Airbnb implores Barcelona to reconsider ban on short-term rentals
Residents of Barcelona are saying no más to mass tourism, with most Airbnbs in the city likely run by multi-property professionals.
After reporting a mixed quarter earlier this month, Airbnb is taking a more public approach in addressing policymakers: the holiday-rental platform is now directly urging the mayor of Barcelona to reconsider his proposed crackdown on short-term rentals, or STRs, similar to legislation seen in hot spots like New York City.
In an open letter published yesterday, Airbnb argued that the measures introduced since the Spanish city’s first ban on tourist-accommodation licenses in 2014 have failed to fix its housing issues.
“The only winner from Barcelona’s war on short term rentals is the hotel industry,” said Airbnb’s VP of public policy, “which is rapidly expanding and increasing prices.”
Back in June, Mayor Jaume Collboni pledged to eradicate all short-term rentals in Barcelona by 2028, in response to the city’s soaring cost of buying and renting (the average price of a home in the city is up more than 60% in the past decade, data cited in Airbnb’s report says).
But the letter also outlined that while the number of STRs in Barcelona has halved since 2020, hotel-room prices are soaring, and empty homes still outweigh STRs in the city 8-to-1.
Close to home
Some 26 million people visited Barcelona in 2023 (that’s up 30% since before the pandemic), with similarly staggering tourist figures being observed across Europe in recent years. Perhaps what Barcelonans are specifically taking issue with, though, is that startlingly few STRs in the city are actually compensating the locals.
An analysis by Anna Gordun Peiro, using data from Inside Airbnb, suggested that the overwhelming majority of listings in Barcelona (74%) are likely run by professionals — defined as those running three or more Airbnbs in total — rather than individuals, the most of any of the 15 cities analyzed.
More recent data from Inside Airbnb also detailed that 43% of all listings in the city are run by hosts with 10 or more Airbnb properties.
Barcelona residents’ frustration with tourism amped up considerably this summer, with nearly 3,000 locals — some armed with water guns — taking to the streets to protest in July.
