Spain orders Airbnb to block more than 65,000 illegal short-term lets advertised on its app
The illegal holiday homes were advertised in tourist hotspots across Spain, including Andalucía, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community
Spain is following through with its threat to get much tougher on unregistered rental properties and has just ordered Airbnb to remove listings for more than 65’000 “illegal” short-term tourist lets advertised on the platform.
According to the Ministry of Social Rights, led by Minister Bustinduy, some 65,935 holiday apartments and houses spread across Spain were found to be “violating the various regulations on tourist accommodations.”
“The regulations of the various autonomous communities are being violated,” and in all cases, moreover, these are “entire tourist accommodations; there are no ads for individual rooms,” the Ministry explained.
Airbnb appealed the decision to try and avoid the block. Madrid High Court has come back, ordering the platform to remove 5,800 vacation rental listings immediately while it looks further into the others.
The offending properties are located in Andalucía, Madrid, Catalonia, the Valencian Community, the Balearic Islands and the Basque Country, some of the most in-demand tourist destinations in Spain.
In the last couple of years, Spain has drastically tightened its regulations on holiday lets in a bid to crack down on illegal rentals and ease the tensions caused by so-called over-tourism. The illegal Airbnb properties appear to have broken almost every rule in the book.
In most parts of Spain, tourist rentals must be registered and display a license number. The majority of the ads didn’t have one. Furthermore, several of the listings didn’t say whether the person renting out the property is a private individual or a business. This matters because it affects the renter’s rights as a consumer.
Most worryingly, some ads used license numbers that didn’t match official records, which could mislead renters or indicate that the properties are being rented out without a legal licence..
This isn't the first time the Consumer Affairs Ministry has spoken out about the housing situation. The most recent issue was last March, when it opened a disciplinary case against Alquiler Seguro for potentially abusive practices against tenants in rental management, such as requiring them to take out insurance.
A month earlier, in February, the Ministry also opened disciplinary proceedings against large tourist apartment managers for “failing to correctly indicate the legal status of the landlord.” And in December 2024, it opened disciplinary proceedings against a tourist housing rental platform for “a potential breach of consumer regulations regarding the disclosure of license numbers.”
While all of these cases are still ongoing, Minister Bustinduy stressed that the goal is to help fix the housing crisis in Spain by cracking down on illegal tourist rentals, which can drive up rent prices, and to protect the rights of people who use these services.
Image: Archive
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