Barcelona City Hall Suspends Tourist Licences For 1 Year

3 July 2015 – Cinco Días

The mayoress of Barcelona, Ada Colau, has fulfilled one of the promises she made during the election campaign for the municipal elections with the launch of a one-year moratorium for the granting of tourist licences in the city. “Tourism is one of the city’s main assets and we have to take care of it and make it sustainable”, she said.

Colau’s announcement had been expected by the market, since it had been one of her main promises during the election campaign, but it did not take shape until yesterday. Barcelona’s City Council, governed by Barcelona en Comú, has taken the decision to freeze licences for at least one year. The town council’s aim is to submit a Special Plan for the Regulation of Tourist Accommodation during the first quarter of next year, although it does not rule out extending that period by another year.

Some of the most iconic hotel projects being carried out in Barcelona include the conversions of Torre Agbar, the Deutsche Bank tower and the Henkel building. But, according to Janet Sanz, deputy mayoress of ecology, urban development and mobility, the actual list is longer and includes around thirty properties. “We are not saying that none of these projects will go ahead, simply that we are beginning a process of reflection on our tourism model”.

This moratorium, which comes in addition to the one that already exists in the neighbourhood of Ciutat Vella, is intended to allow time for an in-depth analysis of the stock of tourist accommodation in the city, so that the existing supply and the economic and social impact of tourism can be evaluated and diagnosed. The freeze will affect all establishments, from luxury hotels to hostels, so that a “calm debate” can be held about the situation in the city. Plans are afoot at the Deutsche Bank tower, which KKH purchased  last year, to build a five star Four Seasons hotel, costing €150 million, and the plan is to open a Grand Hyatt hotel in the Torre Agbar, which Emin Capital acquired in 2013. Others, such as the property being renovated by the construction company owned by Josep Lluís Núñez, the former President of FC Barcelona, will be excused from the moratorium.

In terms of Spanish hotel chains, the moratorium may affect Barceló, which is planning to open two new establishments in the city: one on Avenida Diagonal, 414 with views of the Casa de les Punxes, and the other, the conversion of the former headquarters of Nubiola Pigmentos, on the corner of Pau Claris and Gran Vía, which is still in its early phases. Nearby, one of Melia’s ME hotels, with 173 rooms, on the corner of Calle Casp and Paseo de Gracia may be affected. (…). Iberostar, Room Mate and Praktik Hotels could also be affected. (…).

The market regards the moratorium as a sign of insecurity for the entry of new investors. “The decision creates legal and administrative insecurity and leaves investors interested in entering the city on stand by”, says Inmaculada Ranero, CEO of Christie + Co for Spain and Portugal. (…).

Original story: Cinco Días

Translation: Carmel Drake

Tourist Sector Hits Back At Airbnb, HomeAway & Niumba

18 May 2015 – Expansión

The sector is demanding a stronger institutional fight against the intermediaries. The Government says that each region is responsible for its own response.

The main Spanish tourism companies have teamed up in an offensive with the aim of limiting the power of the proliferation of unregulated tourist rental accommodation, which do not pay taxes and do not meet the safety, hygiene and space requirements and other guarantees offered by legal accommodation. The sector wants to curb the platforms (websites such as Airbnb, 9flats, Wimdu, Rentalia, Niumba and HomeAway, amongst others) that make money by acting as intermediaries. And to that end, it has been pressuring the Spanish Government for some time to prohibit them, since they think that the autonomous communities are not fulfilling their regulatory duties.

Over the last few months, the tourism association Exceltur, whose members include prestigious companies such as NH, Melia, Iberia, American Express, Hotusa and Globalia, has been holding conversations with the Secretary of State for Tourism (who reports into the Ministry for Industry, Energy and Tourism). Exceltur thinks that the Executive “could do a lot more” to regulate the operations of these rental companies, which it considers are unfair competition and which threaten its business. The main trade association for Spanish hoteliers, Cehat, estimates that between 2010 and 2013, the number of customers staying at these establishments increased by 300%, and it calculates that the number of foreign tourists who use them represents more than 20% of the total.

