Lay My Hat

A Barcelona lady rented her very nice flat to this guy for €900 a month. That is on yearly contract not hol-rent.
He put it into Abb at over €200 a night!
The neighbours complained to the owner who complained to Airbnb who, the lady claims, said tough cheese, not our problem.
So she booked it online for a couple of nights, moved in and changed the locks. (Usually against Spanish law for the owner to do this but he had clearly broken his contract which he hadn't fully signed off on anyway).
She then complained to the City Hall. They can't help much with her problem but the flat was advertised illegally so they are hammering Abnb.
All this just at the end of June. It was in last week's news.

Is this case where the guy subletting was an AirBnb regional manager?

Nice move by the owner!

Here it was very common for houses to be rented annually and the sub let in summer....the dramatic increase in rentals, and owner awareness, is now reducing that.
It was an easy way for people to pay their rent for the year.

Mousie
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Mouse wrote:
"Here it was very common for houses to be rented annually and the sub let in summer."
Yes, in the good-old-bad-old days it was so much simpler. The owners weren't really worried if the renter made some money to pay the rent with.
But now we all have to be registered etc. etc. and the owners have to keep their noses clean.
Many owners (this was the case with the BCN lady) put a clause in the rental contract that prohibits sub-letting.
Everybody's playing catch-up but we all need to be one step ahead.

Marks wrote:
"Is this case where the guy subletting was an AirBnb regional manager?"
Sorry for delay in replying Marks but I've been trying to check. There is a report of an ex-manager of abb re-letting a flat illegally and the flat is in the same area of Ciutat Vella in Barcelona but I don't think it's the same case. There is also another case where the owner has been lumped with a fine of €30,000 and is going to have to fight it in court.
So I think (but not sure) that there are three distinct cases. I mentioned the case of the owner who booked her own flat in order to get it back because I thought it was amusing (albeit serious for the owner).
The bottom line is that while cities like Barcelona are trying to pin down the listing sites the law makes it easier to pursue the owner.