This is a website for buyers, owners, and sellers of property in Spain, offering reliable information and resources to help you get things done with confidence. It is run by Mark Stücklin, author of the Spanish Property Doctor Column in The Sunday Times (2005-2008), and the book ‘Need to Know: Buying Property in Spain’ published by Collins.
It was a small protest, but for once owners of tourist-rental flats in Barcelona made their voices heard, reports the Spanish tourism industry news website O2B.com. A group of Barcelona property owners chanted slogans against “the dominance and power of hotels in deciding tourism policies in the city” outside Barcelona’s Palace Hotel as Jordi Clos, President of the Association of Hotel Owners, sat inside.
Owners of tourist-rental flats in Barcelona complain that the local Government, led by Xavier Trias of the CiU party, discriminates against legally registered tourist rentals with licences in favour of the hotel industry, which has a powerful lobby.
The protest put a damper on the day for Clos, who owns the Derby hotel chain, and who the protesters accuse of influencing the cities tourism policies in his own interests. Clos has opened four hotels in Barcelona in the last year, and probably does not welcome the competition posed by tourist rental apartments, which largely appeal to families and groups of young people.
Short-stay rental investors argue that city council policies are stacked in favour of the hotel business. Recent regulations introduce various obstacles to tourist rental flats, and a two-year moratorium on new licences. By 2019 all tourist rentals must be grouped in dedicated buildings.
The president of the hotel owners association, Jordi Clos, reportedly said he has never been against the holiday let sector, and has always defended the legality and professionalism in the sector.
Photo credit: 02b.com
MoltMaca says:
Clarification please on the note that “By 2019 all tourist rentals must be grouped in dedicated buildings.” This would apply to NEW rental licenses, correct? It’s been my understanding that existing licenses are grandfathered in, but please correct me if I am wrong. thanks!
legal player says:
please, where is there a good association that organizes and builds both awareness and advocacy for legal tourist flat owners? i want to participate but cant seem to find my way.
there will always be lobby groups, the hoteliers are one… the pressure point is sure to be the Ayuntamiento. eleected body and that responsible for the economic and social viability of all within the region.
please keep writing on this subject mark, your vigilance and voice are appreciated.
saludos
Isobel Bonney Sargent says:
I live in Lanzarote. Somebody here was fined for letting out his property on a holiday let. He took the tourist board to the Euroean Court and won his case. The ruling was that everybody should be allowed to rent out there property !!
Dana says:
Details please! What is the name of the case? When was it decided?
Dana says:
Contact FEVITUR, they will give you the contact of the regional association for your location: http://www.fevitur.com/
GarySFBCN says:
It isn’t just the hotel owners who are against the tourist rentals. Negligent owners of tourist rentals have ruin the lives of hundreds of people in Barcelonenta, through eviction and by renting with no oversight or accountability to hundreds of rowdy, drunken tourists. Barceloneta denizens protested several times last summer, forcing the local government to act.
In my own building we had issues with tourists having loud parties until 4am every night. The final aggravation is when tourists went up to the utility roof at 2am, and somehow the door got stuck closed so they banged and kicked on the door for hours, eventually breaking the door frame.
How about if those people who own tourist rentals organize and take responsibility for what isn’t working and endeavor to fix it? Because if you don’t, you will see the tourist rentals banned, either by government law or the rules in each building.
These tourist rentals can be done right, such as giving the neighbors a 24 hour telephone number to call if there are problems, advising the tourists that they are in a residential building and to respect the neighbors, not make a lot of noise or litter the common areas, etc.
You are operating businesses in residential buildings. If you don’t develop rules and a code of ethics among you, you will eventually have regulation forced upon you, and your neighbors will hate you.
This should be easy to deal with, for the willing.
pan says:
There are lots of noice in nightclubs, hotels and streets too, most flat rentals are completely legitimate and should not be discriminated, this is all about money, the hotelindustri simply do not like competition