No more holidays in Madrid?

[LadyLindaT]

Since 2025, Madrid has clamped down on private rentals for tourist lets. It now seems to be impossible to find anywhere to stay in the city centre. I understand the reasoning, but I find it sad that there is nowhere legal to stay, anymore.

Im not the OP but prior to airbnb I stayed in self catering places all over Spain. Ive never stayed in hotels, other than the odd travelodge in the UK when needed. Im in an airbnb now in the UK. Next month I'll be in a self catering cottage from a cottage site in the UK, may as well be an airbnb

Years ago, which probably people cant imagine, you had holiday pamphlets where owners advertised their accommodation, gites, apartments, conversions etc.

We had one of these in Oslo about 10 years ago and it was great! It Had a kitchenette and dishwasher. The dishwasher started leaking first time we used it and we called down and their maintenance man was there fixing it within 10mins! We’ve only done serviced apartments since!

Yes hotels are old fashioned. Me and DH only ever stay in apartments now and have done for about 20 years.

We hate hotels. Small room usually only have one chair so one of you has to sit on the bed to watch tv which we both hate. No cooking facilities. If you have breakfast there is has to be at a set time. Also just about every hotel we have ever stayed in from budget to more expensive has always been noisy. Noisy guests coming back early hours of the morning slamming doors, talking at the tops of their voices. guests in the room above sounding like a herd of elephants. Adjoining rooms have very loud sex.

In comparison we have stayed in loads of apartments, mainly Airbnb's across the UK and in France, Sweden, Holland, Belgium, Luxumbour, Italy and only once encountered a noise problem.

All the places have been cheaper than hotels, they all have had a proper kitchen where we can cook if we want, a comfy sofa and often a nice outside space.

Why does stay mean you can’t stay in hotels? Most have separate rates for room or room & breakfast, surely you just don’t eat breakfast there? It hardly means you can’t stay in hotels.

try feelathome.com

We stayed at the Plaza España skyline apartments recently, would
high recommend.

One of my DC was on a trip to Madrid in June and stayed in a hostel. There are loads of them in the city. Basic but clean.

Presumably because she has to cook all the meals ( they can’t eat out at all) so needs a kitchen.

Have a look at Paradors.
DH and I own an apartment in Andalucia.
If we go away, which we do frequently. We try to find one of those.

Using hotels helps to manage tourist numbers in the area. Many hotels provide local employment. Private lets inflates numbers and makes some popular places overcrowded and stressful for locals and tourists.

I think if they are going to clamp down on Airbnb style apartments it would be good if they encouraged aparthotels etc so that visitors can find suitable accommodation for their needs.

We have 3 fairly young children and haven't stayed in a hotel for years, it's just not a practical or affordable choice for us.

We need to be able to cook and store /refrigerate all our food

The 10 best aparthotels in Madrid according to Tripadvisor.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/HotelsList-Madrid-Apartment-Hotels-zfp18136.html

Ok, that's your preference. That's not the same as there being no accommodation for tourists though!

It's not just the sheer number of tourists. I live in a capital city overrun with air bnb's. The main problem is lack of affordable housing or any housing for locals. Landlords can make more through air BnB than long term lets so there is a shortage of rental properties for locals and due the demand outstripping supply rents are now astronomically high.
Not to mention, yes I am bloody sick of being woken up by tourist's wheeling their suitcases past my bedroom window at 5am because so many properties on the residential estate I live on have been turned into air BnB's.
I would love to see a complete ban, they absolutely ruin cities and communities.
Well done Spain.

Same here, like I said, we're in one now in the UK, we also need somewhere to store bikes, so they're in the little back garden, im on the comfy sofa and we havent eaten breakfast yet. In a hotel, no chance.

Theres also a massive bathroom, a dressing area, loads of room for our clothes (we take a lot of clothes with us on holiday), room for both of us without tripping up over each other.

So the 3rd one down, which looked nice, is 340 a night, thats for a basic room. I looked for the first week of October, 2 adults.

I can get a airbnb in Madrid for around 700 for the week (there are loads on there for various areas - we know Madrid very well and all the neighbourhoods - or a bit further out I can get a house for around 530)

Why on earth would I go for a hotel/aparthotel?

Yes I’d love for there to be more aparthotels. A place to cook dinner but maybe that served breakfast downstairs would be brilliant.

I have stayed in a StayCity in Dublin which was lovely and had a bar downstairs selling coffee/pastries etc. I think Roomzz is quite similar. A great idea but it would be ideal if there were more of them and they had larger room options for us and the kids. Until then we will keep having to rent self catering.

We always stay in flats when we travel and have done since forever. It doesn’t have to be Airbnb. I don’t want to eat out more than once a day. I like a kitchen where I can prepare meals.

That's not true. It's the clamping down on Airbnb lettings and it's impact on local people that is being restricted. It's a problem in lots of cities and popular destinations where it's reducing the availability of houses and flats to rent as permanent family homes by a considerable amount, as many landlords can make more profit from Airbnb than letting as permanent homes. . The UK government is currently consulting on changes here, in England, and whether to create a new planning permission category for short term lettings like Airbnb for that very reason.

There are plenty of other hotels, holiday apartments and budget hostels in Madrid to book.

Surely you wouldn't expect local families to be deprived of accommodation to rent?

Exactly, Madrid is a large city and will still have plenty of hotels, hostels, serviced apartments and apart hotels (which are much more of a thing in European cities).

Airbnb has been a disaster for people that live in popular tourist cities. Why on earth should locals be priced out or have to put up with streams of noisy tourists traipsing in and out of their homes so you can get slightly cheaper accommodation or because hotels are "old fashioned"?

Go somewhere else, then?

It's incredibly weird to feel so entitled to an exact type of accommodation in one specific city. Madrid isn't somehow obliged to offer you exactly what you want.

We went to Madrid & Barcelona for the first time last year.
We stayed in hotels in the city centres.
We enjoyed our stays

However, we did see some graffiti related to anti airb&b

We never book airb&b

Our hotels were bed & breakfast

We really only slept there

Because we were out & about exploring each day, visiting the attractions & walking around

We ate in local restaurants