To support its position, Exceltur has commission the consultancy firm EY (Ernst & Young) to conduct a study analysing the impact that this illegal rental accommodation is having on the tourism sector as a whole, not just on the hotel segment. To date, EY has prepared a report about the consequences for the Balearic Islands if this rental accommodation continues to grow at its current rate over the next ten years. According to its calculations, the hotel sector would lose between 5,000 and 13,000 jobs and forgo a gross added value of between €211 million and €529 million.

Regional jurisdiction

The Government says that tourism is a regional jurisdiction, and so the Central Administration cannot do much beyond trying to standardise the regional regulations as much as possible. Moreover, the upcoming regional and general elections are likely to scupper any attempt at reform.

To date, the regions that have endeavoured to do the most to regulate tourist rental accommodation are Madrid and Cataluña, although the former received a blow from the National Competition and Markets Commission (CNMC) in March when it ruled that the Madrid law (which only allows accommodation to be rented provided the minimum stay is five days) is a barrier to free competition.

Meanwhile, the Catalan Generalitat requires intermediary websites to ensure that each property offered for rent has a kind of identification number plate to accredit it as accommodation with its license in order. Last summer, Cataluña imposed a fine of €300,000 on the web portal Airbnb for allegedly failing to comply with that standard.

On an international level, cities are taking a variety of decisions. Thus, for example, New York has declared war on tourist rental accommodation, with coordinated teams of tax inspectors, police and lawyers; and the town hall of Amsterdam has just approved an agreement with Airbnb, which requries the platform to coordinate the collection of the tourist tax that is applicable to the activities of its users.

The so-called “collaborative economy” represents a real headache for legislators, both in Spain and across Europe. In Spain, Article 16 of the Law for Information Society Services (2002) states that intermediaries (such as Airbnb, Uber and others) are not liable for the possible unlawfulness of the people they host, unless they have specific knowledge thereof. Meanwhile, the European Commission is drafting a directive that may ease restrictions on the European market and facilitate the activity of these platforms.

Original story: Expansión (by Yago González)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Paradores To Launch Its First Franchise

26 January 2015 – Expansión

Paradores will open its first franchise during the first half of 2015, according to the Secretary of State for Tourism, Isabel Borrego. It is hoped that this new line of business, together with the upcoming international expansion, will create a favourable scenario for profit generation.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Hotels: Overnight Stays Rose By 2.9% In 2014 And Prices Rose By 1.4%

23 January 2015 – Expansión

Overnight stays at Spanish hotels amounted to 294.4 million in 2014, an increase of 2.9% compared with 2013, whilst prices rose by 1.4%, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

This increase in overnight stays was driven both by Spanish residents, whose overnight stays increased by 3.5%, to account for 50.8% of the total, as well as by overseas visitors, who accounted for 35.4% of the total and whose overnight stays rose by 2.6%. The year-on-year increase in overnight stays was 1 percentage point higher than last year (1.9%), and 67.6% of all overnight stays were concentrated in the May to October period.

These annual figures were calculated after Spanish hotels recorded 13.9 million overnight stays during the month of December, up 2.9% on the same month in 2013, with an increase of 6.2% in Spanish resident guests and a 0.6% increase in overseas visitors.

Andalucia (+4.8%), Valencia (+0.2%), Cataluña (+8.1%) and Madrid (+12.9%) were the main destinations for Spanish resident travellers in 2014. By contrast, the main destination chosen by visitors from overseas were the Canary Islands, which accounted for 28.9% of all overnight stays, an increase of 7.9% on the previous year. The next most popular destinations were the Balearic Islands (25.4% of the total) and Cataluña (18.9% of the total), however the number of overnight stays in these regions decreased by 3.3% and 0.9%, respectively.

During 2014, the average occupancy rate was 54.8%, an increase of 3.3% with respect to 2013; this figure increased to 60% on weekends, up by 3.4%.

