Spain fines tourist let companies posing as family-run rentals

It’s hard to believe now, but when Airbnb first launched, one of its main draws was to ‘live like a local’ in a foreign country, perhaps stay with them, or experience what living in a property very different from yours back home was like. 

This ‘homestay’ or familial experience can still be found, but the holiday let market has now been flooded by companies whose only interest is to make huge profits, not hosts who welcome people from overseas to enjoy their company and a cultural exchange. 

Worst of all, there are now many tourist accommodation companies that pose as individual landlords on holiday let websites, hiding the fact that they’re really businesses.

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This was best highlighted in 2024 with the story of Airbnb hosts Fran and Marta, an apparently normal couple with a young daughter, but with a portfolio of 336 properties in Madrid and yearly earnings over €1 million.

Fran and Marta didn’t really own all those homes, they just managed them for the real owners through a company that used endearing family photos and first names of the couple on their Airbnb profile rather than a more distant and corporate company logo.

It’s these ‘fake landlord’ practices on tourist let websites that the Spanish government is now trying to clamp down on. 

Spain’s Consumer Affairs Ministry has opened disciplinary proceedings against several tourist accommodation managers throughout the country that could be committing fraud or breaking the law by offering false or misleading information. 

According to the ministry headed by Pablo Bustinduy, this deceptive practice is “capable of altering the economic behaviour” of customers who would rather stay at a family-run Airbnb.

Such actions are considered serious infringements according to Spanish law and can result in fines of up to €100,000 or even higher depending on how much money they’ve made by misleading guests.

It’s not yet known how many or which tourist apartment businesses have been investigated or fined, with the ministry insisting it cannot reveal details of the investigation until it has concluded. 

READ ALSO: Spain targets Airbnb in illegal ads probe

Spain is in the midst of a housing crisis with millions of locals priced out of their towns and cities by sky-high property prices and rents. 

The proliferation of short-term tourist accommodations has been pinpointed as one of the culprits by city councils, regional governments and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez himself, leading to a raft of different measures aimed at cracking down on a model which in most people’s eyes is hindering residents rather than helping them.

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