María Gibert, the manager of the Habtur holiday rentals association, says prices have increased this year by up to seven per cent. This increase is the consequence of rising costs for supplies and utilities. It is, she adds, a "slight" increase in price and in line with what has been happening generally.
For this reason, she doesn't believe that the increases will harm bookings for the summer. Experience over the Easter period supports this view. Occupancy was not affected. Sixty per cent of properties linked to Habtur were available, and 80% of these had bookings.
As a representative of the legal and registered holiday rental offer, Gibert supports Council of Mallorca efforts to get tough with the illegal supply. In this regard, she says that there will be fewer illegal properties available this summer, precisely because of the tougher line being adopted by tourism inspectors and more sophisticated, technological means of detection.
The Council's Sustainable Tourism Observatory and the University of the Balearic Islands have developed a data-driven geolocation system for helping inspectors to home in on illegal supply.