Spanish hotels have made a killing this year. Turnover per occupied room (ADR) increased by 7.3% compared to the already record figures of August last year, to almost 147 euros per day. Data published today, Monday, by the National Statistics Institute (INE) indicate that hotels earned 34% more than in 2019, before the pandemic broke out, and even turnover grew by 7% compared to what had been their best year so far, 2023.
Hotel overnight stays reached an all-time high of 47.8 million in August, the highest figure ever, according to the INE’s Coyuntura Hotelera. In the first eight months of the year as a whole, overnight stays have increased by 5.6% compared to 2023 to 252.6 million bookings.
This is despite the fact that domestic tourism has not been as buoyant as last year, and hotel nights booked by them fell by 0.3% compared to 2023. But the boom in international tourism continues and overnight stays have risen by 5% so far this year. Although on average hoteliers have invoiced 147 euros per room, there are big differences depending on the category of accommodation.
For 5-star hotels the figure has exceeded 311 euros per day, while for 4-star hotels the figure falls to 156 euros. And three-star hotels were billed at an average of 127 euros. According to the INE, the tourist spot with the highest turnover per occupied room was Marbella, where the average price of a hotel was 312 euros in the month of August.
While travellers resident in Spain chose Andalusia, Catalonia and the Valencian Community as their destination, foreigners chose the Balearics, Catalonia and the Canary Islands in August. The tourist destinations with the highest number of overnight stays in August were Barcelona, Calvia and Madrid.
The British continue to be the leading tourist arrivals, accounting for 25% of visits in August. Travellers from the United Kingdom have been leading foreign hotel overnight stays in Spain since January 2022. Germans accounted for 16% of total bookings. They were followed by tourists from France (12%), Italy (6.6%) and the Netherlands (5.3%).