Short-term rentals and transformations in urban areas: the case of Turin (Italy)

The last few years have been dominated by the spread of digital platforms allowing to connect the offer and demand of goods and services, facilitating either the rise or growth of original economic trends. An example is represented by digitally-enabled peer-to-peer accommodation systems that serve as intermediaries between people willing to rent for short-term periods rooms or entire residential units and travellers preferring to stay in private houses rather than in hotels or other hospitality venues. Short-term rentals represent an opportunity of growth for cities and territories at large, but they are not neutral and related socio-economic effects may vary depending on both the context and the actors involved. The analysis of the characteristics of the phenomenon, including its diachronic evolution and its spatial distribution in urban contexts, may represent a fundamental step to better understand a variety of possible consequences, and it could also inform decision-making and regulations at the local level. The goal of this article is to analyse the characteristics and spread of short-term rental accommodations in Turin (Italy), experimenting the adoption of the Microzones identified by the Turin Real Estate Market Observatory as spatial unit of analysis; more particularly, this approach aims to identify which are the areas of the city that have been particularly interested by this phenomenon, then allowing to suggest possible implications and new research horizons.