Cities in Western Sahara, such as the capital El Aaiún, the fishing city of Dakhla and the town of Boujdour are no longer listed by Airbnb as being part of Morocco.

The update appears to have taken place sometime in recent weeks and was first reported today by the news outlet Africa Intelligence.

Until recently, the same cities were filed as “Laayoune, Morocco”, “Boujdour, Morocco” and "Dakhla, Morocco". Western Sahara Resource Watch wrote to the company on 13 June 2025, alerting them of the geographical errors in its database. The letter also urged Airbnb to stop hosting listings in Western Sahara entirely.

“www.airbnb.com contains grave geographical errors that fail to relate to the UN maps and rulings of international courts on the matter of Western Sahara", the letter explained. 

Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW) welcomes Airbnb's change to the website. 

“International courts have made it clear that Western Sahara is not part of Morocco, and Airbnb's website is now somewhat more aligned with those rulings. We welcome this as a first step by Airbnb, and hope Hotels.com and Expedia will follow suit. However, the core issue remains: listings are still being offered in the occupied territory”, stated Erik Hagen from Western Sahara Resource Watch.  

Airbnb registry 13 June 2025:

Airbnb registry 31 July 2025:

WSRW has also written to the US companies Expedia Group Inc and Booking Holdings Inc with similar requests. 

The Expedia Group, which describes itself as “one of the world’s leading travel companies” markets travels to – and accommodation in – Western Sahara, presenting the destinations as being located in “Morocco”. This is done through its platforms on the sites Expedia.com, Vrbo.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire.com, Orbitz.com, Travelocity.com, Trivago.com and CarRentals.com. WSRW wrote to the company on 13 June 2025. 

Booking Holdings, which promotes itself as “the world's leader in online travel”, also markets travel to – and accommodation in – Western Sahara, labeling the destinations as being “Morocco”. This occurs on its sites booking.com, rentalcars.com, agoda.com, priceline.com. WSRW wrote to the company on 13 June 2025. 

Western Sahara is treated by the United Nations as the last remaining colonial issue in Africa. A large part of the territory, including near all of the coast, has been illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975. 
 

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