By Julian Bonnici, Daiva Repečkaitė and Sabrina Zammit
Photo credit: Joanna Demarco
- Listings based in Malta generate an estimated €47 million annually.
- Nearly one-third of Malta’s estimated €47 million annual Airbnb revenue is collected by just 63 hosts.
- The top three operators alone collect around €3.7 million each year.
- Malta’s short-let sector is dominated by property management firms and developers managing hundreds of listings.
- Leading operators include 360 Group (650+ listings, generating €1.7m revenue), Buena Vista Holidays (300+ listings, €950k revenue), and ShortletsMalta Ltd (79 listings, €520k+ revenue).
- Companies like Zzzing and GetawaysMalta manage dozens of short-lets in concentrated areas.
When most people think of short-term rentals, often called “Airbnbs” after the company that popularised the model, they imagine a friend or relative renting out a spare room or apartment for extra cash. In reality, the industry is dominated by property managers who control hundreds of listings. Their portfolios generate hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, in revenue each year.
Amphora Media’s latest investigation, carried out with support from Journalismfund Europe and in collaboration with Centro di Giornalismo Permanente, analysed data collected from Airbnb and provided by an activist-led platform, Inside Airbnb, to offer a closer look at a booming industry reshaping Malta’s tourism accommodation sector and fueling growing tensions within residential communities.
Airbnb claims that the “vast majority of Hosts are regular people” and around “three quarters of EU Hosts share only one listing”. According to Airbnb data, listings based in Malta generate an estimated €47 million annually.
Nearly a third of the €47 million generated goes to just 63 hosts; 23 of whom each earn more than €200,000 a year. Hosts are the public-facing entities (individuals or businesses) that communicate with customers.
The top 3 earn an estimated €3.7 million in annual revenue. Inside Airbnb does not have information on listing ownership. The revenues collected from Airbnb are shared between the owners and property managers.
This only scratches the surface. Similar data from Booking.com, another major player in the sector, is not currently accessible. A quick search on their website shows there are at least 3,745 listings in Malta under the “entire homes & apartments”, “holiday homes”, or “villas” banner.
“Matthew ThreeSixty Estates” and its six other profiles top the list of “Airbnb Hosts”, with more than 650 listings and an estimated annual portfolio revenue of over €1.7 million. The profiles are tied to 360 Group LTD, a Malta-registered company owned by Matthew Zammit, whose most recently published accounts date back to 2020.
360 Group operates across several areas of the short-term rental market. According to the 360 website, services include property management, where owners hand over day-to-day responsibilities in exchange for a fee; subletting, which guarantees owners a fixed monthly payment under a long-term contract while the company uses the property for short-term lets; and a development arm. “Earn more. Stress less” is the company’s pitch to owners.
The company’s representatives did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.
Buena Vista Holidays Ltd, another property management company offering services similar to 360 Group, which is owned by Aaron and Paula Xuereb, ranks second with over 300 listings and an estimated annual portfolio revenue of nearly €950,000.
It operates on Airbnb under two profiles. ‘Buena Vista Holidays Malta’, which is registered under Buena Vista Holidays Ltd, and ‘Paola’, registered under ‘Paula Xuereb Management Services’, which provides no company number and cannot be found on Malta Business Registry.
The company’s representatives did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.
The third-highest estimated earner is ShortletsMalta Ltd, owned by Franco Grech and Ralph Vella.
The firm, which brands itself as “one of Malta’s foremost developers of luxury residential apartments, homes and properties,” has moved into the short-term rental market. With 79 listings on Airbnb, it is estimated to generate more than €520,000 annually from this portfolio.
The company’s representatives did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.
‘Gwennoline’ and ‘Ryan’, who appear on behalf of Gobnb Ltd, a Maltese company owned by Ryan Seguna, Fabiano Bugelli and Roderick Bartolo, have the third most listings on Airbnb. Together, they manage 117 listings with an estimated annual portfolio revenue of more than €468,000.
The company’s representatives did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.
Zzzing, another property management outfit, has 115 listings and their portfolio is estimated to generate over €260,600 a year. Zzzing promises its clients to take care of licensing.
Run by VH Company Ltd, owned by Edward Cauchi, Bikram Arora and Jonathan Sammut, Amphora Media’s analysis of the data shows that Zzzing operates several Airbnb clusters: multiple short-let accommodations in a single location, sometimes covering multiple apartments in a residential block. It tops the list in this category.
Amphora Media’s analysis, which mapped listings by geolocation, found that Zzzing ran 36 listings across 10 different clusters. Zzzing also has a significant presence on other platforms such as Booking.com, where it manages 116 properties.
The company’s representatives did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.
GetawaysMalta, a host listed under an individual operator, Neville Galea, also operates significant clusters.According to the data, GetawaysMalta and GetawaysMalta Neville operate 87 listings across two profiles, generating an estimated revenue of €204,000 per year. Analysis shows that 32 of Getaways’ listings are spread across 8 locations.
To comply with EU law, Airbnb requires hosts to declare themselves as an individual or a company. Individual profiles should only be created for hosts whose primary activity is not short-term lets.
As a host, Galea (a.k.a. GetawaysMalta Neville) and GetawaysMalta are registered as individuals despite Airbnb’s listed criteria stating that anyone whose main activity is short-lets, including solo traders, should register as a business. Galea’s listings come with a warning for guests, “Consumer protection laws don’t apply to reservations hosted by individuals”.
AirBnB did not reply to our questions about commercial hosts registering as individuals.
GetawaysMalta’s representatives did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.
Some cases highlight serious gaps in Airbnb’s regulatory oversight.
One host, ‘Fabian,’ claims his properties are managed by SF Properties, but lists an invalid company number and cannot be traced on the Malta Business Registry despite identifying as a company in Malta. His 112 listings are estimated to generate around €110,000 annually.
The company’s representatives did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.
Data from Booking.com, another major player in the sector, is not yet accessible through similar scraping.
However, upcoming EU legislation will require the platform to share such information with governments, a crucial step, given that our investigation found that 19% of short-term rental accommodations on the islands of Malta operate without a license from the Malta Tourism Authority.
Speaking to Amphora Media, tourism researcher Marie Avellino explained:
“If you’re running a business … or you are commercially managing lots of apartments… whoever is managing it has to address how they are going to cater for the collection of garbage – like you manage how the sheets are going to be washed, how the apartment is going to be cleaned. They charge very good money for managing. (…) So this has to be integrated into the contract””.
Short-let managers “need to realise what harm is happening”, and when it does, customers will not return, she says.
“If people come to the island and they think it’s dirty, full of rubbish and so on, they won’t come. [Managers] might not realise it, or they’re just thinking about what money they’re going to get now.”
MEP Kim van Sparrentak (member of the Dutch Greens) led the development of the new EU law on mandatory data sharing between platforms and local authorities. Commenting on the Amphora Media investigation into enforcement gaps, she said, “The European rules that oblige Airbnb and other platforms to share data can help local and national authorities to enforce the rules can be a real game changer once these enter into force next year. Everything however starts with the political will to combat over-tourism and ensure that housing is for people, nor for profit.”
This investigation was developed with the support of Journalismfund Europe.
