Barcelona council denounces Airbnb for advertising unlicensed tourist apartments

The Barcelona city council has long been battling the housing platform Airbnb due to the number of "illegal" apartments it advertises. Only this summer, authorities claim to have found around 500 unlicensed flats, of which 390 were posted on Airbnb. 

In June, the public administration had already insisted the platform had to delete those advertisements as they market "illegal" renting options, Barcelona’s councilor for urbanism, Janet Sanz, said on Friday morning.

Some of these ads were removed, but others were uploaded again.

"We ask, we repeat, and we urge Airbnb to abide by the law in our city and for them to stop publishing what is illegal as it is not doing any good to the city, to neighbors, nor to tourists," Sanz said.

This summer, authorities have already checked around 50,000 tourist apartment ads in Barcelona

The city council has announced that if Airbnb does not follow the legislation, they will file a complaint against the San Francisco-based company as it does not verify tourist apartments that are advertised. 

These complaints come hand-in-hand with a new city council campaign intended for visitors. Barcelona authorities are calling on them to check the legality of the apartment before booking it. To do so, they have installed a bed in front of the city’s Cathedral.

Once tourists get close to the bed, two council representatives will inform them about the campaign and encourage them to check online whether the apartment they are staying at has a license or not. 

"We placed this bed here so visitors consider whether the place they have chosen is legal or not," Sanz explained.

Listen to our Filling the Sink podcast episode about the return of tourists to Barcelona and the hopes of those working in the industry ahead of the summer season.

Supreme Court in favor of Airbnb

Earlier this year, Spain’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of housing platform Airbnb in a decision that will allow the platform to publish ads for unlicensed tourist accommodations.

The sentence overturns the Catalan government law passed in 2015 forbidding the platform from publishing rentals that are not in the Catalan tourist accommodation registry. However, the court does rule that it is the responsibility of renters and not the platform to ensure that the accommodation is adequately registered.

Airbnb is just an "intermediary," the sentence reads, and it cannot be conceived of as an estate agent or a tourist service provider. One of the reasons is that the platform also advertises flats that do not have to be included in the Catalan registry.

Airbnb, a love-hate relationship with Catalonia

With one and a half million people staying in Airbnbs in Barcelona every year before the Covid-19 pandemic, the company has been at the heart of controversies and concerns about the 'touristification' of the city, which have even included protests by local residents.

In 2017, residents said tourism was at the top of their most pressing concerns about the city, with mayor, Ada Colau, running for office with a pledge to limit tourism, which has included such measures as a moratorium on building new hotels.

In 2018, Barcelona city council threatened to fine over 2,500 illegal tourist apartments advertised on Airbnb, and claimed to have reduced the number of unlicensed flats in the city from around 6,000 to about 3,000.

While the ratio of Airbnb accommodation per inhabitant in Barcelona is one of the highest in Europe, with almost 12 apartments for every 1,000 residents. That puts Barcelona above Rome (10) and London (7), though below Paris (28) and Florence (24).