Tourism and Short-Stay Facilities in Europe: Economic and Business Aspects

Recently, the short-term rental (STR) sector has become increasingly important in the European tourism economy, transforming the accommodation landscape. Despite the spread of the phenomenon, the literature has devoted lit-tle attention to the comparative analysis of the economic and financial performance of companies operating in this field. This study analyses a sample of 29.167 companies in the NACE Rev. 2 55.20 sector in France, Italy, and the United Kingdom for the period 2015–2024, using balance sheet data from the Orbis Europe database. The analysis applies cluster analysis (K-means) to identify homogeneous groups of companies based on dimensional variables (turnover, total assets and number of employees). Subsequently, two financial balance sheet ratios are examined: Return on Assets (ROA) and Financial Leverage. The results show strong polarisation in the sector, with microen-terprises dominating. However, there are no statistically significant differences in operational performance or fi-nancial structures between the identified clusters. This suggests that size is not a determinant of cost-efficiency. Rather, organisational adaptability and the use of digital platforms seem more relevant to business resilience to tourism shocks. The study contributes to the emerging literature on STRs by providing one of the first large-scale financial analyses based on balance sheet data and by proposing new research directions on operational efficien-cy and business resilience in digital tourism.