Neighbors of this building in the Gothic quarter say that the influx of tourists coming in and out of the clandestine boarding house they set up in the 2nd-2a a couple of years ago has recently reduced dramatically. The siege on the most active mafia in Barcelona at the moment dedicated to renting properties and then subletting them for days to tourists is tightening. Finally, it’s about time, Airbnb is removing the ads and profiles uploaded by these scammers.
Neighbors of this building in the Gothic quarter say that the influx of tourists coming in and out of the clandestine boarding house they set up in the 2nd-2a a couple of years ago has recently reduced dramatically. The siege on the most active mafia in Barcelona at the moment dedicated to renting properties and then subletting them for days to tourists is tightening. Finally, it’s about time, Airbnb is removing the ads and profiles uploaded by these scammers.
“Yes, we are calmer – murmur the neighbors of this estate. Fewer tourists have been coming for some time.” “And those who come are much calmer – they continue on the portal – they are mostly couples and families”. “Yes, groups of friends don’t come with much desire to party anymore”, “and the woman who is in charge of receiving them is more tense. It seems that finally these people no longer believe that they can do whatever they want”.
A couple of weeks ago La Vanguardia detailed that the most active tourist watch rental mafia in Barcelona at the moment has its most profitable martingale in this building on Calle Cucurulla, a property with 157 m2, five outbuildings, three bathrooms and a kitchen, an illegal boarding house crammed with beds bought from Ikea. A private detective verified these fraudulent activities, the City Council has already opened a 60,000 euro fine against the tenant, the police are aware of these scams. In the meantime, the owner of this property in Cucurulla is trying to terminate the rental contract signed at once. The trial will take place in March of next year… Sources close to the investigations also detail that in recent years this organization, made up of a dozen people each with a different function, came to control 59 properties, and that now has about twenty.
The researchers also point out that in the last few days the portal dedicated to vacation rental Airbnb removed about fifty ads posted by this group. And that most of the profiles of this organization were also deactivated. The sources indicate that they came to operate through a dozen profiles. Most likely, they are currently using ads from other floors that act as bait, on this or other platforms, or are promoting themselves through articles on Facebook or other advertising on conventional real estate portals. In fact, recently criminals are increasingly turning to their mailing lists to privately contact former customers and re-offer their tricks without leaving a digital trail.
Airbnb prefers not to go into details. “Airbnb has zero tolerance for this type of behavior – answer sources from the multinational. We disabled these ads from the platform as soon as we became aware of the situation. The platform is ready to support the owner and the authorities with any investigation. Airbnb works with the City Council to tackle improper subletting and is committed to taking action against bad actors.”
In addition, also in its release, the holiday rental multinational highlights that in 2021 it applied a mandatory address verification protocol, and that thanks to the collaboration with Barcelona City Council since 2018 it has removed around of 7,000 problematic ads. And also that in the last year and a half he did not receive any list of sub-lessees or multiple offenders from the Consistory, at least within the framework of the agreement signed with the municipal executive known as Notification and Withdrawal.
