Tourist or seasonal letting in Barcelona: which is more profitable?

Public data as of October 2026. This page carries no Bizflats figures: only public sources, each with its date, and a way to run your own numbers.

The short answer: it depends on the apartment and on the year. Tourist letting earns more per night in high season, but with more turnover, more costs and an end date in Barcelona. Seasonal letting for leisure has a freely set rent and less work, with more seasonal demand. Seasonal letting that covers a housing need has a capped rent. To decide, you have to look at the three separately.

Three regimes, not two

The question “tourist or seasonal” hides a third case, and it is the one that most often causes confusion.

1. Tourist letting. Stays of up to 31 nights, with a HUT licence. In Barcelona it ends on 9 November 2028. Nightly rate set freely.
2. Seasonal letting for leisure or holidays. Stays of 32 nights or more, with no tourist licence, the leisure purpose documented and the tenant’s habitual residence elsewhere. A lease for a use other than housing: the rent can be set freely (article 66 bis.4 of Law 18/2007, since 1 January 2026).
3. Seasonal letting for a housing need. Stays of 32 nights or more for work, study, medical reasons or temporary circumstances, or a contract signed by a company for a specific employee. Housing rules apply and, in Barcelona, so does the reference price.

And a fourth, outside the comparison: the long-term residential lease, with a capped rent.

What the public data says about tourist letting

• Occupancy. According to Apartur, Barcelona’s tourist apartment association, the city’s licensed tourist apartments averaged 88.8% occupancy in summer 2026, above the 88% of summer 2025 and the 84% forecast made in June (figures published on 16 September 2026). That covers June, July and August. There is no public source for annual occupancy, and the winter months are far quieter.
• Prices. The INE, Spain’s statistics office, publishes no average rate for Barcelona city. Its nationwide price index for tourist apartments rose 5.8% in August 2026 against August 2025 (non-hotel tourist accommodation survey, provisional data). Private estimates of nightly rates vary widely by neighbourhood and season; none is official, and we cite none here.
• Tourist tax. According to the Generalitat de Catalunya and Barcelona City Council, since 1 April 2026 a tourist-use dwelling in Barcelona charges 9.50 euros per person per night for the first seven nights (4.50 of Generalitat tax and 5 of municipal surcharge). The guest pays it: it is neither your income nor your cost, but it makes the stay dearer and weighs on the guest’s decision.

What the public data says about seasonal letting

• Seasonal rents. The only published index is from Spotahome, a platform for medium-length lets: an average of 1,750 euros a month for an apartment in Barcelona in the second quarter of 2026, up 12.9% on a year earlier; 1,200 euros for a studio. Two cautions: these are prices with bills included, and most stays on such platforms cover a housing need, that is, the capped regime. For leisure seasonal lets where the rent is set freely there is no public index. What you can do is look at comparable listings on seasonal-rental portals and monthly-stay platforms, and note whether bills are included.
• Supply. According to Idealista, seasonal lets made up 55% of Barcelona’s rental listings in the first quarter of 2026, even though the number of seasonal listings had fallen 29% on the previous year.
• The reference price. For seasonal contracts covering a housing need, the maximum rent is set by the official index for each address. It is looked up with the Ministry of Housing’s tool (SERPAVI) or the Generalitat de Catalunya’s. As context, not as a cap: INCASÒL put the average rent of contracts deposited in Barcelona at 1,160.99 euros a month in April 2026, and Idealista put asking rents for housing in the city at 20.1 euros per square metre in September 2026.

The costs, line by line

Tourist letting

• Channel commission. As of October 2026, Airbnb charges most hosts a single 15.5% service fee (per its help page); Booking.com around 15%, depending on the contract and visibility programmes. Direct bookings pay none.
• Cleaning and laundry at every check-out. Often charged to the guest; when the real cost exceeds what was charged, the shortfall is yours to cover.
• Utilities and consumables, always at your expense.
• Management fee, if you have a manager. What it is calculated on and what it covers is explained in “What a property management company charges in Barcelona”.
• Wear and maintenance, in proportion to turnover.
• Empty nights between bookings and out of season.

Seasonal letting

• Less turnover: one check-in and one check-out per contract, not per weekend.
• Utilities: included in the rent or paid by the tenant, as the contract says; decide it and state it in the listing.
• Deposit: for seasonal contracts shorter than a year, INCASÒL prorates it by days, based on two months’ rent (INCASÒL’s public rule). It must be lodged within two months of signing.
• Documentation of purpose, lodged with the deposit. Contract work, not cleaning work.
• Gaps between contracts, which can be longer than between tourist bookings.
• Management fee, if you have a manager.
• No platform commission if the contract is agreed directly; some monthly-stay platforms charge commissions comparable to tourist ones.

How to run your numbers

Three figures, and you can look up all three yourself:

1. Your apartment’s occupancy, month by month, over the last two years: it is in your booking history. Do not use a summer figure for the whole year.
2. The monthly leisure seasonal rent of comparable listings: same neighbourhood, same size, same condition, and whether bills are included.
3. The reference price for your address, in the official tool: it is the ceiling of the housing-need regime.

With that, compare the whole year, not one month: gross income, less channel commission, less cleaning, less management, less utilities, less empty nights or weeks. For the tourist case, add the end date: on 9 November 2028 the comparison ceases to exist in Barcelona. Taxes also change with the type of contract; discuss that part with your adviser.

So which is more profitable?

With the public data in hand, three conclusions that hold:

• In high season, tourist letting earns more per night. The 88.8% occupancy for summer 2026 published by Apartur shows the strength of the high season. But every night brings its turnover, its cleaning and its commission, and winter looks nothing like summer.
• Leisure seasonal letting can come close with far less work, above all in apartments in neighbourhoods with demand for long holidays, and the rent can be set freely. Demand is seasonal, and the purpose of every stay must be documented.
• Seasonal letting for a housing need rarely competes, because the reference price caps it. If your apartment only attracts that kind of tenant, the calculation is a different one.

And the factor no table shows: in Barcelona, tourist letting has an end date. An apartment that wins the comparison today loses it on 9 November 2028. That is why the useful question is not only which regime pays more today, but when and how to move from one to the other. We cover that in the guide for owners.

Rental regulation in Catalunya is changing. We follow every change closely and, if any information on this page is no longer accurate, we will update it and inform the owners who work with us.

Sources

• Apartur, summer 2026 occupancy figures for Barcelona’s tourist apartments (16 September 2026).
• INE, Encuesta de ocupación en alojamientos turísticos extrahoteleros, August 2026, provisional data (tourist apartment price index, +5.8%).
• Spotahome, quarterly seasonal-rental price index, second quarter of 2026.
• Idealista, Barcelona rental price report, September 2026 (20.1 €/m²), and analysis of seasonal-rental supply, first quarter of 2026.
• INCASÒL, statistics on deposits lodged in Barcelona, April 2026, and the proration rule for seasonal-contract deposits.
• Airbnb, “Service fees for hosts”, October 2026 (single 15.5% fee for most hosts); Booking.com, “Understanding our commission”.
• Tourist tax in Barcelona from 1 April 2026: Generalitat de Catalunya and Barcelona City Council.
• Law 11/2025 (article 66 bis of Law 18/2007) and Decree-law 3/2023.