With the effects of overtourism now seen in even the most secure destinations, officials are taking extreme measures to safeguard residents and key infrastructure.
And it appears hotels and short-term rentals are directly in the firing line.
In recent years, tourist hotspots across Europe have clamped down on hotel construction, with several implementing complete bans to curb rising visitor numbers.
Barcelona pioneered the move in 2017, banning all new hotel licenses to manage tourism density.
Now, Greece’s capital city is considering following suit – with Haris Doukas, the mayor of Athens, raising the issue at a recent event, though he insisted the holiday hotspot will not ‘become Barcelona’.
A ban on new short-term rental permits is already in place in Athens’ three core neighbourhoods to combat the rapid increase in holiday lets – similar to measures taken in other tourist hotspots around the world.
As Greece weighs up the possibility of imposing restrictions, we examine the global cities implementing bans on new hotels and short-term rentals.
Barcelona, Spain
Not only was Barcelona the first destination to ban new hotel licences, it now seeks to push out short-term rentals (pictured) entirely by 2028
When Barcelona first introduced its ban on new hotel licences in 2017, around 32 million visitors flooded into the city the year prior – a figure that vastly outweighed its 1.6 million residents.
In a bid to curb tourism, the city’s major Ada Colau set out a policy following on from a ban to stop any new hotels from opening.
Her Strategic Plan for Tourism 2020, presented in February 2017, laid out a number of measurements aimed at deterring the masses.
Charges for day-trippers ramped up, parking rates increased and plans were drawn up to limit the number of Segways and electric scooters in the more touristic parts of the city.
Holiday apartments were also in line to be slapped with the highest property tax rates, while licenses for new tourist accommodation would be refused.
Officials currently have plans to eliminate all short-term rentals by November 2028, a move that will affect over 10,000 properties.
San Sebastian, Spain
San Sebastian is another Spanish city that has set similar rules, with a total ban on new hotels set for implementation this year
As part of a new 2026 municipal update aimed at curbing high visitor numbers while protecting local housing, San Sebastian is implementing a total ban on new hotels.
The historic city is currently home to a population of just 200,000 – yet it can see up to two million international visitors in the height of summer, a number that has been driven by its newfound popularity on TikTok and other social media platforms.
In response, Eneko Goia, the mayor of the Spanish resort town, is banning the construction of new hotels, all while imposing strict restrictions on short-term apartments.
The new regulations divide the Spanish hub into two areas that will follow different sets of rules and standards.
An ‘unconditional moratorium’ will be implemented in crowded districts such as Antiguo-Ondarreta, Ategorrieta-Ulia, Centro, Gros, and Ibaeta, with all licenses to build and expand suspended without exception.
Across the remaining half of the city, the rules are to be somewhat relaxed, with a focus on protecting existing resident housing rather than halting expansion. This means plots in urban areas intended for local housing cannot be turned into tourist accommodations
The city’s historic Old Quarter will also not be subject to the new rule as the ‘stature zone’ already follows its own strict regulations, according to Russpain.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Amsterdam banned the construction of new hotels in 2024
In April 2024, Amsterdam implemented a ban on the construction of new hotels anywhere in city as part of a wider crackdown on rowdy foreign visitors.
At the time, the local government announced that it wanted to keep the city liveable for residents and visitors – meaning no over-tourism.
It also placed a new limit of 20million for the maximum number of overnight hotel stays by tourists the city is willing to accept each year.
As part of the fight against mass tourism, a new hotel in Amsterdam will only be able to be built if another hotel closes, if the number of sleeping places available in the city does not increase and if the new hotel will be better – for example, more sustainable.
The city has been actively trying to limit tourist numbers, which run into the millions per year, mainly by discouraging sex and drug-related tourism to the Red Light District.
There was already a ban on constructing new hotels in many areas of the city, but due to the most recent ban, the entirety of Amsterdam has become a ‘no area’ for new hotels.
The decision was made in a bid to keep a lid on the number of tourists who visit the popular holiday hotspot, with an aim to keep the number of overnight stays below 20million annually.
