The manager of the Habtur holiday rentals association, Maria Gibert, says that forecasts for bookings this summer suggest between 60 and 70 per cent occupancy.
These are reservations for properties that are registered with the tourism ministry as holiday rentals, and many - as is the case with hotel bookings - are last minute. A positive factor that may boost reservations is that there is now no limit on the number of people who can stay in a holiday rental, other than the official limit for a property's number of beds which is registered with the ministry. The Balearic government had imposed a specific limit for Covid reasons, but the Supreme Court's ruling on social gatherings means that this limit no longer applies.
Gibert explains that there is a preference for houses and villas rather than apartments. Bookings for standalone properties are over 60%, whereas those for apartments are lower. Covid has meant that clients are looking to avoid communal spaces, and the pandemic also explains the popularity of properties away from urban centres and crowds of people.
Prices, she notes, are much as they were before the crisis. It isn't proving necessary to have to lower prices in order to attract holidaymakers.