Airbnb urges Barcelona to scrap holiday let crackdown and says it's not the problem

Airbnb is urging Barcelona to reconsider the crackdown connected short-term rental accommodation for tourists, arsenic the metropolis continues to conflict with the interaction of overtourism

Airbnb is urging the authorities successful Barcelona to reconsider its crackdown connected short-term rentals successful the city.

Online marketplace for short-term and semipermanent homestays, Airbnb, is calling connected those successful complaint successful the Spanish metropolis to rethink its attack to short-term rentals successful the city, arsenic caller information shows its policies are failing to resoluteness lodging and overtourism challenges. Data gathered by Airbnb implicit the past decade, reveals that challenges related to lodging and overtourism are worse than ever, contempt the crackdown connected tourer accommodation licenses being introduced successful Barcelona 10 years ago.

Over the past decade, Spain has built less homes than astatine immoderate constituent since 1970, but request for caller homes has accrued dramatically. The fig of Airbnb listings has besides fallen implicit the past decade, yet rent and location prices person risen to grounds highs.

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According to Airbnb: "Since Barcelona’s clampdown connected short-term rentals began, rents person risen by 70 per cent, portion the mean terms of a location has accrued by 60 per cent." The fig of vacant homes besides outnumbers the fig of short-term rentals by 8 to one.

Hotels person benefitted from limits enactment successful spot backmost successful 2014, arsenic according to Barcelona Tourism authoritative figures, 75 per cent of tourists successful 2023 stayed successful hotels and hostels. In addition, successful the Old Town of Barcelona - wherever the antagonistic consequences of overtourism are the astir evident - determination are six times much edifice beds than short-term rentals.

Airbnb claims that hotels are dominating successful the tourer accommodation sector, and that this volition proceed arsenic section governments crossed the country, including successful Barcelona, person authorised plans to physique implicit 800 caller hotels. Airbnb besides stated that this volition mean creating 75,000 caller edifice rooms, with astir 90 per cent of them allocated to existing tourer hotspots.

“Just similar successful New York City, Barcelona’s decade-long clampdown connected Airbnb is failing to present connected its committedness to combat overtourism and the lodging crisis,” said Theo Yedinsky, VP of nationalist argumentation astatine Airbnb. “The lone victor from Barcelona’s warfare connected abbreviated word rentals is the edifice industry, which is rapidly expanding and expanding prices. We promote Barcelona to rethink its approach, due to the fact that it’s wide that Airbnb is not the origin of historical challenges successful the city.

"We are anxious to enactment with leaders connected caller rules that enactment section families who host, and marque tourism much sustainable for everyone.”

On its newsroom page, connected its website, Airbnb stated: "Airbnb has worked diligently with Barcelona to enforce existing regulations and has removed implicit 7,000 listings from the level since 2018. However, it is wide that these measures person not produced the desired results. Airbnb is committed to moving with governments worldwide to beforehand liable tourism that makes communities stronger."

Plans to denote each short-term rental properties successful Barcelona were announced backmost successful June of this year. The citywide prohibition would spot to code complaints that tourism is to blasted for the section emergence successful rent successful Barcelona. As portion of the ban, the Spanish metropolis would halt giving retired caller licenses and besides wouldn't renew existing ones.

This would mean that successful 2029, nary homes volition person support to beryllium rented retired arsenic tourer accommodation. In June, the fig of houses registered arsenic rentals for tourists was astir 10,000.