Bad for ↓
Spain's first general strike in 14 years, on November 11, was driven by anger over rents. On November 12, Congress passed a decree that taxes tourist-rental flats, which could hurt Airbnb's Spanish business. The People's Party says it will repeal it if it wins on November 29. How much is at stake is not known.
Source: BBC News ↗
When a city runs short of homes, anger over rent tends to land on whoever turns homes into tourist stays, even when the protest started somewhere else.
Unions shut down much of Spain for a day, and trains and flights around Madrid and Barcelona were badly disrupted. Unions called it over wages, housing and the cost of living, after the September eviction and later death of 87-year-old Madrid tenant Maricarmen Abascal set off national outrage over rents.
Rent is now the central issue of a snap election called after Congress rejected the government's housing plans. In Madrid, a small flat costs nearly half a typical salary. Picture a town where every spare room is rented to tourists, so locals find nothing left. That's why voters push leaders to free up homes for residents.
One fast way to free up homes is to restrict or tax short-term rentals, meaning flats let to visitors for a few nights. Airbnb earns a fee on every such stay, so costlier rules in a big tourist country could shrink its listings there.
Spain's two biggest unions walked out on November 11 over housing, wages and the cost of living. About 120,000 people marched in Madrid and more than 50,000 in Barcelona. Transport was seriously disrupted, with reduced operations expected at Madrid and Barcelona airports. The longer link runs through rents. A 50 square metre flat in Madrid averaged €1,170 a month in October, nearly half the average gross salary. The day after the strike, on November 12, Spain's interim Congress passed one of the two decrees by 35 votes to 34. Among other things, it puts a 10% tax on flats rented to tourists, such as those listed on Airbnb (ABNB). The second decree, on automatically renewable leases, failed again. The People's Party says it will repeal the measures if it wins on November 29.
These moves are hard to tie to Spain. Airbnb was coming off a rally after its November 5 results and a November 9 analyst upgrade, and Expedia and Booking had fallen 17.8% and 6.3% over five days on earnings and sector news.
The People's Party leads the polls, helped reject the government's housing decrees, and has said it will repeal the government's housing measures, including the new 10% tax on tourist flats, if it takes power. If a PP-led government forms after the November 29 vote and moves to repeal the decree in the following weeks, the link to Airbnb would be removed.
The party most likely to govern after November 29 opposed the strike, voted down the housing decrees, and has pledged to repeal the housing measures passed on November 12, including the 10% tax on tourist flats. If it does, Airbnb's Spanish listings face no new burden, and the strike changes little for the company.
Spain's last general strike was in 2012, under Mariano Rajoy's conservative government, and it also disrupted transport.
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