Never before has spending a holiday in Spain been so expensive as this summer. The season concludes with hotel prices never seen before and three consecutive months of breaking rate records, which has forced travelers to shorten their average stay. Accommodations have received more tourists than ever between June and August, 37.36 million including both Spaniards and foreigners, according to the Hotel Tourism Situation survey published this Friday by the INE. In 2019, a reference year for the sector when measuring the evolution of its activity, 36.55 million guests arrived at the country's hotels in the three summer months, while in 2022, the worst has already passed of the pandemic, 36.18 million did so.
Now, overnight stays do not reach pre-covid numbers. This high season has closed with 126.1 million hotel overnight stays between June and August compared to 127.46 million in 2019 (123.4 million in 2022). That is, the hotels have had more clients, but they have reduced their vacations to adapt to the rise in prices, say sources in the sector. For the year as a whole, however, overnight stays do exceed those of the first eight months of 2019, which indicates that demand is beginning to no longer tolerate the price increase so happily. In fact, in August hotel occupancy fell slightly, 0.3% year-on-year, to 74.8%. The weekend occupancy rate by places also fell by 0.6% and stood at 77.5%.
This has been influenced by both the economic situation, with an increase in rates that does not let up, and the high prices for accommodation and transportation. The average rate in August reached 136.5 euros, which represents an increase of 6.7% compared to the same month in 2022.
However, the rise in accommodation prices has moderated in the last two months. "We are beginning to hit the ceiling in the sector and from now on we may see some erosion in prices," says José Rodríguez Pousa, CEO of Sercotel. With one hundred hotels in Spain, the hotel chain's occupancy has reached 80%, three points above the previous summer, and prices have been 10% higher. In Barcelona city they have even been sold out, with rates 15% more expensive. "It has been a very good season," says the manager.
The main hotel companies in Spain are also satisfied with the season. From Meliá they comment that this third quarter they have exceeded the reservations in monetary terms of the same period in 2019 by almost 30%, and have even improved those for 2022. Regarding the increase in hotel prices, they point out that it has not been due solely to the inflation, but also "to the investment made by many companies", such as Meliá itself, "in improvement and repositioning of products with a greater weight in the “premium” and luxury segment. The hotel company Riu has, for its part, increased occupancy of its 27 establishments in Spain at 95%, with an average rate increase of around 10%.
As for the Hotusa group, which has also met its expectations this summer, they point out that the price increase "is linked to the good behavior of demand." "On the contrary, a price war would be a cause for concern," they add. They also remember that operating costs have also skyrocketed. And they insist that, compared to destinations like Paris or London, hotels in destinations like Barcelona or Madrid continue to be cheaper.
