Spain orders Airbnb to block 65,000 holiday rentals over rule violations

MADRID (AP) — Spain's government said on Monday that it had ordered Airbnb to block more than 65,000 holiday listings on its platform for having violated rules.

The consumer rights ministry said that many of the 65,935 Airbnb listings it had ordered to be withdrawn did not include their license number or specify whether the owner was an individual or a company. Others listed numbers that didn't match what authorities had.

Spain is grappling with a housing affordability crisis that has spurred government action against short-term rental companies.

In recent months, tens of thousands of Spaniards have taken to the streets protesting rising housing and rental costs, which many say have been driven up by holiday rentals on platforms like Airbnb that have proliferated in cities like Madrid and Barcelona and many other popular tourist destinations.

Last year, Barcelona announced a plan to close down all of the 10,000 apartments licensed in the city as short-term rentals by 2028 to safeguard the housing supply for full-time residents.

A spokesperson for Airbnb could not be immediately reached for comment.

Spain's government said the first round of rentals affected by the order are located across the country, including in the capital of Madrid, in Andalusia and also in Catalonia, whose capital is Barcelona.