Tourism minister Jaume Bauzá with representatives of Airbnb and others in Madrid on Friday. | Enrique Fueris
Madrid24/01/2025 18:03
At the Fitur tourism fair on Friday, Airbnb unveiled a plan to provide residents in Mallorca with a phone number to report "possible disturbances" caused by tourists staying in Airbnb properties. These cover noise, vandalism and anti-social behaviour. The service will seek to mediate between residents, owners and tourists if incidents become serious. A specialist company, Roomonitor, will operate the service on Airbnb's behalf. There is also to be a manual of good practices that will be sent to tourists.
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These type´s of ideas are really a PR Stunt and it´s seen as a Kind of Spying program which we all should be careful of there are some people who are permanently looking out the window´s and really there are a lot of resident´s who love a good PARTY but who's looking after them I saw some party´s on NEW YEAR´S DAY but don't want to go into detail´s about what was going on there , the police try there best to keep everyone happy but there underfunded .
A nice initiative, but as Airbnb "support" programmes are outsourced to call centers in Mumbai, Asia and South America somewhere, famously incompetent and dismissive, I'm inclined to suspect this is little more than another PR programme. Nonetheless, if it actually functions at all, it will be an improvement. Still, the fact remains that running an Airbnb is a business, not some passive income toy. If hosts want to survive in this increasingly competitive marketplace, they're going to need to up their game, avoid undesirable guests, take responsibility, and not rely on Airbnb or any other platform to babysit them.
But what are the measures that call center will take? Call local police which does not show up when neighbours call?
Hello, is that the complaints action line for Airbnb? Well look, it's 3 in the morning and the Airbnb tenants next door are still partying. It's been going on since mid-day. Can you hear me? Yes, it's very loud with lots of people coming and going. And they keep flushing the toilet! What's that? You're a call centre in Barcelona and can't send someone round 'til next Thursday? Oh forget it.