com rated Antigua and Barbuda the second most expensive country in the Caribbean for an average price per person, per day at $281.54. Top of that list? Not surprisingly it was Barbados, who also ranked ahead of Antigua and Barbuda on my Airbnb price list.

The cheapest room I could find available here was $47, which makes Antigua and Barbuda’s cheapest Airbnb most expensive than an average Airbnb in nearly half the countries on this list!

Other Notable Entries in the Top 20

Of the other countries in the top 20 most expensive Airbnbs, there were many that were expected. Switzerland with its high cost of living, Tuvalu, Trinidad and Tobago and Soloman Islands as island nations and other famous destinations such as Japan.

There were a few others though that I wanted to dig a bit deeper into as I was surprised to see them so far up the table.

6. Somalia ($105)

Of the countries in the top 20, this was the only one I could not validate the information from. The prices for this round-up are collated from Nomad List, who get their data from a number of sources, but this is the only one I could not corroborate.

I tried searching Airbnb listings for Somalia over a number of dates, lengths and locations but I was seeing an average price of more like $30, nowhere near the $105 listed on Nomad List. In fact, I was able to find properties as cheap as $12 a night!

With only 49 stays available at the time of writing, my assumption is that at some point there was a few outlying stays at a very high price point that bumped the overall average up.

10. Central African Republic ($92)

It would be easy to assume that the Central African Republic was another data blip as we saw with Somalia, but it’s not. Central African Republic has the most expensive Airbnbs of anywhere on mainland Africa.

But why?

Central Africa Republic’s high Airbnb pricing looks like it is down to scarcity. There are currently only 15 stays listed on Airbnb, with the cheapest at $42 a night but the most expensive (in capital Bangui) at nearly $300 a night.

In fact, seven of the 15 properties listed come in at more than $184 a night which is why the average price is so high here.

12. Israel ($89)

Another country I wasn’t expecting to see so high was Israel. With neighbours Lebanon at 102 on the list, Jordan at 110, and Egypt at 127 it appears as a real outlier in the region.

This doesn’t seem to be an issue isolated to Airbnbs though. Haaretz.com showed in a recent analysis that the cost of a Sheraton hotel room was more expensive in Tel Aviv than in other notably expensive cities such as Milan, Zurich and Berlin. This was put down to high real estate prices, cost of living and regulation such as the necessity that food is Kosher. The biggest reason that might influence the cost of an Airbnb though is that there is a huge shortage of hotel rooms in the country, which allows Airbnb owners to charge more.

The prices on Airbnb are off the charts! I found 300+ properties at over $900 a night (Airbnb maxes out at 300, so it’s hard to pinpoint how many more than this it is). This was more high priced stays than any of the other countries I saw on this list.

14. Ireland ($85)

According to the Irish Times, Ireland is the 13th most expensive country in the world to live in. These numbers become even starker when looking at rent alone, with it moving up to 8th.

These were statistics I had not seen before, which is why I was surprised to see it in the top 20 of this list. At $85 it is $16 a night more expensive than the United Kingdom which can be found down in 44th place.

There are currently 70 stays at over $900 in Ireland, but in fairness, these aren’t the tiny apartments I saw in places like Seychelles and Monaco. One place I found priced at nearly $2,500 a night slept 30 and looked like a small castle!

The Cheapest Countries To Rent an Airbnb

1. Nepal ($19)

The cheapest country to rent and Airbnb on earth is Nepal.

Coming in at an astonishing $19 a night, it was $3 cheaper than any country on this list.

Setting the filters low I found 300+ stays (the maximum number Airbnb shows) below $12! In fact $12 seems to be the going rate in much of Kathmandu, as there are hundreds of rooms at this price. When the filter was dropped to $11 there were only 23 properties available.

It was also in Nepal that I found the cheapest room of my search, a private room in Dhulikhel priced at only $4 and rather ominously titled ‘You will stay with me‘.

At the more expensive end, of the thousands of Airbnbs in the country, only 34 of them were priced at more than $200, this truly is a country where you can sleep for cheap.

2. Brazil ($22)

When it comes to travel, Brazil is usually seen as one of the more expensive countries to visit in South America, but when it comes to Airbnbs, it seems to be the cheapest.

This may be due to competition more than anything, with AllTheRooms.com showing Brazil as having the 7th highest number of Airbnb rooms available in the world, with the United States topping the list and the other five being in Europe.

The sheer quantity of cheap rooms is what brings Brazil’s average down, with 176 stays currently showing at under $10 a night and 288 at under $11 a night.

This is added to by a lack of outliers at the top end, with the most expensive property I could find coming in at $550 a night. Even our cheapest country Nepal had multiple stays at over $1,000 with the most expensive topping out at over $1,750.

3. Bolivia ($23)

Bolivia is often considered to be one of if not the cheapest country to travel to in South America, with capital La Paz also one of the cheapest cities.

Whilst there are significantly fewer properties here than some of the other countries in South America, there are still an impressive 269 available at less than $15 a night.

The cheapest stay here I found was Casa de Alfonso, a $4 a night stay with a family in Rurrenabaque, which advertises one room, with space to sleep 10, but with only one double bed and three hammocks. Looks like a few people are on the floor!

4. Argentina ($23) & 5. Peru $25

Rounding out the cheapest five we have a further two entries from South America, Argentina and Peru.

Argentina, similarly to Brazil, has a staggering number of Airbnbs available for all price ranges. There are $299 available at over $898 a night, but also 254 available at under $8 a night. There is something for everyone here!

The image above shows you just how low down the curve the properties in Peru sit. The highest quantity of stays in Peru are listed at $22, with a huge amount under this value with well over 100 available at under $10 a night.

SMALL PRINT

-> All currencies in this post refer to the United States Dollar.
-> All data for this post was gathered from Nomad List.
-> Any images in this post that are not my own were sourced from Unsplash.com.
-> You are free to reproduce any of the graphics or information from this as on as you link back to this post.