Tourism intelligence company Mabrian has analysed the hotel prices of the main European destinations in August and compared them to local inflation rates, comparing data from 2022 with that of 2019.
The main conclusion of this study is that, taking into account inflation, hotel prices in 2022, despite having experienced increases, are cheaper than in 2019 in most European tourist destinations.
Other results of the study are as follows:
• The recent increase in prices in Spain, the United Kingdom, France and Portugal in 3 and 4 star hotels, and Italy in 4 and 5 star hotels, are below inflation levels and therefore show a decrease in real hotel prices.
• In the case of Greece, the scenario is different as there has beena much more significant rise in hotel prices, up to 134% for 5-star hotels compared to 2019, whilst the inflation rate is just 6.87%. The high rise prices of 5-star hotels may be related to the recent opening of luxury hotels in the destination, which has increased the average value of accommodation in the country. However, Greek 3- and 4-star hotels have maintained a rise of 31% and 82% compared to 2019.
• In Germany, there are different rises in prices between categories, of 12% in 3-star hotels, 18% in 4-star hotels and 25% in 5-star hotels, while its inflation is below all of those at 10.55%.
• In Italy and the United Kingdom, the most significant increase in prices is found in the 3-star category, while in Greece, France, Spain and Germany the category that rises the most is the 5-star category.
• In Italy, 3-, 4- and 5-star hotels have increased their prices by 27%, 7% and 4%, with their inflation rate being 9.12%. The most significant increase in prices of Italian hotels is observed in the 3-star category.
• In the United Kingdom, the hotels that have increased in price are those in the 3-star category, with an increase of 7%. British 4- and 5-star hotels, on the other hand, have lowered their prices compared to 2019 with a decrease of 1% and 12% respectively, whilst the inflation rate is 12%.
• In France, compared to 2019, the prices of 3, 4 and 5-star hotels increased by 2%, 5% or 20%, with inflation of 7.83%.
• In Spain, a rise similar to that of France is detected, with 3-star hotels rising 4%, 4-star hotels 6% and 5-star hotels 13% compared to 2019, with inflation of 13.55%.
According to Carlos Cendra, Director of Marketing and Sales at Mabrian:
“From this analysis it can be understood that year-on-year price comparisons can be misleading in a context of instability such as the current one. In Europe, we are not used to dealing with such rates of inflation. Right now, it’s important for the travel industry to focus on profitability metrics like RevPar and GrossPar, rather than price and occupancy. The ADR is highly biased by the evolution of inflation and other macroeconomic factors such as exchange rates.”
