Majorca hotel boss says tourist apartments should be ‘eliminated’ in blow to holidaymakers

By Lauran O'Toole, News Reporter

A leading hotelier believes holiday rentals should be 'eliminated' (Image: Getty)

A leading Spanish figure in the hotel industry has slammed tourist apartments insisting they should be “eliminated”. Gabriel Escarrer Jaume, CEO of Meliá Hotels International, Majorca's largest hotel group, says the number of short term rentals in the Balaerics is a “huge disappointment”.

The hotelier believes holiday rentals should be eliminated entirely, except for buildings whose sole purpose is to serve tourists and does not disrupt residential properties. He said: “The only exception perhaps in cases of buildings exclusively reserved for this purpose, where they don't coexist with residential use." Mr Jaume pointed towards how the number of holiday apartments has boomed whilst hotel rooms have increased only marginally.

The number of holiday apartments in Majorca has boomed (Image: Getty)

Despite the threats of government crackdowns, warnings and hefty fines, a Spanish government report has claimed there are 7,000 holiday apartments that are still being rented out illegally in the Balearic Islands.

He said: “It's a fact that the number of hotel rooms in the Balearic Islands has increased marginally, while the number of tourist housing units has grown by 135%, 27 times more.

“And these have been over the years during which the problems of overcrowding and gentrification have soared, in addition to the problem of the high rate of illegal housing."

These apartments are blamed by tour firms and hoteliers for causing tourist overcrowding which led to anti-tourism protests across the archipelago and Spain in general last summer.

Mr Jaume says the number of tourist housing units has grown by 135% (Image: Getty)

Not only do people who stay in these apartments avoid paying the much-needed tourist tax, but the apartment owners are also in breach of a series of Balearic laws and regulations.

In 2018, Palma became the first Spanish city to completely prohibit apartment rentals to tourists.

The decision that was subsequently supported by a Supreme Court ruling means only legal holiday rentals within the city limits are detached houses with tourist rental licences in certain areas.

However, there is one obvious tourist apartment that has slipped through, which locals dub a “small hotel”, the Majorca Dauly Bulletin reports.

The apartment, which doesn’t have a key box, isn’t even trying to hide that it caters for tourists as it is on an Airbnb. Locals say the owner and his dad greet holidaymakers when they arrive hence there being no reason for a lock box.