Short-term rentals have been backed to fill visitor demand and share the Olympic tourism boom after it was revealed barely a quarter of the hotel rooms required for the 2032 Games were on track to be delivered.
Hotel building across Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast has almost stopped despite strong bookings and higher room rates, according to a Property Council of Australia report released on Wednesday.
Queensland is well behind the state government's own hotel targets, with the current pipeline expected to deliver about 24 per cent of the 14,700 extra rooms needed by 2032, according to CBRE, a global real estate and investment firm.
Airbnb would play a critical role in meeting Brisbane's Olympic accommodation needs and share Games tourism spoils with local communities, the company said.
"When the International Olympic Committee assessed Brisbane's bid, Airbnb was explicitly recognised as part of the accommodation mix needed to help the city host the Games successfully," Airbnb Australia and New Zealand's Susan Wheeldon told AAP.
"Major events require a broad and flexible accommodation ecosystem, not hotels alone."
Research from Los Angeles suggests home sharing and other short-term rentals could help house Olympic crowds and spread the benefits beyond big operators.
A Deloitte report for Airbnb on the LA28 Games found spectator demand was likely to exceed hotel and other formal lodging capacity, with short‑term rentals expected to soak up much of the overflow and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in extra economic activity.
During the 2024 Paris Olympics, Airbnb boosted the city's accommodation supply by more than 50 per cent and helped keep prices in check for visitors.
At the 2026 Winter Games in Milan, short‑term rentals helped spread visitors across the wider region, into mountain towns and villages, and curbed localised hotel price gouging.
Tourism bodies argue any similar move in Queensland would need to be carefully managed to avoid worsening local rental pressures, but said there was room for targeted, time‑limited measures linked to major events.
Tourism Industry Council Queensland said the visitor economy was running hot and needed beds and infrastructure to match.
"It's important we continue to focus on the enabling infrastructure needed to support sustainable growth into the future,'' chief executive Natassia Wheeler said.
Just one new hotel opened across Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast in the past 12 months – the Mondrian at Burleigh Heads – the 2026 Queensland Hotel Market Outlook found.
The state's hotel shortage was a long-term problem, Property Council Queensland executive director Jess Caire said.
"The demand is here, the global spotlight is coming, but the rooms are not," she said.
The accommodation crunch is part of a wider strain on Queensland's ability to deliver the infrastructure and services needed for the Games decade.
"Accommodation is just one part of a broader capacity challenge. From hospitals to the Olympics, the size of investment in Queensland is squeezing the labour market," Australian Constructors Association chief executive Peter Colacino said.
"The construction industry is being asked to deliver more with higher input costs and that equation doesn't work without a step change in how we build."
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said the Games should be seen as "nothing but opportunity" for the state, including for accommodation providers looking beyond the two weeks of Olympic competition.
He expected a mix of new hotels, short‑term rentals and Queenslanders hosting friends and family to help soak up demand.
"There's still a major opportunity for hotels, and there's a major opportunity for Airbnb," Mr Crisafulli said.
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