Catalonia and Madrid are imposing increasing restrictions on the property letting website
Airbnb received their first European fine at the beginning of July from Catalonian authorities, fining the property letting service €30,000 for breaching Catalonian tourist letting laws.
Laws state that any property letted to tourists in the region should be registered with the Tourism Registry of Catalonia and approved (for security and hygiene reasons), and the region has a ban in place for letting out private rooms to tourists. The Airbnb flat letting model circumvents these regulations and forces local residents to experience ‘hotel-like’ neighbours often partying and causing drunken disturbances.
On the other hand, Airbnb defends it’s business arguing, with a recent study, that it generated €128 million of activity in Barcelona, supported over 4,000 jobs and helps locals supplement their, often low, income. Indeed, the study found that 75% of Airbnb hosts were earning at or below Catalonia’s average income, so letting a room, or their entire property greatly helped their financial situation to pay bills or mortgage. Additionally, it claims to help tourists discover more diverse neighbourhoods often sidelined by regular tourists. Property owners using Airbnb also receive their annual tax earnings from the website to be used for tax declarations, so cannot be accused of tax avoidance.
With Barcelona to thank in large for it’s growing profits, (Spain is Airbnb’s 3rd largest market after USA and France, with Barcelona being Spain’s most profitable city) the San Francisco based company has interests to negotiate these regulations with the Catalonian authorities before they enforce a ban in Catalonia to access the website.
Madrid has also imposed conditions on Airbnb, protecting their hotel industry and obliging Airbnb hosts to categorise their properties under ‘tourist use’, thus disallowing properties used as a primary residency. Additionally, in Madrid Airbnb guests must book for a minimum of 5 nights – slightly unfair as hotels have a minimum of a 2 day sojourn.
