Short-term accommodation in Spain's 20 biggest cities is rapidly catching up with the number of rooms managed by hotels, a study released found, prompting hoteliers to call for better regulation of their upstart rivals. However, Palma is not included in the list because short-term apartment rentals are banned in an effort to try and resolve the pressing housing situation in the city.
Spanish travel industry association Exceltur said that about 300,000 homes are offered for short-term rental in the country's 20 largest cities, with some 389,779 rooms managed by hotels.
Exceltur, which groups together major Spanish hotel chains, travel agents, tour operators and airlines, is lobbying for a new law to regulate short-term rental platforms such as such as Airbnb, describing the situation as "out of control". Airbnb said this month it had recorded a "disproportionate" 31% rise in single-room listings on its platform in the third quarter, attributing it to more homeowners seeking extra income amid a cost-of-living crisis.
Renting to tourists is twice as profitable as offering long-term rentals to residents, the
Exceltur study showed. In Spain, short-term rentals are also cheaper, on average, than hotels.
In at least six major cities, the number of short-term rentals, most of them located in city centres, offered as an alternative to hotels grew by 34.5% in the 12 months to September, the study commissioned by Exceltur found.
At least six out of 10 homes in downtown Seville are available to tourists through short-term rental platforms, the survey said, while in the heart of Madrid about a third of homes near the historic Puerta del Sol are rented out for short stays.
Meanwhile, the number of hotels rooms available in places like Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga or Seville has grown at a pace of just 2% per year since 2010, the study said.
"We all have to play on equal terms," said Gabriel Escarrer, who heads Exceltur and serves as Chief Executive of Spain's biggest hotel group, Palma based Melia Group. "These properties have to meet certain requirements in order to be marketed."
These include forcing platforms to verify that individual hosts are properly registered as tourist accommodation providers, with official permission to operate.
The European Commission has already proposed draft legislation that would make online rental platforms provide data such as the number of customers using their services and how many nights they stay to national authorities, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
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I can't speak for the rest of Spain, but here in the balearics, there are so many restrictions and costs to starting a holiday let that it's just not happening. I read recently that in the past 2 years, a whopping total of 7 new holiday lets have been licenced in the balearics, and 5 of them had applied before the new restrictions and astronomical costs. On top of that, Airbnb (although others might not) require proof of licensing (in the balearics) before they'll list a property. And they impose a *lot* of requirements on hosts, or else they'll cancel future bookings and close your account. Guests are king on Airbnb. As a result, the incidence of successful guest fraud against Airbnb hosts has skyrocketed in the past 2 years. All of this makes it questionable whether to even try to start up a holiday let in the balearics. It's risky. One might question whether to simply avoid Airbnb, but their market reach runs circles around everybody else. If you're listed on Airbnb (in the balearics), your chances of being booked are about 85% (if your prices aren't completely unreasonable) . Other platforms can't come anywhere near that. Unfortunately. Small, obscure villa rental outfits might get away with some unlicenced rentals (and some of them are just scam sites anyway), but they can be slammed with 40k+ fines if caught. Nobody wants to take that risk. Not a legitimate business anyway. Yet some still try. And get profusely clobbered for it. Perhaps >Spain< has a problem with astronomical increases in (Airbnb?) holiday lets, but not in the balearics. It's cost prohibitive and almost impossible to start one up. And doing it under the table is extremely risky. The holiday lets that are currently operating legitimately are being really careful, because losing their licence means it's all over... forever... and probably outrageously expensive too.