BARCELONA – Vacation rental platform Airbnb has been ordered by the municipality of Barcelona to remove more than 4,100 advertisements for tourist apartments from its website.
Airbnb has 15 days to do so. Furthermore, if the company does not comply, a sanction file will be opened for €60,000. The relevant advertisements for tourist accommodation are not by the law, according to the city council. Moreover, they do not have the necessary tourist permits. Consequently, in January, the Special Urban Development Plan for Tourist Accommodation PEUAT was approved for this purpose.
The owners of the apartments concerned are informed that they are not following the rules. The first message is for information purposes. Added to this is the warning that if the ads are not removed, fines will follow.
Inspection and sanctions
Launched in the summer of 2016, the PEUAT fulfils its goal, according to the municipality. These are to end the uncontrolled proliferation of tourist accommodation in the centre of Barcelona. According to data from the city council, Barcelona has gone from “about 6,000 illegal tourist flats to a very low figure thanks to the inspection and sanctioning activities”.
Airbnb says it is cooperating with Barcelona authorities
Airbnb responded by saying that it is committed to cooperating with the authorities and “removing people who do not respect the regulations from the platform. In this sense, Airbnb reminds all hosts “to check and comply with local regulations.” before they publish ads”.
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