Bookings for illegal holiday apartment rentals at 25% for the summer

Although these rentals are banned, the bookings do at least indicate that there is a reactivation of general tourist demand. By contrast with last summer, there are hardly any offers to rent by the day, while prices - which were reduced by up to 50% - have recovered. As an example, an apartment near the Cathedral is available at 1,522 euros for six nights in August (cleaning and service fee included). Most apartments offer free cancellation.

The old centre, the Paseo Marítimo, Portitxol and Can Pastilla - there are apartments in different areas of the city, some 300 of them for rent for a period of days. These are not residential lets, and Balearic tourism legislation from 2017 established that any apartment offered for a short period, e.g. a week, is a holiday let. As well as Palma town hall having banned holiday apartment rentals, regulations prevent apartments in the city from being registered as tourist accommodation with the tourism ministry.

Registered accommodation has a government licence number, and this is meant to be displayed with adverts for holiday rentals. Airbnb was fined by the government for including accommodation that didn't have licence numbers, but the Balearic High Court annulled this fine, citing European Union directives governing e-commerce. Airbnb, the court ruled, is a medium and cannot be responsible for advertisers displaying licence numbers or not. A government appeal to the Supreme Court was unsuccessful.