Spain fines Airbnb €64m for unlicensed tourist rentals

Spain’s government has fined Airbnb €64 million for advertising unlicensed tourist rentals, officials have said.

The rentals did not include licence numbers — a requirement in many regions in Spain — or included licence numbers that did not match what authorities had, the consumer rights ministry said. Others listed incorrect information about hosts, it said.

The move is the latest government action in Spain against short-term rental companies such as Airbnb and Booking.com as the country grapples with a housing affordability crisis, particularly in city centres and other places popular both with residents and tourists.

Airbnb said that it planned to challenge the fine in court.

The company said it was collaborating with Spanish authorities to comply with a new national registration system for short-term rentals, and that more than 70,000 listings on the platform had added a registration number since January.

Spain’s government and many Spaniards across the political spectrum see short-term rental companies as responsible for driving up housing costs.

The nation on the Iberian Peninsula is one of the world’s most visited countries and short-term holiday rentals have cut into many cities’ stretched supply.

In May, the consumer rights ministry ordered Airbnb to take down around 65,000 listings because of rule violations.

“There are thousands of families living on the edge because of the housing crisis, while a few enrich themselves with business models that evict people from their homes,” Spain’s consumer rights minister, Pablo Bustinduy, said in a statement.

In 2024, Spain’s anti-trust watchdog fined Booking.com €413 million, saying the online travel company had abused its dominant market position in the country over the previous five years.

Local authorities in Barcelona have said they plan to phase out all of the 10,000 apartments licensed in the city as short-term rentals by 2028 to safeguard the housing supply for residents.