Rome edges ahead of Bologna on higher occupancy (26.3% vs 19.7%), stronger RevPAR (£41 vs £32).
Head-to-head metrics
| Bologna | Rome | |
|---|---|---|
| Median occupancy | 19.7% | 26.3% |
| Median daily rate | £150 | £159 |
| Median RevPAR | £32 | £41 |
| Active listings | 3,882 | 27,717 |
| YoY occupancy | +0 pts | +3.3 pts |
| YoY daily rate | +20.4% | +45% |
| Regulation risk | — | medium |
| Annual night cap | None | None |
| License required | No | No |
Full analysis: Bologna vs Rome
On the money side of this comparison — what a listing actually earns against the nights it has available — Rome finishes decisively ahead of Bologna. Revenue per available night — rate and occupancy combined, the figure that actually reaches an owner — is 28.8% higher in Rome: £41 against £32. Rome's listings run at 26.3% occupancy against 19.7% in Bologna, worth 6.6 extra points of booked calendar every year. That is not a rounding difference, and it compounds over a hold period.
Rome takes both halves of the yield equation, which is less common than it sounds. It charges more per night — £159 against £150 — and still fills more of the year, 26.3% against 19.7%. A market that leads on price and utilisation at once is normally one where demand has outrun supply, rather than one where hosts are discounting to keep the calendar busy. RevPAR reflects the double advantage at £41 against £32.
That verdict needs a caveat, because Bologna is not simply the weaker market of the two. Bologna is the less crowded of the two — 3,882 active listings to 27,717 — so a well-run property has fewer near-identical rivals to out-rank. Its strongest submarket, Porto - Saragozza, clears £37 RevPAR on its own — city medians hide that kind of spread. If your model leans on that dimension, the ordering above can reasonably flip.
We hold a verified regulation record for only one side of this pairing. Rome applies no annual night cap and requires registration but no licence, on a medium risk rating. Bologna should be read as unverified rather than unregulated: check the local authority's own register before you underwrite anything there.
The two calendars also behave differently. Bologna peaks in September at 70.8% and bottoms in December at 32.8%; Rome runs from 67.3% in October down to 28.9% in February. Both swing by a similar amount across the year, so neither offers meaningfully steadier cash flow than the other.
Who each suits, then. Bologna suits buyers who want a conventional, lightly regulated entry. Rome answers to the same regulatory profile, so the split between them is operational rather than legal. It is also the momentum side of this pair. Every figure above comes from the same Inside Airbnb snapshot pipeline on both sides, dated 2026-09, filtered to listings with at least one booking in the last twelve months. Occupancy medians are drawn from 3,882 active Bologna listings and 27,717 in Rome.
Frequently asked questions
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