MADRID (Reuters) -Spain’s consumer rights ministry said on Wednesday that Airbnb had withdrawn the 65,000 listings for holiday rentals the ministry said in May violated rules, while it identified nearly 55,000 additional listings also deemed to be illegal.
The Spanish government, as well as city councils and regional authorities, have launched a general crackdown on tourism rentals via sites such as Airbnb and Booking.com. Many Spaniards say such listings are creating excess tourism and driving up housing costs.
The ministry said in a statement its pursuit of the crackdown reaffirmed “its commitment to enforcing the law and guaranteeing the constitutional right to housing over the profits of large multinational corporations”.
Airbnb did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.
The removal of the advertisements follows Airbnb’s repeatedly attempts to reverse the decision in the courts, where it argued the ministry lacked the authority to make rulings on short-term rentals and had failed to provide an evidence-based list of non-compliant accommodation.
Most of the removed Airbnb listings failed to include their tourist accommodation license number, the ministry said in May, while others did not specify whether the owner was an individual or a corporation, as required by Spanish regulations.
The ministry said on Wednesday that it had identified other 54,728 listings lacking an official license number, which is now mandatory under new legislation enacted on July 1.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro and David Latona; Editing by Joe Bavier)
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