Up to eleven boats are offered in Valencia to stay as a hotel on Airbnb. Baptized as sailboat-hostels, they are a type of mobile home (mobile home, in English) whose price ranges between 100 and 433 euros per night.
There are also similar offers on the Booking platform, such as the rental of a sailboat moored at the Club Náutico de València, which can accommodate up to six people and costs 304 euros for two nights. The boat has three cabins and a living room, is equipped with two bathrooms and a complete kitchen and oven where, however, only food can be heated. The advertisement also warns that it is a “very quiet place, full of peace and silence, and just a few minutes from the center of València.” But it is not the only mobile home offer that can be found on online vacation rental platforms, as motorhomes are also rented as tourist housing for prices around 306 euros for two nights.
Is the tourist offer in Valencia being exceeded? The Minister of Tourism, Nuria Montes, is observing with “great concern” the evolution of the tourist rental market, they explain from her department, and point out that it is a phenomenon that occurs in many parts of the Valencian Community, but especially in the city. From Valencia.
In the capital there are currently, according to Tourism data, a total of 5,614 tourist homes, an increase of almost 49% compared to the number of accommodations registered seven years before, since in 2017 there were a total of 3,776. The history shows great growth between 2017 and 2018 – it went from 3,776 to 5,910 tourist homes registered in just one year –, with a slight decrease from 2019, prior to the pandemic, until now.
The department of the sector defends that the model involves restricting “this type of rental” and moving towards a restrictive model like that of San Sebastián, a city that has decided not to authorize the implementation of new accommodation and that will prevent the installation of more hotels. And even like the one proposed in Seville, whose mayor speaks of “tourist saturation” and will not grant any more tourist licenses in the center.
The other tool that the Consell wants to propose is the increase in inspections, but to do so the number of inspectors must increase: currently there are fourteen in total. There are five for the entire province of Alicante, another five for Valencia and four in Castellón: everyone should review the tourist accommodation offer in the Valencian Community.
For this reason, and to make up for the shortage of inspectors in each province, the department is studying the development of artificial intelligence tools that allow for the supervision of offers and checking whether or not they meet the registration criteria, as it is the fastest way to detect irregularities. , they detail.
However, the Generalitat Valenciana insists that the tourism model is one of local autonomy, because although the registration of housing is autonomous, the granting of licenses goes through the cities. In fact, it is essential to prove that the tourist home has a favorable urban compatibility report issued by the City Council where the home intended for tourist use is located.
The growth of tourism and the tension it generates is also an open debate already in Valencia, where the mayor Maria José Catalá announced this summer a new tourist apartment ordinance and an inspection plan to stop the proliferation of irregular tourist apartments in the city, which amounts to 4,000, the other side of the coin.
However, the tourist success of the city is evident and the focus is no longer only on the historic center, but the peripheral neighborhoods are also gradually becoming conquests for tourists. In fact, in the last month the areas that have increased the most in their online offer of apartments and tourist places, with growth of more than 34%, are the peripheral neighborhoods of Rascanya, Benicalap and to a lesser extent, Jesús.
