A young woman looks at advertisements for holiday flats. Javier Cotera

Tourism

Spain orders Booking.com to remove more than 4,000 illegal holiday flat listings from website

The ministry of Consumer Affairs initially sent a request to the global accommodation rental platform and urged it to delete these ads

Madrid

Monday, 30 June 2025, 14:11

Global tourist accommodation platform Booking.com has removed 4,093 illegal ads for holiday rental flats from its website following the demand sent by Spain's Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030. Most of the ads concerned accommodation in the Canary Islands.

The department claims that the fight against illegal advertisements "is decisive in putting a stop to the indiscriminate proliferation of this type of accommodation". According to the minister, this is precisely one of the causes behind the housing crisis that thousands of people currently suffer in Spain, especially in the areas that receive the greatest influx of tourists.

In addition to the Canary Islands, Booking.com has removed ads for accommodation in Asturias, Cantabria, Castilla y León, Navarra, La Rioja and Castilla la Mancha.

This action comes a week after the Madrid High Court of Justice upheld the Consumer Affairs action on Airbnb. The department had asked the platform to remove more than 65,000 illegal advertisements. Airbnb requested precautionary measures from the High Court in Madrid to avoid having to comply with the injunction, but the TSJ rejected the appeal.