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MADRID (AP) — Spain's government said on Monday that it had
ordered Airbnb to block more than 65,000 holiday listings on its
platform for having violated rules.
The consumer rights ministry said that many of the 65,935 Airbnb
listings it had ordered to be withdrawn did not include their
license number or specify whether the owner was an individual or
a company. Others listed numbers that didn't match what
authorities had.
Spain is grappling with a housing affordability crisis that has
spurred government action against short-term rental companies.
In recent months, tens of thousands of Spaniards have taken to
the streets protesting rising housing and rental costs, which
many say have been driven up by holiday rentals on platforms
like Airbnb that have proliferated in cities like Madrid and
Barcelona and many other popular tourist destinations.
Last year, Barcelona announced a plan to close down all of the
10,000 apartments licensed in the city as short-term rentals by
2028 to safeguard the housing supply for full-time residents.
A spokesperson for Airbnb could not be immediately reached for
comment.
Spain's government said the first round of rentals affected by
the order are located across the country, including in the
capital of Madrid, in Andalusia and also in Catalonia, whose
capital is Barcelona.
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