Of the 65,122 illegal listings on Airbnb which have attracted fines exceeding €64 million, 4,305 were in the Balearics. Spain's consumer affairs ministry, which has issued the fines, reports that 4,289 of these listings lacked a registration number, while the other 16 had a falsified registration number.
The announcement of the fines has been welcomed by the Organisation of Consumers and Users and by the CEO of Meliá Hotels International, Gabriel Escarrer: "I believe this fine is appropriate; Airbnb had already been warned on several occasions. In December 2024, they were told they could not market illegal listings, and they continued to do so."
The ruling is final and requires Airbnb to remove all illegal content and to make the imposed fines public.
In September, Airbnb greed to no longer promote or advertise properties in Mallorca which do not have the proper paperwork and are therefore deemed to be illegal by the Council of Mallorca.
A month later, the tourism councillor, José Marcial Rodríguez, expressed his satisfaction with and commitment to the fight against illegal lets and stated that "the definitive step" had been taken towards eradicating them.