For the president of the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation, Maria Frontera, the regulation represents progress, but she insists that it will not offer a definitive solution. Control by Council of Mallorca inspectors needs to be reinforced.
Frontera says: "The problem isn't tourism, but the proliferation of illegal supply. The rental websites, which invest so much in technology and marketing, look the other way when it comes to the illegal offer and don't want to invest in or be responsible for licence verification." In her view, the websites just focus on their businesses and not on compliance with the law. "That means that where there is a home, there is accommodation."
"What for some was a collaborative economy has got so out of hand that infrastructure is incapable of handling all the supply, while there is a shift from residential to tourist accommodation that makes access to housing difficult. In the last ten years, legal tourist accommodation in the Balearics has increased thirty times more than hotel beds. A blind eye has been turned and we are now paying the consequences, but the hotels haven't generated these.
"Growing economically is important, but more important is how we grow - with order and planning and following criteria of circularity to achieve objectives from social, environmental and economic points of view."
Maria Gibert, the manager of Febhatur, the Balearic federation of holiday rentals, supports the EU initiative but believes that its implementation will be difficult. "It is already difficult to eradicate illegal supply in the Balearics. With European authorities, it will be even more complicated, especially with foreign citizens who have second residences here and who do not use the usual commercial channels to rent them out. Cross-checking data with the Tax Agency would be a good approach."
She argues that the large rental websites should not be demonised. "It's important that they cooperate, but they can't be blamed for everything." Like Frontera, she supports Council of Mallorca control. However, the inspectors can only do what they can with the means that they have.
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Marvin Le MartianMaybe they could approve more houses to become legal, as I believe no licenses have been approved since 2018.
I can't understand why EU should help Mallorca to deal with this problem. They should help themselves and solve it - or not.
Marvin Le MartianI wholeheartedly agree with you. We too have jumped through the hoops to stay completely legal. It also pisses me off that others don't have to do that. Although the risk is very serious if they get caught, and I'm not convinced there's "hundreds of thousands" of illegal lets in the balearics as another MDB article suggested. Airbnb only lists about 7000 here. Other platforms much the same, and many/most are listed on all the platforms, so there's lots of duplication. But for example, Airbnb routinely asks us to provide up to date licence and tax info ...or be delisted. In typical Airbnb style, they ask repeatedly, you provide the info, then they demand it again a few days later, as if you never responded. So you enter it again. Lather rinse, repeat. Eventually they stop, but it's typical brain dead Airbnb behaviour. But it begs the question ... if these demands are just idle threats, because if the host doesn't have a licence or pay tax, then they get delisted or not? Evidently there's still illegal lets on Airbnb (?) Other platforms like booking.com and VRBO don't even bother asking. They don't seem to mind if it's legal or not. Fincallorca won't list a property until they produce wads of proof of ownership, licensing, and tax information. Almost prohibitively. But more mind boggling is that all platforms can check this automatically, CAIB has a means of checking any licence instantly with any online hosting system. It can be totally automated. It should be easy for any platform to add this automated licence checking to their system. And check it as often as they wish without any human intervention. So, why don't they do that?
Put your hands in your pockets and pay for more inspectors! It’s not rocket science. Why is it necessary to make it so complicated? They are not hard to spot. I can find numerous on Airbnb. Which pisses me off enormously because I have jumped through every hoop and paid up to be totally legal. Yet I am being asked to comply with even more regulation whilst the illegals who contribute nothing are still there. Deal with the illegals, not make life more difficult for everyone else.