Comments on: Urine Trouble with Dogs at Barcelona Airbnb

By: Nellie

Nellie — Sat, 07 Oct 2017 12:47:44 +0000

In reply to Sarah.

Sarah

Your reply is both rude and incorrect.

Airbnb is NOT banned in Barcelona, you just need to apply for a license to do short term lettings.

How horrible of you to tell the guest they got what they deserved.

No-one ‘deserves’ an experience like this.

By: Nellie

Nellie — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 20:31:33 +0000

Hello
Sorry to hear of your experience.
As you know Airbnb tells guests to notify them within 24 hours if the listing is not as described and they will consider cancelling your booking, refunding you and giving you a 10% credit.
That being the case, as I am sure you did this, I am not sure why they haven’t done this in your situation.
Also how is the host contacting your GF? If via email she can simply block her.
Of course you should forward any emails received to Airbnb.

By the way of course Airbnb could easily require hosts to provide a license before listing, areas where it is required. it just chooses not to.

By: The Author

The Author — Sun, 01 Oct 2017 16:28:34 +0000

In reply to Sarah. Actually, Sarah, I think you might be misinformed. It is my understanding that Barcelona has not banned AirBnB. However, they have begun to crack down on people renting AirBnB spaces without an official licence from the city to do so. Unfortunately, AirBnB does not require their hosts to post whether they have this licence or not, and there is no way for a traveller to distinguish between what is legal and illegal. Besides, blaming the guest for the situation is an ad hominem logical fallacy. Spending a few nights in Barcelona as a tourist is not the cause of a housing shortage, but deeper more problematic issues, including the rampant purchase of rental property for the sole purpose of renting to tourists, or AirBnB's complicity in allowing these unlicenced hosts to be renting out without any verification. It seems that AirBnB is choosing to ignore the problem because they make money off the situation.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sat, 30 Sep 2017 16:45:23 +0000

Airbnb has been banned in Barcelona and you still took the risk to rent an illegal dwelling in central Barcelona whilst depriving many hard-working locals of affordable housing. You got what you deserved.