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24 May 2018 – Eje Prime
Barcelona wants to put an end to adverts for unlicenced apartments. The Town Hall of the Catalan capital has asked Airbnb to remove a total of 2,577 illegal tourist apartments that are currently advertised on its platform. Janet Sanz, deputy mayor for urban planning in Barcelona, confirmed that the list of identified apartments has now been handed over to the company.
The Town Hall has explained that the Airbnb team responsible for removing the adverts, located in Ireland, received the list on Thursday. Moreover, it has highlighted that it has already opened sanction proceedings against the owners of those unlicensed apartments, but not against the company itself.
In this sense, the Town Hall of Barcelona is only planning to impose sanctions on Airbnb if the company refuses to eliminate the adverts for the illegal tourist apartments, as established by the regulations of the Generalitat de Catalunya. The local government expects the platform to withdraw the adverts within a few days like it did last summer.
Similarly, Sanz has explained that the Town Hall is scheduled to meet Airbnb next week to consider a technological proposal designed by the platform to avoid the advertising of illegal apartments.
Original story: Eje Prime
Translation: Carmel Drake