To let, or not to let

TENSIONS between Mallorca hoteliers and the holiday rental agency bubbled over at a tourism conference in Madrid. The opposing sides have argued for years now over proposed regulations of the tourist letting industry. 

Holiday rental association Aptur is trying to ‘democratise’ the industry by taking the monopoly away from hotels and enabling tourists to choose properly registered holiday apartments. But representatives from the hotel lobby used the Madrid conference to demand that all ‘informal’ letting affairs be brought under the same strict regulatory umbrella as hotels. 

Hoteliers are furious that, until now, many people have been able to let out their homes to tourists for short term stays without having to pay registration fees and meet safety requirements. That legal loophole is set to close, but the debate over how tight the noose should be is as fiery as ever. 

Industry experts are now alarmed by the prospect of different Spanish regions having different sets of rules for holiday lets. 

They worry that tourists will simply get confused and turned off by the needless complications.