The Balearic Islands recorded the highest occupancy rate during the year (74.2%), followed by the Canary Islands (73.7%) and Cataluña (56.2%). The main tourist areas, by number of overnight stays, were the islands of Majorca and Tenerife, with 40.4 million and 23.9 million overnight stays, respectively, and the area of Barcelona, with 18.3 million.

Visitors from the UK and Germany accounted for more than 94 million of the overnight hotel stays last year, which represents half of all of the overnight stays by overseas visitors.

The number of overnight stays by visitors from France, Russia and Italy (the next most important source countries) recorded year-on-year growth rates of 7.8%, -15% and 5.4%, respectively. The source countries with the highest growth rates in terms of overnight stays were Portugal, Finland, Poland, Greece and the Czech Republic, whilst the source countries that recorded the lowest growth rates were Russia, Luxembourg, Japan, Sweden and the Netherlands.

The annual Hotel Price Index (HPI) amounted to 1.4% in 2014, which was 1.7 points higher than in 2013, after prices rose by 0.7% in December, i.e. by 0.4 points less than in previous months, but by 0.6 points more than a year ago.

The autonomous regions that experienced the highest price increases last year were the Canary Islands (2.9%), Valencia (2.6) and Andalucía (2.2%). At the opposite end, Asturias (-2.3%) and Castilla-La Mancha (-1.4%) recorded the greatest price decreases.

Average daily revenue per occupied hotel room (ADR) was €74.50 and the average daily revenue per available room (RevPAR), which depends on the occupancy rates recorded in hotels, was €44.10.

By hotel category, the average daily revenue per room was €163.20 for 5-star hotels, €81.10 for 4-star hotels and €60 for 3-star hotels. Revenue per available room for these same categories amounted to €106.20, €55.50 and €38.50, respectively.

 Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Be Mate Buys Alterkeys To Take On More Than 100,000 Apartments

22 January 2015 – Expansión

Growth / The online platform, launched in September, lists 111,000 homes across Europe.

Be Mate, the online platform for tourist accommodation, launched by Enrique Sarasola, the Chairman of the hotel chain Room Mate, has strengthened its business through its first acquisition. The target, Alterkeys, a start-up created in the UK, but based in Spain, has a portfolio of 102,000 apartments located across 42 countries.

The transaction has been completed through a cash payment and a package of Be Mate stock options, linked to the business’s fulfilment of a series of milestones over the short and medium term. Be Mate has financed the monetary contribution, which represents 70% of the total consideration, from its own funds.

Following the acquisition, the management team of Alterkeys, led by its founder José María González, will be integrated into Be Mate, which has hired Jorge Gómez Sancha as CEO. Mr Gómez Sancha founded De Banjo, a company specialising in video on demand, which was subsequently sold to TDF Media Services.

Over the next six months, Be Mate’s team will study the portfolio of apartments listed on Alterkeys to determine how many fit with its business. Sarasola, who together with other partners is the primary individual shareholder of the platform, with a 44.28% stake, calculates that “around two thirds of the properties will be incorporated into Be Mate’s platform”. In the businessman’s own words “this acquisition allows Be Mate to grow very quickly and have a presence in every European capital”. The main markets serviced by Alterkeys are the UK, Italy, France, Germany, Scandinavia and Spain, where it lists 10,900 apartments.

Hotel partnerships

Sarasola admits that they have not yet decided how the Alterkeys brand will be used. The question will be resolved over the next few months, once Be Mate, which itself lists 9,000 tourist homes, has had the opportunity to segment the new supply. During the second half of the year, Be Mate will develop partnerships with independent hotels in those cities in which Room Mate does not have a presence, since Be Mate seeks to differentiate itself from other companies, such as AirBnB, by offering certain hotel-style services to its clients during their stay. Be Mate has received more than 1.5 million visits since September and has more than 7,000 registered users.

Original story: Expansión (by Yolanda Blanco)

Translation: Carmel Drake