The pressure group Terraferida yesterday posted onto its website a map which claims to show the number of rental places Airbnb offers in Majorca.
The information has come from access the group has had to the US website InsideAirbnb. Through big data analysis, it has been able to extract information as to type of property, addresses, etc. This information, which was current as of January 2016, reveals 11,271 properties with capacity for 60,323 places which can be increased to 78,543. None of these properties or places, the group alleges, declares having a licence for tourist rental.
Almost ten thousand of the properties are either apartments or detached houses. Airbnb files describe more than twenty types of accommodation. These include caravans, caves, an igloo, a tree house and castles.
Terraferida says that it will be sending the tourism ministry the data and the interactive maps which show the types of accommodation and where they are. "Given the magnitude of this phenomenon and its consequences, our organisation calls on the government to fight fraudulent tourist rental."
It suggests that the number of properties and places will now be greater, as the information is more than a year old
The timing of the release of this information by Terraferida may have been prompted by the government letting it be known that it will be making public a map of holiday rentals that are legally registered. Although the government isn't actively encouraging people to denounce illegal renting, the map will offer the means for individuals to do so. In fact, denunciations are already made and have been acted upon. They have typically come from residents' communities.