The Catalan tool for detecting unlicensed tourist apartments is spreading across Europe

Imagine being about to buy an apartment, after searching extensively and juggling finances to afford the down payment, only to have the owner tell you it's already sold to another buyer. And not only that, but the real estate agency adds that the entire property will be used for tourist apartments. A situation that wouldn't surprise anyone today, but more than ten years ago, it left Francesc Serrano and his partner reeling. He, who owned a software development company for third parties, arrived at the office and had the staff investigate whether tourist apartments were common or if he'd just had bad luck.

They plotted all the tourist apartment listings they could find on a map of Barcelona. The surprise came when they discovered hotspots and confirmed that something was definitely happening. "It wasn't just a perception, it was a reality," Serrano emphasizes. Airbnb was well-established in the city, but it wasn't as well-known a platform to residents as it is now, and there wasn't the same level of social awareness or regulation as there is today, probably when the problem had already become unsustainable.

Serrano contacted the Barcelona City Council, then governed by Xavier Trias, and offered them the tool they had developed. They began working for the council and later also for the Barcelona Provincial Council and the Catalan Government. What started as a pilot project transformed into Talk&Code, a company specializing in digitally tracking tourist apartments listed on platforms like Airbnb, Booking, Rentalia, TripAdvisor, and Vrbo. Their task consists of verifying that the apartments have the correct license and generating the necessary digital evidence when this is not the case, so that inspection teams can take action. In the case of detecting fake listings, which are increasingly common and characterized by always offering a price that seems too good to be true, they notify the relevant authorities so that they can request the listing's removal from the platform.

"We have always been neutral; we don't say there are good or bad listings, we only offer data to inform decisions," says the company's founder and CEO. Currently, Talk&Code reviews between 100,000 and 130,000 listings per month. They haven't done this for the Barcelona City Council for years, but they do for the Catalan government (Generalitat), which has been using their system for a decade to review tourist apartments throughout the region. Furthermore, a year ago the Catalan administration made this tool available free of charge to any municipality, and so far some 130 local councils have adopted it. There are success stories like that of Lloret de Mar, which detected around twenty illegal apartments and issued them a fine of almost half a million euros. With the new national registry now in effect, they have even more work to do, as they must verify that the listings have also been registered, along with the other required regional and municipal permits.

Expansion across Europe

The Barcelona-based company has been marketing its system beyond Catalonia, especially in the last five years. The Balearic Islands, Andalusia, and Galicia are other regions where Talk&Code has a presence, and it has also exported its model internationally to the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Andorra. Now, they have just entered Italy to collaborate with the City of Florence and the government of Malta on monitoring their tourist accommodation offerings. "We want to create a standard in the sector that allows everyone to speak the same language and makes everything easier, because all cities and countries have the same problem," says Serrano, also aware that there is increasing competition. Their expansion is now focused on other regions, such as the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Central America. With a staff of five and a turnover of €400,000 last year, the company dedicates its profits to improving its technology. They are on the fourth version of their software, now enhanced with artificial intelligence to help predict patterns of irregularities and anticipate market changes that could generate new areas with tourist pressure. In Catalonia, there are 105,000 registered licenses, and, as Serrano indicates, only 5% of the published advertisements do not comply with regulations, "with no municipality having a serious problem." When they enter a new city, they estimate that between 30% and 40% of the advertisements operate outside the law.