Hotels win the accommodation battle over tourist apartments

Belén Trincado Aznar

The sharp rise in hotel prices in Spain, with an average rate of 129 euros per room per day, has not discouraged tourists from continuing to stay in them. In July, the first month of the high season, they recorded 43.1 million overnight stays, which represented an annual increase of 2.4% and more than one million stays in absolute terms. A growth linked exclusively to foreign tourism, which made 27.77 million overnight stays, 1.26 million more than in the same month of 2022, while in the case of nationals the drop was 1.5% (230,000 less ). Hotels brought together two out of every three stays in Spain compared to tourist apartments, campsites or rural houses.

The rise of hotels contrasts with the decline of tourist apartments, which recorded 9.47 million overnight stays, according to the INE, which represented an annual drop of 5.1% and almost half a million fewer stays than in the same month. 2022. Hotel sources consulted by Cinco Días qualify these results and emphasize that the methodology used by the INE shows a partial photograph of the tourist apartments. “Only those that are registered in the official records of each autonomous community appear,” they emphasize.

THE HIGHEST WEIGHT IN THE UK

The United Kingdom is the first source market for travelers to Spain and is also the one that generates the most overnight stays among foreigners. Specifically, it represents 30% in tourist apartments and 25% in hotels.

A bias that can be corroborated in one of the latest reports on tourist homes prepared by Exceltur, in which Meliá, Iberostar, RIU, NH and Hesperia are represented. The study estimated the number of beds in regulated apartments at 49,668 compared to the 247,849 beds linked to housing for tourist use. In other words, the volume of tourist apartments is five times that of regulated apartments. This organization has been very critical of the uncontrolled proliferation of these accommodations and has requested the creation of a state legal framework, “that, while respecting the current jurisdictional framework, further empowers and helps autonomous communities and city councils to enforce their regulations to avoid “the uncontrolled and exponential growth of these homes and their negative effects on urban dynamism.” Exceltur especially criticizes that the lack of supply has skyrocketed the price of housing in Madrid or Barcelona, ​​with increases that reached 18.5% and 14.2% between 2010 and 2019.

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