Success Stories
Integrating AI & Data Analytics to Map Ibiza’s Short-Term Rental Market and Fostering Smart Regulation
Bridging the Gap Between Tourism and Urban Planning Through Data Intelligence
Context
Short-term rentals are a central topic of discussion when addressing housing availability and affordability in Spain. They are also a concern for authorities throughout the Spanish territory, as they correlate with overtourism, lodging quality standards, and traveler satisfaction. Short-term rentals are also contributing to negative sentiment on travel and tourism in many communities, including the Balearic Islands and Ibiza.
According to the Official Housing Census conducted by the Spanish Board of Statistics (INE), in just 10 years, from 2011 to 2021, the percentage of Balearic homes used as primary residences dropped from 73.3% to 67%, indicating a rise in properties allocated for tourist accommodations. Locals consider this trend has contributed to a housing crisis and the increasing difficulty to secure affordable housing, leading to widespread protests against overtourism and the proliferation of short-term rentals across Spain in 2024, including the Balearic Islands.
Regulating short-term rentals is complex due to their economic significance and the diverse stakeholders involved. Balancing the interests of homeowners, tourists, and residents requires nuanced policies that address both economic benefits and social impacts, and many destinations, including Ibiza, have started taking the first and most definitive step to start controlling short-term rentals offerings: measuring.
As of August 2024, Mabrian Travel Intelligence determined that there were approximately 400,000 active short-term rental units in Spain. Of this total, 6.5% were located in the Balearic Islands, which equates to 26,000 tourist rentals. Ibiza itself comprises 17% of the Balearic short-term rental market.
Key goals
The government of Ibiza (Consell d’Eivissa), in partnership with Mabrian, is spearheading the implementation of an innovative travel intelligence solution specifically designed for tourism destinations, to control short-term rentals. This groundbreaking initiative focuses on creating a comprehensive and dynamic map of short-term rental properties across the island.
By leveraging Mabrian’s expertise, Ibiza’s governing body gains access to a wealth of up-to-date, granular, and actionable data. This encompasses a wide array of critical information, including but not limited to precise location, property category, licensing status, and current pricing strategies.
This strategic collaboration between the Consell d’Eivissa and Mabrian not only demonstrates a commitment to innovation and data-driven governance but also sets a new benchmark for sustainable tourism management. By harnessing the power of travel intelligence, Ibiza aims at taking a proactive stance in shaping its tourism landscape, fostering a balance between economic growth and local communities welfare.
Approach
This project provided the Consell d’Eivissa with extensive knowledge on housing offered to non-residents and tourists. The reach of travel intelligence was leveraged to facilitate administrative tasks in enforcing current laws and to help bridge the gap between tourism and urban planning authorities, through the Illegal Short Term Rentals Taskforce. This specialized government department is leveraging data intelligence to combat unlawful, low-quality listings, pioneering data intelligence implementation in public administration procedures and operations aimed at managing and regulating short term rentals.
The first two phases of this project, carried out over 17 months, began with five months of preparatory work, in which Ibiza authorities conducted a thorough analysis of the data available in Mabrian’s dashboard for short-term rental offerings. This data included monthly updates on the number of units and equivalent beds, categories, area location, prices, licensing reporting, and reviews evolution. Just a month after, Ibiza authorities managed to reduce illegal STRs listings in the island by -27%.
By July 2024, the final analytical model was deployed, leading to the progressive removal of low-quality listings that could not be considered valid rental properties, as well as those failing to provide a legitimate license number. Mabrian model is capable of weekly updates and integration with official registries to enhance the dashboard, currently able to classify STRs by infraction and by type of offering (up to 53 categories), identify low-quality offerings, profile hosts and owners, determine the duration offerings have been available, and perform sentiment analysis for reviews.
Results
The coordinated efforts of the Illegal Short-Term Rentals Taskforce, supported by Mabrian’s data intelligence, enabled the Ibiza’s government—working in collaboration with Airbnb—to fully regularise Ibiza’s short-term rentals offerings. Between July 2024 and September 17, 2025, a total of 2,831 irregular listings were identified under these criteria and removed from the market.
In terms of capacity, this represents the elimination of 14,532 illegal short-term rentals beds on the island. According to data from the Consell d’Eivissa, the 4,900 visitors who had been staying in illegal STRs each day are now accommodated in properties that comply with current legislation.
Moreover, Mabrian data intelligence has been instrumental in promoting Ibiza’s Working Group to Combat Illegal STRs, a body comprising island’s administrations, the Balearic Government, tourism industry associations, unions, and major platforms for short term rentals, all fully committed to strengthening Ibiza’s regulated and high-quality accommodation offering.
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