Huge Rush for Available Vacation Rental Slots

Huge Rush, Short Patience

On Monday morning, just after 9 o'clock, not only locals with cold coffee stood in front of their computers, but also real estate agents and landlords who could hardly believe that slots for vacation rentals had finally been released again. The excitement was tangible: browsers freezing, loading bars spinning for ages, and the familiar error message "Service not available" appeared for many.

Figures to remember

The island council allocated a total of 1,570 tourism slots for September — including hotel quotas and open vacation rentals. For the private slots, of which around 650 were available, on the first day far more applications were submitted than could be processed. In short: interest is huge, the slots are not.

How is allocation done? The order of submission decides, provided the applications meet the legal requirements. That sounds simple — in practice it led to discussions: Whoever clicks "Submit" first wins; those who are unlucky end up with nothing.

Criticism of technology and procedure

Opposition representatives criticized the process sharply. They argued that the technology was not ready and that there had been similar system outages in the past. Several affected people reported repeated attempts, failed document uploads, and long waits in hotline queues. There was particular anger about the lack of transparency: Who is on the waiting list when? And how are hotel quotas and private offers distinguished?

A landlord from Palma, who preferred to stay anonymous, summed it up: "I spent three hours trying to upload the documents. In the end, someone else is listed on the form, who calls me 20 minutes later and tells me they got the slot."

What might happen next

The island council has announced that it will review the procedure and make technical improvements. It is planned to offer additional allocation dates and improve communication with applicants. Whether that is enough to win back the trust of landlords and the public remains to be seen. Many expect, in the short term, more transparency — and above all stable servers.

For daily life on the island, one thing is certain: when a slot is finally allocated, not only the owners notice, but also the homes in the tourist districts. September on Mallorca is still warm, but debates about vacation rentals remain heated.