The acting minister for tourism, Bel Busquets, said yesterday that the ministry has fined the online sites Airbnb, HomeAway and TripAdvisor 300,000 euros each for offering illegal rental properties, which she described as a "serious offence".
Busquets also revealed that hundreds of property owners face being sanctioned for having failed to comply with the new holiday rentals regulations. TripAdvisor have paid their fine while HomeAway are still within the window during which they have to settle theirs. However, Airbnb have informed the tax office that they no intention of paying their fine.
Busquets said that the swift response from TripAdvisor "demonstrates that the controls which have been put in place work". She added that efforts to ensure that online holiday rental platforms comply with Balearic law are being stepped up after the series of offences which have been committed in the Balearics this year and have which attracted negative publicity in the UK and Germany.
