Spain orders Airbnb to block 65,000 holiday rentals over rule violations

Spain’s government has ordered Airbnb to block more than 65,000 holiday listings on its platform over rule violations.

The Spanish consumer rights ministry said that many of the 65,935 Airbnb listings it had ordered to be withdrawn did not include their licence number or specify whether the owner was an individual or a company.

Others listed numbers did not match official records.

Spain is grappling with a housing affordability crisis that has spurred government action against short-term rental companies.

Rental costs

In recent months, tens of thousands of Spaniards have taken to the streets in protest against rising housing and rental costs, which many say have been driven up by holiday rentals on platforms like Airbnb that have proliferated in cities like Madrid and Barcelona and many other popular tourist destinations.

“Enough already with protecting those who make a business out of the right to housing,” consumer minister Pablo Bustinduy told reporters on Monday.

An Airbnb spokesperson said: “Airbnb will continue to appeal against all decisions linked to this case.

“No evidence of rule-breaking by hosts has been put forward and the decision goes against EU and Spanish law, and a previous ruling by the Spanish Supreme Court.

“The root cause of the affordable housing crisis in Spain is a lack of supply to meet demand. The solution is to build more homes – anything else is a distraction.

“Governments across the world are seeing that regulating Airbnb does not alleviate housing concerns or return homes to the market – it only hurts local families who rely on hosting to afford their homes and rising costs.”

Short-term rentals

Last year, Barcelona announced a plan to close down all of the 10,000 apartments licensed in the city as short-term rentals by 2028 to safeguard the housing supply for full-time residents.

Spain’s government said the first round of rentals affected by the order are located across the country, including in the capital Madrid, in Andalusia and also in Catalonia, whose capital is Barcelona.