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Airbnb urges Barcelona to reconsider crackdown on tourism leasings

Global vacation home leasing business Airbnb has actually advised Barcelona's mayor to rethink a broadening crackdown on shortterm rentals, arguing that it only benefits the hotel sector while failing to address overtourism and a housing crisis.

The only winner from Barcelona's war on short-term leasings is the hotel market, Airbnb's head of Policy for Spain and Portugal, Sara Rodriguez, composed in a letter to Mayor Jaume Collboni sent over the weekend and seen .

Barcelona town hall did not right away respond to a. request for remark.

In June, Collboni announced a plan to shut all short-term. rentals by 2028 to include soaring leas for homeowners. The. measure is being challenged in courts.

Airbnb argued in its letter that none of Barcelona's earlier. procedures that had enforced rigorous limits on brand-new tourist. lodging licences in the city centre considering that 2014 proved to. be effective.

A years later, official data shows that while short-term. rentals numbers have actually fallen, challenges associated with real estate and. over-tourism are even worse than ever, it said.

It mentioned official information showing long-term leas have soared. more than 70% and the typical price of a hotel space has. increased by more than 60%, even as the variety of short-term. rental homes halved to 8,842 last year from 2020 levels.

On the other hand, it argued, Spain has built fewer homes in the. past decade than at any time because 1970 despite a sharp boost. in demand, likewise pointing to official information showing that uninhabited. homes surpassed short-term rentals 8 to one in Barcelona.

Policies that resolve this issue (vacant homes) are more. likely to improve inexpensive real estate supply than clamping down on. Airbnb, the business stated, adding that it had removed over 7,000. listings from its platform because 2018 in Barcelona.

While Collboni has actually stated he will keep a restriction on developing brand-new. hotels in the city centre, he wants brand-new hotel capacity somewhere else. in Barcelona.

Spain's travel industry association Exceltur, which groups. major hotel chains, travel representatives, tour operators and airline companies,. has lobbied for strong regulation on short-term rental platforms. given that 2022, explaining the boom of holiday homes as out of. control in Spanish cities.

A number of other cities such as Madrid and Malaga have also. applied restrictions this year.

(source: Reuters)