Short-term rentals such as Airbnb have become a persistent element of today’s urbanism around the globe. The impacts are manifold and differ depending on the context. In cities with a traditionally smaller accommodation market, the impacts might be particularly strong, as Airbnb contributes to ongoing touristification processes. Despite that, small and medium-sized cities have not been in the centre of research so far. This paper focuses on Santa Cruz de Tenerife as a medium-sized Spanish city. Although embedded in the touristic region of the Canary Islands, Santa Cruz is not a tourist city per se but still relies on touristification strategies. This paper aims to expand the knowledge of Airbnb’s spatial patterns in this type of city. The use of data collected from web scraping and geographic information systems (GIS) demonstrates that Airbnb has opened up new tourism markets outside of the centrally established tourist accommodations. It also shows that the price gap between Airbnb and the housing rental market is broadest in neighbourhoods that had not experienced tourism before Airbnb entered the market. In the centre the highest prices and the smallest units are identified, but two peripheral quarters stand out. Anaga Mountains, a natural and rural space, has the highest numbers of Airbnb listings per capita. Suroeste, a suburban quarter, shows the highest growth rates on the rental market, which implies a linkage between Airbnb and suburbanization processes.

This article deals with digitalization as a contribution to city center resilience, using Leipzig as an example. Focus group interviews illustrate that digital applications can attract to visit the city center and thus contribute to city center resilience. To reinforce these findings, the authors develop a prototype of a digital map covering Leipzig’s city center that is tested by means of 70 go-along interviews. The interviews show that linking digital functions and location-specific information thereby can be effective regarding city center resilience.

Growth rates in e-commerce, changing consumer behaviors, and COVID-19 have all put pressure on local retailers worldwide, threatening the resilience of city centers. Local online platforms (LOPs) have been considered as a solution to help local retailers increase their visibility and survive on the market. However, most platforms fail to attract a significant number of stakeholders. Simultaneously, digital platform solutions with more holistic urban perspectives, such as urban data platforms (UDPs), have emerged. However, a question remains: how can the integration of retail data (e.g., product availabilities) into a UDP succeed? Therefore, in this paper, we explore stakeholder-oriented networking processes to integrate local retail data into a UDP in Leipzig, Germany. Leipzig has increased its population by 26% since 2000, but presents the highest retail vacancy rate, compared to other major German cities. To investigate the networking process in Leipzig, we conduct a social network analysis which combines qualitative interviews, mapping, and ethnographic research. We interview ten stakeholders and uncover conflicts within the networking process: First, all stakeholders have different understandings of UDPs and how to integrate local retail data; second, the interviewees acknowledge the importance of, but none of them feel responsible for, initiating or managing the process; and third, the city administration has shown diverging interest, in terms of taking on more responsibility.