[Bruce De Gouveia]

Hi Guys,

 

I’ve just stumbled across this site, great work Mark. I look forward to being a part of the discussion moving forward.

 

I’ve just arrived back from an easter break in Barcelona. I used to live there last year and have moved to London. I’m thinking of moving back there sometime in the middle of 2016 and I’ve been meddling with the idea of possibly running a little Airbnb business.

 

My thoughts were to rent 3 or 4 apartments around the Barceloneta area for around €600 per month, paint them, clean them up, furnish them and generally get them in a great condition and then run an airbnb business. Essentially sublet them on a short term basis and keep the profits from all the additional work.

 

However, I’ve read up that you cant get licenses any longer in Cuitat Vella and was wondering how that affects the idea?

 

Would i essentially need to find apartments that already have that license to sublet? Can I get license like this or do i need to look in other areas? If so, would I need to buy an apartment myself to apply for a license?

 

Thanks,

Bruce

[GarySFBCN]

I won’t speak to the legalities or the ethics of your plan.

But before doing this please note that last year there were protests by the residents of Barceloneta against tourist rentals and tourists that motivated the city government to regulate AirBnB.

Many residents have been ‘pushed out’ of Barceloneta by the conversion of hundreds of apartments to tourist rentals. And many of the tourists were behaving badly all summer, and when the naked tourists arrived, it pushed the locals to protest and force the city government to act.

Whatever you do, proceed with caution. And if you are going ahead with this plan, please do exercise some control over the people to whom you rent so they behave. Otherwise, the neighbors in the building may push for rules banning tourist rentals in the building and you will be stuck with apartments you cannot rent.

See here:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/21/naked-italians-protests-drunken-tourists-barcelona

http://gawker.com/barcelona-residents-protest-drunk-naked-tourists-mucki-1631447298

[Bruce De Gouveia]

Hi Gary,

 

Thanks for the response, I do appreciate it. I for one am I big fan of Airbnb, as it has allowed me to see cities and new places I otherwise wouldnt have been able to afford. Whilst in those cities I contributed to the economy, supported local artists, artisan shops, the local goverment metro and generally added value to the local economy.

 

I think that issue is more a policing issue as the tourists could have been staying at hostels or hotels too and should perhaps be a different conversation.

 

Gary, do you know what the neccessary legalities are to subletting through Airbnb?

 

[GarySFBCN]

Bruce, I’m not sure of the legalities so you’ll have to wait for someone else to respond.

And I do support vacation rentals, but there needs to be improvements and accountability, such as a 24 hours contact number given to residents of the building should their be problems (we had a lot of problems in our building). Not every issue is a police issue, such as drunken tourists vomiting in the elevator or littering the common areas. If you want to run a businesses in a residential building you have to be responsible for damage from that business and certainly clean up after your guests.

As for the issue of calling the police, apparently in Barcelona, if the police are called 3 times for nuisances in your apartment and they find that the complaints are valid, apparently lose access to your own apartment for a long time, but are still required to pay the bills. I’m not sure how this works. When several of our neighbors called the police at 4am after 3 days of non-stop parties in an apartment in our building, they came and evicted all 70 party-goers from the unit, got the owner’s name and said something about the rule of 3 complaints, but I really didn’t understand all of it.

Anyway, if I were going to do an AirBnB in Barcelona, I’d stay away from Barceloneta as I think residents there are going to cause problems for tourist rentals.

Regardless, good luck to you wherever you rent.

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