MADRID (Reuters) – The City of Barcelona said Thursday it fined 600,000 euros to the web page of Airbnb and its subsidiary Homeaway for continuing to announcing houses that rent illegally to tourists.
The city council of the City meets the threat that he made in the summer of this year when, after fining these pages with 30.000 euros each, urged to regulate their own users.
“it is Not assumable that there will be thousands of flats to operate without license and illegally, without paying taxes and causing damages to the neighboring communities,” said mayor Ada Colau in an interview on Catalunya Radio on Thursday.
the fine, The highest amount permitted by Law of Tourism of Catalonia given the “benefit obtained and the dominant position” of both pages is given after the consistory has detected a full 3,812 ads of flats without a license on Airbnb and 1.744 on Homeaway, according to a press note from the city council.
in Addition, in the framework of the plan against the floors illegal tourism that began Colau in the summer of 2015 after their arrival at the town hall, from July to the end of October 2016 has ordered the closure of 709 houses without a license.
Airbnb said that it will appeal the decision of the city council, with the who less than a month ago vowed to work together for the interests of the city.
“Barcelona walks by the opposite side that the majority of cities in Europe and in the world. The city Council, unlike many other cities, has not shown a real interest in exploring a constructive dialogue,” said the u.s. company in a press release.
“There is a contradiction in tourism policies in Barcelona, which is conducive to commercial operators and to the apartments that are dedicated solely to tourism (..), to the detriment of the people who want to share the own home,” he added.
Since the 1992 Olympic Games, Barcelona has seen a growth stratospheric in the number of tourists, but that has negatively impacted on the neighbouring communities. The number of people who are using Airbnb in Barcelona has tripled to 900,000 in three years, until 2015, according to its own data.
tourism provides almost 400,000 jobs in Catalonia, the 13 percent of the total, and accounts for 12 percent of the city’s economy, according to official data.
Barcelona is not the only european city that has targeted Airbnb, which has expanded rapidly and often in conflict with local legislation. This year, Paris conducted raids on apartments realquilados illegally and Berlin has forbidden to rent entire floors.
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