Ibiza, the first region in the country to be «cleaned up» of illegal listings on Airbnb

The island of Ibiza is now free of illegal tourist rental advertisements on Airbnb, the world's leading platform for marketing tourist accommodation. Ibiza has thus become the first territory in the country where all illegal offers, i.e. those without a valid tourist registration number, have disappeared from Airbnb.

This announcement was made yesterday by the president of the Balearic Government, Marga Prohens, after the extraordinary meeting of the Ibiza Committee for the Fight against Intrusion. "Ibiza is leading the way once again. This fight must also bear fruit on the other islands. We don't want pirates in accommodation, but neither do we want pirate taxis, street vendors or illegal parties. We will oppose all of these and have the tools to pursue them," warned the president of the regional government yesterday.

For his part, the president of the Consell d'Eivissa, Vicent Marí, assured that results ‘are achieved through collaboration, not confrontation’ and recalled that in the last legislative term he created the Office for the Fight against Intrusion. "The first steps were difficult, but it was necessary to create the structure. A tourism intelligence system was created that now allows us to make decisions based on data. This term of office has seen a major step forward in the fight against illegal activity thanks to the commitment of Marga Prohens, who has been committed to combating illegal activity from the outset."

‘We are committed to degrowth, but in illegal activities. We are committed to regulated services and a balance between tourists and residents,’ added Vicent Marí.

Within the framework of the Committee for Combating Intrusion, the Consell d'Eivissa reported in a press release that various presentations were given to raise awareness of the work carried out by the island's institution in detecting illegal services. These presentations were coordinated by the island's director of the Fight against Illegal Activities, Enrique Gómez Bastida, with the participation of technology partner Mabrian, SIT Ibiza and the Consell d'Eivissa's IT service.

In this regard, Mabrian explained that in July 2024, the first reading of the situation on Airbnb was 2,831 irregular listings and 1,493 with registration numbers. Today, Airbnb has 2,051 listings, all with registration numbers.

Translated into tourist beds, in July 2024 there were 10,926 tourist beds advertised in establishments with a registration number, while 14,532 beds were advertised in establishments without a registration number. Currently, 13,251 beds are advertised on Airbnb, all of which have a registration number.

Simón Tur, from the Tourism Intelligence System, pointed out that the analysis of hotels, tourist accommodation and hotel offerings indicates that, compared to last year, 70% of travellers have stayed in legal accommodation (4,856 travellers/day in 2025), and 30% have stopped coming this summer (2,059 travellers/day in 2025). In addition, there have been an average of 6,915 fewer daily stays in illegal accommodation in the period between 1 April and 31 August.

Finally, Javier Torres, the island's Director of New Technologies, explained the steps taken to identify illegal rentals. These are now monitored by Mabrian through a geographic information system. This system allows all legal tourist accommodation to be located on maps and linked to a database, which detects all accommodation on both rural and urban land.

Airbnb

Sara Rodríguez, Campaign Lead for Spain and Portugal at Airbnb Marketing Services, said that the announcement that there are no longer any listings without a registration number in Ibiza 'marks a unique, historic and pioneering milestone for Airbnb, based on constant and detailed work that has provided legal certainty for hosts and the regulated tourist accommodation sector'.

She added that this achievement was the result of months of effort spent working with the authorities to understand the applicable regulations and working with hosts, which has had an almost imperceptible impact on the business, but a very positive impact on the communities where Airbnb operates.

Rodríguez also pointed out that the same strategy will be implemented in the rest of the islands on October 15th.