The island institution was fined 125,000 euros on the US marketing website

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Airbnb

The Consell de Mallorca has fined the marketing website Airbnb for advertising illegal tourist rental properties in Palma. The fine has been imposed for non-compliance with the Law that regulates information society companies and amounts to 125,000 euros.

Since November, the Consell de Mallorca’s Tourism Inspection Service has required the two main web marketing platforms, Airbnb and Expedia, to remove all ads that have been found to be illegal. The insular institution has notified them of up to 200 publications on tourist accommodation that do not comply with current regulations.

The company Expedia has collaborated in the process and has removed the advertisements for properties with less than one month’s rental and for tourist purposes that do not comply with the current regulations. Airbnb, on the other hand, has not removed these advertisements. For this reason, a sanctioning file has been initiated for non-compliance with the Law that regulates information society companies. These sanctions can range from 125,000 to 400,000 euros.

However, the Consell de Mallorca continues with the search for illegal holiday rental properties in the municipality of Palma on other digital platforms, as part of the shock plan against illegal tourist rentals in Palma.

Shock plan against illegal tourist rentals in Palma

The city of Palma approved the ban on tourist rentals in multi-family dwellings throughout the municipality. This decision was endorsed last February by the Supreme Court. Thus, the fight against illegal tourist rentals in multi-family dwellings has become a priority for the Consell de Mallorca.

At the beginning of the year, the Department of Transition, Tourism and Sports drew up a specific shock plan to combat the illegal supply of multi-family tourist dwellings in Palma. A road map that is marked by the incorporation in April of five inspectors in the Inspection Service of the Consell de Mallorca.

Among the actions included in the crash plan are joint operations with the Palma Local Police, an increase in inspection hours, collaboration with the University of the Balearic Islands and the Sustainable Tourism Observatory of Mallorca for the study and identification of multi-family tourist rental properties in Palma, and the control of web marketing platforms.

In total, the shock plan against the illegal tourist offer of multi-family dwellings in Palma has a budget of 700,000 euros.