Four illegal hotels in Lanzarote have appeared in the report Destruction at all costs 2025. Impacts of urban planning and climate change on the coast, published by the non-governmental organization Greenpeace. The entity in defense of the environment points out that the island of volcanoes came to house "the stretch of coast with the most illegal hotels in Spain" and that four hotel accommodations are still open to the public without regularizing their situation.
The Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands declared the licenses of twenty hotel establishments null and void due to irregularities in their concession. Then, in 2016, the Provincial Court of Las Palmas sentenced the then mayor of Yaiza, José Francisco Reyes, to six years in prison and disqualification and decreed the embargo of all his assets within the framework of the Yate case.
Although the majority of hotel establishments have managed to regularize their situation, four of them continue without doing so. Specifically, the Princesa Yaiza, Son Bou, Río Playa Blanca and Sandos Papagayo hotels, formerly known as Papagayo Arena. Despite their illegality, they remain open to the public, accommodating tourists and, some of them, receiving public subsidies.
In the case of the Son Bou Hotel, owned by Juan Francisco Rosa, Greenpeace recalls that it has twice the number of places allowed and 6,000 square meters more of built area.
Meanwhile, regarding the Río Playa Blanca Hotel, the Supreme Court rejected in May 2025 the appeal of the company Paraíso 2000 SL, owner of the establishment, which claimed that it was unaware of the 2007 ruling that outlawed its license. For the moment, Greenpeace states that said company "continues without providing a project that adapts its illegal structures to the regulations".
The environmental organization describes as "surprising" the case of the Sandos Papagayo hotel, which despite being located next to the Los Ajaches Natural Monument, "on the beachfront, occupying a public space and with a greater height than allowed", the Cabildo de Lanzarote approved its "provisional tourist classification" in August 2024.
Thus, the Cabildo de Lanzarote granted the provisional tourist license to the Princesa Yaiza Hotel, also owned by Juan Francisco Rosa, in December 2023. This establishment does not comply with the urban planning license, nor did it present the demolition project that it had to do. The Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) annulled the license of this hotel. After that, the City Council itself pointed out that it was "impossible" to legalize the hotel, as it has more than 5,000 square meters more than allowed. Without undertaking the demolition of part of the establishment, its legalization would not be possible.
Spain, facing climate change
In a national report, Greenpeace alerts to the risks posed by climate change for the 43,000 square kilometers of coastline in Spain. "It turns the country into a territory especially vulnerable to the impacts of global warming," the document states. However, in the face of these threats, it indicates that the management of the coastline "is not advancing in parallel with this reality" and even "in many areas actions are observed in the opposite direction".
The environmental organization argues that under the argument of "luxury tourism", "a model of greater profitability, less social impact and with supposed sustainability measures" is sold, but it continues "promoting the construction of hotel places in areas that are already saturated and touristified".
