Airbnb in Cyprus take over - "The reins are definitely held by the province of Famagusta and Paphos"
They are taking over the self-catering tourist accommodation in Cyprus, with their development being rapid.
Speaking at Mesimeri kai Kati, the General Secretary of the Association of Self-catering Tourist Accommodations, Konstantinos Karakontis, stated that there are about 15-16 thousand tourist accommodations at the moment.
"We estimate that along with agritourism there are around 15-16 thousand tourist accommodations at the moment. Certainly the reins are held by the tourist cities and specifically the province of Famagusta and Paphos ".
He went on to say that it is still treated as something new, "it is not treated like abroad.
"The industry started to grow from 2015 onwards, when houses and apartments began to be converted into tourist accommodation. Now with the legislation we are waiting to see how many of these accommodations will be registered in the register of tourist accommodations and how many will be left at the end ".
Speaking about the competition between self-catering accommodation and hotel units, he said, "We are forced to offer services worthy of hotels in order to be able to keep our customers because we too are judged by the reviews. So people judge at the end of the day whether an accommodation is good or not ".
He later said that the lowest prices are observed in Nicosia, which has the least traffic.
Asked what one should do to be able to find affordable accommodation he explained that the sooner one books the better accommodation one will find.