The Balearic Government has had some success in reaching agreement with websites on combating illegal holiday rentals.
At the Fitur tourism fair in Madrid in January this year, Booking.com announced its agreement to provide information to help in the pursuit of accommodation being marketed illegally in the Balearics. The government says that the relationship is proving to be very good.
It hopes to finalise an agreement with Expedia shortly. There are discussions with other websites, except a very notable one - Airbnb.
According to the government, the California-based company has not shown much interest in cooperating so far; prospects for progress are said to be increasingly less optimistic. There has apparently been "a clear lack of will" after months of evasion, and contacts have been disappointing.
The Spanish Government plans to have the register of tourist apartments ready by 2026 at the latest. This is in accordance with European regulations which make websites' collaboration obligatory.
However, the Balearic Government has not wanted to wait for this and has been acting as a bridge between websites and island councils. It is technical personnel at the councils who have operational relationships.
José Marcial Rodríguez, the Council of Mallorca's tourism councillor, says that the alliance with Booking has proven to be very fruitful and that "we are seeing results". "But the deeper we go, the more we realise how much remains to be done".
Despite the difficulties in moving forward with Airbnb, Rodríguez hopes that positions will get closer.
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Morgan WilliamsIt's CYA in case there is ever a legal challenge, they can say they checked.
If AirBnB are not prepared to co-operate then they should be prohibited from using properties in the Balearics.
I have plenty of gripes about Airbnb, but this is a bit confusing because every year, around February, they demand recertification of our ETV licences, with the threat of being delisted. So, I send it to them. No big deal (although they can look for themselves - or their computer can - there's a method of obtaining that information directly from CAIB online https://www.caib.es/cathosfront/cens). Whether they actually do anything with that information, or if it's just an empty threat I really don't know. Like all other platforms, their host management is pretty brain dead, so it wouldn't be a surprise if it all goes into a bucket somewhere, never to be found. Airbnb does stupider things than that. Yet, it's still confusing. They apparently aren't enforcing it or cooperating with local authorities. Why go to the effort if it's meaningless? For show? But apparently, there is no show. (?)
Money breeds money