Mallorca has stepped up its battle against illegal holiday rentals. The island’s latest inspection campaign, led by the Consell de Mallorca’s Tourism Department, has resulted in the removal of around 4,400 unlawful Airbnb listings — wiping out an estimated 20,000 unlicensed tourist beds.
Carried out between 15 May and late October, the campaign tripled the number of inspections conducted in 2023 and focused on spotting illegal activity during the peak tourist months.
In total, inspectors conducted 3,043 actions: 1,659 targeting illegal rental activity and 1,384 checking that licensed properties were complying with regulations. The campaign led to 144 infringement notices for unauthorised tourist activity and 138 for irregularities within the legal rental market. Proposed fines from this year’s cases amount to €10.05 million, more than double last year’s total.
The crackdown has been bolstered by cooperation agreements with platforms such as Airbnb and Holidu, which have pledged to immediately remove any listing lacking a registration number or showing signs of irregularities. The Consell says that expanding the inspection team to 27 agents has increased total actions by 19% and strengthened a long-term strategy to reduce illegal supply while ensuring Mallorca’s tourism sector complies with the law.
