Hotel room prices have already accumulated twenty consecutive months of increases, reaching a price increase of 10.95% in January. Following the increases, the hotel industry has far exceeded the average pre-pandemic rates. In this way, staying in a room has gone from the average price of 82.5 euros to 95.4 so far this year.
46.4% more overnight stays in hotel establishments (15.5 million), above that month of last year and already practically at pre-Covid levels.
The hotel occupancy data is also close to the values before the covid-19, at 45.8% last January, which reaches 50.8% on weekends (46.1 and 51.2% respectively three years ago). After a very weak start in 2022 due to the spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, the hotel sector closed a good year, especially due to the increase in room prices, because its occupancy levels were lower than usual.
The average rate rises by 16%
That trend of price increases continued last January, with what are already 20 consecutive months of increases, always above 7.5% and even close to 30% in April of last year. That translates into an increase in the average daily rate (ADR, for its acronym in January in English) from 82.15 euros in January 2020 to 95.41 euros this past, an increase of 16.1%. The highest peak was located last August, at 127.6 euros per room.
If it is measured in revenue per occupied room (RevPAR), which takes into account the level of occupancy and is a better indicator of profitability, the price per room went from 44.6 euros in January 2020 to 51, 78 euros at the close of this January, also 16.1% more.
Foreigners, slightly below precovid
In terms of the number of travelers, the figures are also close to those before the pandemic, with 5.38 million people registered at hotels last January (5.57 million three years earlier). They made a total of 15.5 million nights (15.9 million in the first month of 2020), of which 5.8 million were nationals (above the 5.7 million then) and the remaining 9.7 million were foreigners, who are still somewhat below before the covid (10.3 million).
Andalusia, Madrid and Catalonia were the main destinations for residents in Spain in January, with almost 50% of the nights spent; while international travelers go mainly to the Canary Islands, with 53.3% of overnight stays, followed by Catalonia and Andalusia (with more than 25% between the two).
In the middle of the high season, the Canary Islands was the community with the highest occupancy rate, which reached 71% and is placed in pre-Covid percentages, followed by Madrid, with 47.1%, although in this case still five points below then.
Travelers from the United Kingdom and Germany concentrated 22% (2.14 million nights) and 15.8% (1.54 million), respectively, of the total overnight stays of non-residents in January. The former are closer to precovid (2.2 million) than the latter (1.7 million).
