Spain cracks whip on Airbnb as fines issued

Since 2016, the Balearics have welcomed 24,000 new Airbnb properties – making regulation highly vital for the islands in order to preserve their ecosystems.

Being the world’s second-most popular tourist destination is a great position to be in from an economic and soft power point of view.

With the world seemingly queueing up to holiday in Spain, the nation’s coffers are swelled year-round by the spending power of holidaymakers, while the rich cultural and historical treasures of the country receive a wider audience that can only serve to paint Spain in a more positive light…

But runaway touristic success is not without its pitfalls, as various regions of the country have found out. In recent years Barcelona has sought to limit tourism due to overcrowding and growing antagonism among the locals (ironically, the ill-fated Catalan succession bid seems to have succeeded in at least making the city slightly less appealing to some would-be travellers), while on the Canary and Balearic Islands the various mayors have scratched their heads trying to balance tourism growth with island life that is, by geographic constraint, that much more sedate than the mainland.

Such wrangles were brought into focus this week after it emerged that the regional government of the Balearics had fined flat-sharing and rental service platform Airbnb €300,000 for advertising unregistered apartments and homes on its Majorca website.

The fine is a result of the Majorca government’s growing desire to exert greater control on the number of tourists visiting the island, particularly in summer when things get very busy indeed. One way of doing this is to closely monitor the number of available holiday dwellings – hotels, guesthouses, short-term rentals – to ensure that a workable balance is struck.

Hence, any unregulated or unreported holiday letting that slips under the radar can adversely tip the balance of this finely tuned ecosystem.

Airbnb’s “crime” was in allowing a mere 20 holiday flats to advertise on its site that did not meet regulations set last year – and thus the American software giant has been hit with a pretty large fine.

Although Airbnb has said it will appeal the fine, the issue of unregulated holiday lets is a growing concern in Spain as these internet-hosted sharing sites grow. Airbnb, for example, has added 24,000 available holiday rooms on the Balearic Islands in the past two years – a welcome expansion, but one that has to be carefully managed by government, because Airbnb is unlikely to self-impose a limit.