Booking Removes 4,093 Illegal Rentals in Spain Crackdown

Booking.com has removed 4,093 illegal short-term rental listings in Spain following a request from the country's Ministry of Consumer Affairs as part of the government’s intensified crackdown on unlicensed tourist rentals. These non-compliant advertisements, mostly located in the Canary Islands, represent less than 2% of Booking.com's 200,000 properties in Spain. Spain's minority coalition government is targeting illegal rentals to combat the housing crisis and rising costs in popular tourist areas like Barcelona and Madrid, where residents blame short-term rentals for making housing scarce and unaffordable. The regulatory efforts also include legal actions against Airbnb, which has been ordered to remove over 65,000 listings violating licensing rules. The government emphasizes that all short-term rental listings must display valid license numbers to ensure compliance with local laws designed to preserve housing stock and protect consumer rights. Far-left consumer rights minister Pablo Bustinduy highlighted progress in fighting a speculative rental model that displaces residents and violates the right to housing.