On Friday, the tourism councillor, José Marcial Rodríguez, and the director for tourism supply and quality, Clara del Moral, presented the latest information regarding inspections and sanctions since the launch of the plan against illegal supply in September last year.
Of the 650 cases, 239 have been opened since September. The rest relate to cases that were outstanding when there was a change of administration at the Council last June.
Rodríguez explained that the majority of the cases are in Palma and are mainly apartments. The renting of apartments as tourist accommodation in Palma is prohibited; there is no possibility of licensing apartments as holiday lets. The penalties can be as high as 400,000 euros.
He said that since the plan was put into effect, the average time it takes to set up an inspection has come down from 58 days to between five and eight days. His department inherited some 800 open cases from the previous administration.
During 2023, 3.48 million euros' worth of fines were collected, four times the amount in 2022. Between September and February this year, the collection more than doubled (2.35 million) compared to the same period in 2022 to 2023 (1.09 million).
The councillor estimated that there are up to 15,000 illegal tourist accommodation places in Mallorca at present. The Council is working with a geolocation company to get a more accurate figure. He also highlighted the cooperation of the likes of Airbnb and Booking.com.
"The plan we put in place in September is working and we are getting more effective in the fight against illegal supply," Rodríguez concluded.
11 comments
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Ulla JacksonThat's nice. But what does that have to do with illegal holiday lets?
Morgan WilliamsMy family do not pay anything as they are just that - family!
For them to know and for you to wonder.
o bThis is a statement of facts. Why thumbs down. Don't you like the fact, or the fact that I point it out?
Ulla JacksonWe're talking about paid holiday lets. Not friends and family visiting. Friends and family (and friends of friends and family) are usually more than happy to pay for a week in your Mallorca home when you're not there. Especially if it's 20-50% lower prices than licenced lets or hotels.
Morgan WilliamsSince when has it been illegal for immediatly families to use a property? Are you saying that only the owner of a property can use it legally? I own a property and to me its only natural that my sons with families are also able to use it.
Marvin Le MartianYou may be right. Counting bed spaces rather than houses. Still, those numbers seem rather implausible. Airbnb does demand licensing info (they do from us anyway) the other platforms don't (except fincallorca). Yet I can still find some on Airbnb that don't exhibit their licence. But it's far from the majority. Still, it begs the question of why Airbnb lets that slip. It's pretty easy to verify digitally, without human intervention. But I do know a few who occasionally rent their (unlicenced) place to friends, family, friends of friends... But I don't know of anyone who would dare to list on any platform or advertise in any way. It's much too risky. As a result, they get maybe one or two weeks rented in a year, naturally for very little money. All would gladly get licenced if they could, but they can't, so this type of "illegal" holiday let is hardly any threat. And I'd wager that's the profile of most of them. Now, like you, it's unfair that we too have the burden of being licenced, meeting high standards, paying taxes, and dealing with the (often brain dead) booking platforms (and sometimes having to defend against "brain dead" guests as well). But like other fully legal lets, we're also booked back to back all year, with a few exceptions, and that's a blessing. Still, I seriously doubt that most of the "illegals" are booked more than 20% of the time. And the money they're making is likely rather paltry. But yes, it's encouraging that the government is making progress getting them off the market. That's good for you, me and tourism in general. Yet I still believe that qualifying properties should be able to obtain a licence.
Hopefully they now use all these money to build properties to the local people, but I won't hold my breath.
There is a proportion of illegal flats that go by word of mouth. In our community is one of those, and it's always English people renting it.
Morgan WilliamsIs it perhaps he is meaning 15 thousand beds rather than actual lets? Apartments will be average of four beds. That’ll take the number down to about 4 thousand. I’m not sure what Airbnb or others are actually doing to help but I can easily find plenty of illegal single room lets and suspect apartments jostling with my fully 100% legal property. Some with recent reviews too, so obviously still being accepted as bona fide listings. Extremely annoying but at least the authorities have ramped up their act.