MALLORCA – The Mallorca administration (the Consell) has discovered 6,192 illegal holiday rental advertisements via various digital platforms such as Airbnb and Booking. This amounts to more than 30,200 places that are offered illegally.
Most illegal offers are concentrated in the city of Palma, followed by the towns of Calvià, Pollença and Alcúdia. Marcial Rodríguez, Regional Minister of Tourism in Mallorca, has announced that sanctions have already been imposed against the owners of these illegal holiday homes. Rodríguez also explained the Consell’s plan to tackle these illegal practices, a process that consists of “several phases”.
Cooperation and enforcement
In the first phase, data between the island government and the regional tax authority (Conselleria d’Hisenda) will be compared. This will identify which holiday homes are advertised but for which no tourist tax (ecotasa) is paid. This information will also be compared with municipal data to confirm whether or not a specific rental is compliant with the law.
Extra efforts
As a second step, an overtime campaign will be launched to balance the work of inspectors and sanctions processing staff. Finally, there will be further collaboration with various digital holiday rental platforms such as Airbnb and Booking. These platforms will work to combat illegal activities.
Future actions
These discoveries and announcements are part of a larger plan to tackle the growing problem of illegal holiday rentals in Mallorca. This is issue that is impacting not only the tourism industry, but also the local population.
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