“In Spain there are plenty of Airbnb and Missing homes.” To the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchezdoes not tremble his pulse to get into controversies. Nor does he worry about pointing with his finger, although in some cases it is generic. But with the company … Tourist rental, at the moment, has punctured in bone. The PSOE leader, unable to find the key to solve the problem of access to housing, has put various issues on the shaker and has put this type of companies in the trigger. And in the center of everything he has placed Airbnb; Although for now he has not obtained an answer, and it is likely that he does not have it.
The general director of Airbnb for Spain, Jaime Rodríguez de Santiago (Madrid, 1984), is an expert in dealing with complicated regulations. A problem for the president, who has not found pepper to season his statements. It was at the beginning of January when he presented his housing megaplan. Just in case it does not flow, he already was responsible for pointing to Airbnb.
The president, perhaps, would have expected an angry response by the company responsible in Spain, but the only thing he has obtained has been a series of post on LinkedIn. Paused and calm reflections on housing, and an interested vision of the matter – logically – but always with large left hand doses. He is an expert. He has been doing it for more than a decade.
Various sources in the entrepreneurial sector assure ABC that Rodríguez de Santiago will not enter the mud with Sánchez. He has never done it with any administration, and he will not do it now. It is, at this point – and with its 40 years -, of an entrepreneur with great recognition within the ‘startup’ ecosystem. His adventure in companies of great national relevance began in 2013 in Blablacarwhere in a very short time it became the person in charge.
Rodríguez de Santiago has extensive experience in companies with high regulatory complexity, and always left unharmed
This began its journey through companies whose regulation has always forced administrations to review the legal limits so that they could act normally in the face of great penetration among Spanish consumers. In this case, the formula for sharing car with strangers was a revolution and, of course, did not like the traditional transport sector. But Rodríguez de Santiago did not want to enter the clash with the companies, nor did he with the politicians of one or another color that always see opportunities to fill the polls with their ballots.
In this sense, in some interview, the Director General of Airbnb has stated that «after the Enlightenment we find a path to give us good explanations, but, unfortunately, we are falling into the politicization of everything, which makes us react in an aggressive way and little rational to certain situations ». This is the best explanation of what is currently happening with the house, and where the government has found in the confrontation the way to calm people if the economic plans fail.
Difficult situations
Rodríguez de Santiago has a successful podcast, ‘Kaizen’; And a book, ‘reality does not exist’, which has had a great reception within the scope where the Director General of Airbnb moves. Reality stimuli that have always accompanied him. As happened in his passage through Free Nowthe application of taxi reserve that also lived convulsive moments in its fight against the taxi sector itself and the rental of vehicles. From 2019 to 2023, he had to deal with changing regulations and many cross interests again.
In Free Now he had to assume a brand change after a fusion and, above all, to shake the mobility sector where many companies did not want anything to change. That has been a constant in the professional career of Rodríguez de Santiago.
And so he arrives at Airbnb, in 2024, a company that had been in the eye of the hurricane for years. Before it has been pointed out as a problem for access to housing, the company has been criticized by large hotel chains, which did not see well the entry of a new actor into the tourist business.
Madrid and neighborhood
A few weeks ago he explained that almost all his life has lived in the same neighborhood of Madrid. This led him to perform an analysis of access to housing, knowing firsthand the situation
A successful podcast
‘Kaizen’ is one of the podcast that has had the greatest reception in the entrepreneurial field, and always with a very personal vision
An open book
‘Reality does not exist’ is approached as a cure of humility for the author, as he has once confessed, and it is a way of facing things, as is the case now
At first, the hotel sector focused its criticisms on the tourist accommodation company. But time has shown that there was room for everyone. They can even and should be complementary. This does not mean that the combination also serves the rental market, although Rodríguez de Santiago himself tries to expose his reasons for coexistence to be possible.
Among other issues, he maintains that the creation of housing in the last decade has been the lowest since the 70s, with just 83,000 homes initiated a year. And he explained in networks that «in Spain we went from creating 47,000 homes per year in 2015 to 272,000 in 2023. More and more people live in cities, in smaller coexistence nuclei. In front of these figures, in cities like Lisbon, Barcelona or Madridthe accommodations dedicated exclusively to the tourist activity available on Airbnb represent less than 0.5% of the total housing park ».
Given this situation, from their company, among other issues, they propose to differentiate family homes from business activities. “It makes no regular sense equally to those who rent their own home or their home house as a company that operates several properties,” he maintains.
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