Airbnb Pulls 1,000 Listings From Barcelona In The Wake Of Fraud Claims

10 July 2017 – El País

On Tuesday, Airbnb, the short-term home rental site, announced that it has taken down 1,000 listings in Barcelona’s downtown district of Ciutat Vella over the last week. The move comes just days after news emerged about cases of fraud involving homes listed on the popular vacation rental website.

It is also a follow-up to a pledge made by company officials in February, when they said they would introduce a one-host, one-home policy in a part of the city that is under increasing pressure from high levels of tourism. The gesture, meant to reduce the supply of short-term rentals in the area, was also viewed as an olive branch for Barcelona city authorities, who have been critical of Airbnb’s practices.

Back then, Mayor Ada Colau dismissed the gesture as “a joke” and said that what the city wants is for Airbnb to pull all the illegal listings from its site. Local authorities note that tourist apartments require a special license to operate as such, known as HUT under its Catalan acronym.

Now, Airbnb has released an open letter to Barcelona City Hall entitled: “Here’s why City Hall is wrong to turn its back on local families who share their homes.”

“Airbnb wants to be regulated in Barcelona, and we have zero tolerance for bad actors,” states the message. “We want to work with City Hall to clamp down on business operators who break the rules, while protecting local families who share their homes to boost their income and support their families.”

The letter is signed by Sergio Vinay, of the company’s public policy department, which is in charge of negotiating with local and regional authorities.

“In Barcelona, this guiding principle hits a roadblock. Unlike other major cities across the world, Barcelona has no rules for local families who occasionally share their homes,” the letter goes on to say. These rules are currently being worked out at the regional level.

“In the absence of such a collaboration, Airbnb has already taken steps to tackle issues facing Barcelona,” says Vinay in the letter. “In the last week alone, Airbnb has removed more than 1,000 listings that could affect long-term housing availability, as part of our ‘One Host, One Home’ policy. For context, that’s almost double the number of tourist dwellings that have ceased to operate following City Hall action.”

Vinay also takes issue with City Hall urban planning official Janet Sanz, who has been critical of Airbnb: “Janet Sanz is wrong to say that City Hall ‘is not fighting home sharing’ or local families who share their homes. It is – and by choosing to promote a campaign of fear and confusion over workable solutions, it’s local families who stand to lose most.”

The San Francisco-based firm claims that the average Airbnb host in Barcelona is a homeowner who makes an extra income of €5,500 a year on average for “sharing their home” around 70 nights a year. “More than two-thirds of hosts say they share their primary residence and almost a quarter say that sharing their home has helped them avoid eviction or foreclosure.”

Last month, it emerged that a Barcelona woman had rented out her apartment to a long-term tenant, who then illegally listed it on Airbnb and began subletting it. Unable to reach her tenant, the woman was forced to rent out her own place through Airbnb, at which time she changed the lock and reported the case to the authorities.

Original story: El País (by Clara Blanchar)

Translation: Carmel Drake

There Are 17,000 Illegal Tourist Apartments In Madrid

26 April 2017 – Expansión

In just a year, the number of tourist apartments has increased by 100% in the Spanish capital. Of the 20,000 that currently exist in the Community of Madrid, only 3,000 have been registered. Hoteliers are asking for an urgent decree to be passed. 

“For a year and a half, we have been hearing that the Community of Madrid is going to publish a new decree to regulate the supply of tourist accommodation, but nothing. To open a hotel, one needs to comply with 400 rules, we have counted them; meanwhile, tourist apartments are not subject to any legislation. Unfair competition is harming every hotel in Madrid”. That is according to Madrid’s Association of Hotel Businesses, which is alarmed by the boom of tourist accommodation in the city.

According to the latest report from Exceltur, the alliance for tourist excellence, the supply of this type of tourist home has risen from 10,000 (37,000 beds) in 2015 to 20,000 (74,000 beds) in 2016, which represents an increase of 100%. Of the 20,000 beds, only 3,000 are actually registered, according to the Community of Madrid’s decree dated 2014, which governs tourist activity. (…).

To understand the severity of the problem, which has led to a 20% increase in rental prices in the city centre in a short space of time, causing gentrification, the expulsion of residents who have lived there for their entire lives, the Association presents another fact: Madrid’s hotels offer 80,000 beds in total, just 6,000 more than offered by the tourist accommodation establishments.

“We want to participate in the modification of the current decree, we don’t want to receive it a day before it is approved, but rather we want to work with the authorities to make the legislation correct and effective for both hoteliers and residents”, said Mar de Miguel, President of the Association. She added that these accommodation alternatives, besides not complying with the majority of the rules in terms of security or quality, are not subject to the urban development plan and do not pay the corresponding taxes, which is leading to tax fraud of €800 million per year. (…).

The Community of Madrid plans to legalise the market although it is very aware of the handicap that it faces. “The problem is that there is no legal precedent in Europe due to the mixing of jurisdictions and the reality of the fact that the activity is being performed in individuals’ homes, which significantly limits the capacity to exert control over it”, explained Carlos Chaguaceda, the region’s Director of Tourism. Homes let to tourists are therefore not regarded as businesses by law, and so “the Administration is unable to intervene in an agreement reached between two parties to rent a home”, said the Director of Tourism. (…).

The regional government proposes the creation of a register for these tourist apartments, where the owner legally acknowledges his/her activity. “Ideally, we would have the capacity to act against any platforms that advertise these properties online (without the corresponding permissions). For example, if a property does not have a registration number, it may not be advertised on any website”, suggested the Director of Tourism. (…).

Meanwhile, the Town Hall of Madrid considers that the Spanish capital is a long way from the problems that hoteliers are facing in Barcelona and Paris, given that the average number of beds per 1,000 inhabitants is 2.7 in the Spanish capital compared with 8 in the Catalan capital, but even so it wants to minimise the “risks of saturation” that is starting to exist in certain neighbourhoods, such as Cortes. (…).

The Town Hall is also looking to sign “memorandums of understanding containing certain commitments with Homeaway and Airbnb” (…).

Original story: Expansión (by R. Bécares and L. F. Durán)

Translation: Carmel Drake