Spain orders AirbnB to block about 66 thousand holiday accommodations for regulations infractions

Madrid (AP). – The Government of Spain ordered AirbnB to block about 66 thousand ads of vacation accommodations on its platform for having violated the standards, the Ministry of Consumer reported Monday.

The Ministry explained that many of the 65,935 Airbnb ads that had ordered to withdraw did not include their license number or specified whether the owner was an individual or a company. Others provided license numbers that did not coincide with those that the authorities had, he added.

Spain is dealing with a crisis of cost of housing that has led the government to take measures against short -term tourist rental companies.

In recent months, tens of thousands of Spaniards have taken to the streets to protest the increase in housing and rental costs, which many say were fired by vacation rentals on platforms such as Airbnb that have proliferated in cities such as Madrid and Barcelona and in many other popular tourist destinations.

“Enough of protecting those who do business with the right to housing. They must act, there are no excuses for not acting,” the consumer minister, Pablo Bustinduy, told journalists on Monday.

Airbnb announced that it will appeal the decision. Through a spokesman, the company said that it did not believe that the ministry was authorized to rule on the short -term rentals, and that it had used “an indiscriminate methodology” to include airbnb rentals that do not need a license to operate.

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

The Ministry explained that he had notified Airbnb months ago about ads that do not comply with the rules, but that the company had appealed the measure in court.

The Government of Spain indicated that the High Court of Madrid had supported the order sent to Airbnb. Bustinduy said it involved the immediate elimination of 5,800 site rental. Two subsequent orders will be issued until reaching almost 66,000 eliminations, he said.

The Government of Spain indicated that the first round of rentals affected by the order is located throughout the country, including in the capital, Madrid, in Andalusia and also in Catalonia, whose capital is Barcelona.