Athens, Greece
There are currently around 35,000 hotel beds in the Athens area – after hundreds of four and five star hotels opened in the capital between 2019 and 2024
At this week’s This is Athens – Agora event, Haris Doukas, mayor of the capital, suggested that the city might begin banning the construction of new hotels to better manage local growth.
It follows a pre-existing 2025 ban on new short-term licences in three central districts across the historic city.
Doukas noted it is unfair to strictly regulate hotels while letting unregulated ‘serviced apartments’ continue to grow.
‘We really need to see if and how many more hotels we need and where,’ Doukas told Euro News, ‘We need to see and think about how much extra tourist load we can lift and where.’
‘We must not become Barcelona. We have to understand that there are saturated areas that cannot afford new beds: whether short-term rentals or not. Talking at events around the globe, we see that capping is not only being put on short-term rentals but also on hotels; in specific, “saturated” areas.’
Athens has seen a sharp rise in hotel beds in recent years. Between 2019 and 2024, hundreds of new four- and five-star hotels have opened across Greece.
Currently, there are 68,934 hotel beds in the Attica municipality – with some 35,000 of these located in the greater Athens city centre area.
To implement such restrictions, industry leaders agree planning is needed, with Evgenios Vassilikos noting the rapid rise in hotels, rentals, and serviced apartments, saying, ‘We don’t need to reinvent the wheel’ when looking at measures adopted by other cities.
With Athens attracting around 10 to 12 million visitors annually, officials and businesses are increasingly focused on managing tourism growth at a sustainable level.
Malaga, Spain
In 2025, Malaga announced a three-year moratorium on new tourism rental licences beyond the existing 12,660
In April 2025, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, announced a crackdown on holiday rentals in ‘high tension’ areas like Costa Blanca and Malaga.
Under the legislation, holiday rentals are now banned from an apartment complex if 60 per cent of property owners vote against them, citing noise concerns or other disruptions.
In addition, Malaga’s city council announced a three-year moratorium on new tourism rental licences beyond the existing 12,660.
The Spanish government also threatened hefty fines against holiday platforms, including Airbnb, for hosting properties that fail to comply with licensing rules.
‘There are too many Airbnbs and not enough housing,’ Mr Sánchez declared at the time.
Airbnb, however, claimed it had been made a ‘scapegoat’ in the country’s wider housing crisis, with the property rental giant accusing Spain’s left-wing government of putting €30billion (£25.7billion) of annual tourism activity.
The clampdown follows a boom in house prices and rents, which have doubled in less than a decade in some tourism hotspots.
The lack of affordable housing prompted a wave of fierce protests across Spain in recent years, with communities nationwide rallying against them.
Florence, Italy
In Florence, visitors can no longer rent an Airbnb, after the city banned the short-term lets to free up more housing for residents
In 2023, local officials announced Airbnbs would be banned in Florence’s historic centre to help alleviate a chronic shortage of affordable homes for residents.
Over the last 20 years, the city centre has seen thousands of properties converted into short-term rentals like Airbnbs, spelling disaster for its 380,000 inhabitants that have struggled to obtain housing.
Under the latest policy, any allowing people to stay for fewer than 30 days is now officially classed as a ‘short-term’ rental, according to Time Out.
In order to obtain licences for short-term lets, hosts must register properties with local councils, and annual limits are set on the number of days a property can be rented.
Yorkshire Dales, UK
A house on the hillside of the Yorkshire Dales in the village of Bolton Abbey. Authorities have proposed a ban on new second homes
A contentious proposal was brought forward by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA) in December 2024 that would mean no new properties are allowed to be used as holiday homes.
In June 2025, the proposal was approved, leading to fury from local second homeowners who expressed fears that an outright prohibition would cripple the local economy.
Instead, houses would need to be permanently occupied, with the rules applying to all new dwellings across the 27 towns and villages in the Dales – including Bolton Abbey, Hawes and Malham.
At the time, Conservative councillor Richard Foster said: ‘We’ve slowly losing houses to second homes but we want to make sure the national park does what it needs to do.
‘We need to build homes for people to live in – pubs struggle for staff so they have to import people to come into the area to work.
‘We’ve also got an aging population, we don’t have carers, so it’s all about building houses that people live in and then they can become part of the community.
‘We don’t want to lose them to people who think that a property will make a nice holiday cottage.’