Tourists visiting Bucharest, the capital of Romania, are staying in illegal properties listed on Airbnb and Booking.com. They are staying in buildings at high risk of collapse in the event of a major earthquake, according to exclusive data shared with The Guardian. Analysis of data collected by Re:Rise, a Romanian organisation working on seismic risk reduction, at the end of May identified at least 207 illegal tourist properties in Bucharest, being rented out and advertised on the two platforms, with a combined capacity to host more than 1,000 guests each night.
Booking.com had 116 of them listed, 47 were on Airbnb, and 44 properties were on both platforms. All were in buildings classified as having the highest seismic risk. Bucharest is the capital city most at risk from earthquakes in the European Union. It has been hit by two major earthquakes in the past century. The most recent, in 1977, killed over 1,500 people, injured more than 10,000 and toppled 32 buildings in less than a minute. Experts believe another such quake is inevitable, warning that the damage could be even greater than in previous disasters, as many of the city’s buildings have been structurally weakened over the past decades. To curb the use of unsafe housing, Romania has banned short- and long-term rentals of apartments in buildings with a high seismic risk, classified as RS1, by 2024. As a result, there are at least 404 such buildings in the capital, where any type of rental is illegal. Violations are punishable by fines of 1,000 to 2,000 euros.
UNINFORMED TOURISTS
Since only a small fraction of the city’s buildings have been officially assessed for seismic risk, experts believe the true extent of unsafe accommodations is probably even greater. However, these risks are rarely made clear to tourists booking a place to stay. Neither Airbnb nor Booking.com require hosts to declare whether their properties are structurally safe. “We tried every possible way to notify the platforms about this problem, but they told us that the responsibility lies with the owners, not them,” said Matei Sumbasacu, a civil engineer and founder of Re:Rise.
Ana Todor, who booked apartments in the RS1 building twice through Airbnb in 2025, said she felt the owners and platforms were “relying” on the fact that guests would not carefully review the rules and laws. “But when I arrived, the building looked in very bad shape from the outside and didn’t make me feel safe at all,” Todor said. “The descriptions that minimize the risk are like a Hello Kitty bandage on a deep crack,” she explained.
Todor says she didn’t know that renting in such buildings was illegal and that she would now always consider the condition and location of the building before booking. “The more I learned about this, the more anxiety I got. Every time I travel to Bucharest, I don’t sleep well: I’m constantly on edge,” she confessed.
One of the apartments found by The Guardian and Re:Rise on Airbnb, a two-bedroom apartment described as a “design apartment” on University Square, costs around €100 per night and can accommodate up to six people. A family who stayed there last October wrote in their review that the building was “old and looked suspicious from the outside.” An Airbnb “superhost” has 25 properties listed on the platform, at least six of which are in buildings with the highest seismic risk, according to the analysis. An apartment in an RS1 building on Roman Square is described as combining “classic charm with modern comfort, ideal for both business and leisure travel.” The true number of tourist apartments in RS1 buildings is likely even higher, as the analysis includes only those properties for which the address was confirmed. Of the confirmed properties, only two mentioned in their descriptions that they were in a building with a high seismic risk. Even those tried to downplay the risk.
In one of them, the owner writes that the accommodation “may feature in older seismic hazard classifications,” adding that this is “common for historic buildings in the city center” and that the building “is regularly inhabited and maintained.” Another listing does not directly mention the risk, but the owner’s English bio includes a sentence in Romanian stating that the building where the apartment is located has a “dot,” without explaining what this means. By law, RS1 buildings must have a red dot above the entrance with a notice in Romanian indicating that the building is classified in the first seismic hazard class. For the vast majority of foreign visitors, this warning is practically invisible if they do not know Romanian, activists say.
THE DECISION TO ACT ON YOUR OWN
After unsuccessfully trying to warn Airbnb and Booking.com about these dangerous listings, Re:Rise decided to take action on its own. Volunteers began sticking stickers that were difficult to remove onto key boxes placed outside RS1 buildings with tourist apartments. Each sticker had a QR code that sent tourists to a website where they could read about the seismic risk of the property they were entering. “The state could directly address the platforms and force them to act… The main institution responsible for anyone visiting the city is the municipality,” Sumbasacu said. “Everyone should take care of their own yard, but they have always evaded this responsibility,” he added.
The city hall said that local police only carry out inspections after complaints and that in January it had notified the Ministry of Tourism to include the law prohibiting rentals in RS1 buildings in the authorization process. “An information campaign was also organized for owners of apartments and buildings that are on the list of objects classified in the RS1 category. Around 3,000 notifications have been sent,” the statement said.
An Airbnb spokesperson said that safety is a priority for Airbnb and that the company takes such issues seriously. “We are currently reviewing the available information to take appropriate action,” he said.
A spokesperson for Booking.com said its accommodation partners must ensure they are aware of their obligations and comply with all local laws. “We have a clear process for authorities to report any listings they have concerns about,” he said. According to Romania’s National Institute of Statistics, Bucharest welcomed more than 2 million visitors in 2025, more than any other city in the country.
However, much of the city’s infrastructure, including several schools, administrative buildings, theatres, fire stations and private properties, remains at high seismic risk. Building reinforcement work, begun after the 1977 earthquake, was halted when communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu redirected funds to the massive People’s House, now known as the Palace of the Parliament of Romania. Since the building reinforcement law was passed in 1994, only 35 buildings have been structurally rehabilitated. A risk assessment conducted in 2022 by the Bucharest City Committee for Emergency Situations estimated that a major earthquake could severely damage around 23,000 buildings across the city, cause around 6,500 deaths and leave around 16,000 people seriously injured. (The Guardian)