Booking.com Partners With Esperanza Gracia to Recommend 2026 Travel Destinations by Zodiac Sign
- Booking.com has partnered with Esperanza Gracia, Spain’s most recognisable astrologer, to recommend 2026 travel destinations based on travellers’ zodiac signs.
- Announced on January 21, 2026, the campaign is rooted in Booking.com’s Travel Predictions 2026 report.
- The data cited focuses on Spanish travellers: 41% say they would consider changing or cancelling a trip based on advice from a spiritual guide, while 38% would rethink plans following a horoscope warning.
- The initiative positions astrology as a way to decide not just where to travel, but when and why, pairing each zodiac sign with destination types and locations.
- The campaign also ties into broader 2026 themes, including shorter, more intentional trips, interest in less conventional destinations, and travel linked to celestial events, notably the total solar eclipse on August 12, 2026, visible from Spain for the first time in nearly a century.
About Esperanza Gracia
Esperanza Gracia is Spain’s most widely followed astrologer, with a long-standing daily presence across television, radio, and digital media, and a large social following that spans multiple generations.
Snigdha’s Views
- This is a clear example of a trend turning into platform strategy.
- Expedia, Airbnb, and Booking.com have all pointed to 2026 travel trends centred on personalisation, meaning, and self-alignment, with astrology repeatedly appearing in that mix.
- Booking.com’s move confirms this isn’t just cultural noise, but something platforms now see as commercially relevant.
- Airbnb is moving in the same direction, linking rural travel demand to the August 2026 solar eclipse through its Pueblos Mágicos partnership in Spain.
- Platforms are no longer just selling a bed; they are selling a ‘temporal alignment‘, matching the guest’s internal state with a specific moment in time (like the eclipse)
- For property managers, the signal is clear: as discovery becomes more identity-led, listings that clearly communicate who they’re for, what moment they suit, and the experience they enable will be better aligned with how guests are choosing trips in 2026.
Greece Expands Rental Restrictions and Forces Registry Removal in Designated Zones
- Greece announced a new housing package on January 26, 2026, shifting policy toward increasing long-term rental supply to address high rents and housing shortages.
- The measures include incentives for developers and investors to build or convert homes for long-term leasing, with 10-year minimum commitments, tax deductions on rental income, and capped rents, alongside expanded public-private social housing using state-owned land. The first social housing tenders are expected in 2026.
- The package also introduces a large renovation programme, offering subsidies of up to 90% of renovation costs, capped at €36,000 per home, within a €400 million budget, to bring vacant or underused properties back into the long-term rental market.
- STRs are affected as well. Restrictions will tighten and extend to central Thessaloniki, and in designated zones where STRs are already banned, properties that change ownership will be removed from the national STR registry, preventing new owners from reactivating STR use.
Snigdha’s Views:
- This move builds directly on steps Greece has already taken, from Athens freezing new STR licences and extending that ban through 2026, to steadily tightening compliance, taxes, and oversight nationwide.
- What changes now is the framing: STRs are being managed as part of a housing supply policy, not as a standalone tourism issue.
- In practice, this creates structural limits rather than temporary friction. In designated zones, ownership changes now permanently remove properties from the STR market, while incentives are deliberately designed to pull capital toward long-term rentals and renovations instead.
- Cities like Athens and Thessaloniki are increasingly difficult growth markets for whole-home STRs.
- Property managers should note: Portfolios concentrated in central urban STRs carry rising policy risk, while assets that can support mid-term stays, renovated long-term rentals, or non-urban and leisure demand are far more defensible under the direction policy is taking.
Hawaii Floats Plan That Could Remove 10,000 Vacation Rentals
- Hawaii Governor Josh Green said in his January 26, 2026, State of the State address that the state could convert “at least another 10,000” STRs into long-term housing.
- However, the figure is not backed by statewide legislation, timelines, or concrete county-level plans.
- At present, Maui County is the only jurisdiction pursuing a large-scale STR phaseout, through Bill 9, which targets up to 6,208 apartment-zoned units with conversion deadlines in 2029 and 2031.
- Even that number remains uncertain: Maui County has advanced zoning changes that could allow roughly 4,500 units to continue operating, and multiple lawsuits are challenging the law.
- Outside Maui, there are no comparable measures underway on Oahu, Kauai, or the Big Island that would support a statewide conversion at scale.
Snigdha’s Views:
- This is more political signalling than policy delivery. We’ve been tracking Hawaii’s STR landscape closely, and the reality remains county-driven, slow-moving, and legally contested.
- Maui’s Bill 9 is the only mechanism that could materially reduce STR supply, and even there, rezoning efforts and court challenges leave outcomes unresolved.
- For property managers, the takeaway is to separate headlines from execution risk.
- While STRs continue to be framed as part of Hawaii’s housing response, any actual inventory loss is likely to be incremental, uneven, and delayed, rather than sudden or statewide.
- Maui remains a high-risk market from a policy perspective, while other islands show no immediate path toward large-scale STR removal.
Snigdha Parghan is a Content Marketer at RSU by PriceLabs, where she creates articles, manages daily social media, and repurposes news and analysis into podcasts and video content for short-term rental professionals. With a focus on technology, operations, and marketing, Snigdha helps property managers stay informed and adapt to industry shifts.
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