Revealed: Bucharest tourists hiring rentals that could collapse in an earthquake

Experts believe a major earthquake in Bucharest is inevitable and warn of unsafe building stock. Photograph: Universal History Archive View image in fullscreen Experts believe a major earthquake in Bucharest is inevitable and warn of unsafe building stock. Photograph: Universal History Archive Revealed: Bucharest tourists hiring rentals that could collapse in an earthquake Exclusive: More than 200 illegal holiday properties found in buildings at the highest level of seismic risk Tourists in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, are staying in illegal accommodation listed on Airbnb and Booking.com in buildings considered so seismically vulnerable they could 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, identified at least 207 illegal tourist rental properties advertised across the two platforms in Bucharest at the end of May, with a combined capacity to host more than 1,000 visitors each night. View image in fullscreen Tourists and local people at an outdoor cafe in central Bucharest. Photograph: Cristi Croitoru/Alamy Booking.com listed 116 of them, 47 were on Airbnb, and 44 listings were on both platforms. All were in buildings qualifying for the highest level of seismic risk. Bucharest is the most seismically vulnerable capital in the EU, with two major earthquakes in the last century, the most recent of which, in 1977, killed more than 1,500 people, injured more than 10,000 and brought down 32 buildings in under a minute. View image in fullscreen Rescue workers sifting through rubble in Bucharest in 1977 after a powerful earthquake in the Balkan region. Photograph: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Experts believe another such quake is inevitable, warning that the damage could well exceed that of previous disasters because much of the city’s building stock has become structurally unsound in recent decades. In an effort to clamp down on unsafe housing in 2024, Romania outlawed short- and long-term rentals in high-risk buildings, classified as RS1. As a result, the capital has at least 404 such buildings where renting of any kind is illegal, with violations carrying fines of €1,000 (£850) to €2,000. As only a fraction of the city’s housing stock has been formally assessed for risk, experts believe the true scale of unsafe accommodation is probably greater. Map of buildings at risk in Bucharest Those risks, however, are rarely made clear to tourists booking a place to stay. Neither Airbnb nor Booking.com requires hosts to declare whether their properties are structurally sound. “We tried everything possible to alert the platforms about this problem, but they told us it is the responsibility of the owners, not theirs,” said Matei Sumbasacu, a structural engineer and founder of Re:Rise. Ana Todor, who booked two Airbnb stays in apartments in RS1 buildings in 2025, said she felt the owners and platforms were “c