The occupancy data for tourist holiday homes is in line with that of hotels, with a slight decrease compared to the previous year due to higher prices and shorter stays. PHOTO: Periódico de Ibiza y Formentera.
SOURCE: PERIÓDICO DE IBIZA Y FORMENTERA, 18 SEPTIEMBRE 2023
Juan Gordillo
Ibiza holiday homes suffer a drop in occupancy levels similar to the hotel sector and stand at 90.5% in the month of August, although the data for the entire season so far falls to 81%. These figures represent an occupational decrease of 2.5% on average compared to last year. Roberto San Esteban, president of the Ibiza Holiday Tourist Housing Association (AVAT), predicts low September and October months.
The season finale "does not present itself wonderfully well," laments San Esteban. The main problems facing the sector are rising prices and increasingly shorter stays. "This presents a handicap," he indicates, "and that is that a hotel can perfectly accommodate a reservation of one or two nights and this is, generally, more complicated for a tourist home." This is due, as he explained, to the fact that the cost of cleaning a house is the same whether the guests stay one night or seven: "So, the price rises proportionally, and cleaning a house costs more than a single room."
In this regard, and in the face of complaints from hotel associations that attribute part of the occupational decline to tourist housing, San Esteban charges against them by stating that "hotels always have to look for someone to blame." "We have had less occupancy even with the immense number of people on the island for the same reasons as them, I believe," reflects the president of AVAT.
From the association they affirm that they know "countless people" with private homes who have hosted friends, acquaintances or family throughout the summer, highlighting the case of foreigners with second homes: "It is a very high number of people who are going and coming and does not appear in the register of hotels or holiday homes. They also mention that this event also occurs with seasonal workers, who invite people to their homes, and that some beneficiaries of this method are cruise ship passengers.
Illegal competition
However, San Esteban does not forget about illegal tourist rentals: "There are quite a few houses, apartments and villas, single-family and multi-family, that offer rentals illegally or illegally." For AVAT, this problem is due to the lack of personnel to monitor these illicit activities. "In addition to the lack of personnel, the process is very slow," says the president of the association. "A lot of time passes between confirming that they are acting illegally and fining them, which causes problems," he insists. On the other hand, San Esteban wants to clarify that vacation homes are fully regulated and pay the same taxes and eco-taxes as hotels.
As already stated, the decrease in the number of overnight stays by tourists in the Pitiusas seriously affects the costs of vacation rentals. As San Esteban well remembers, this medium published two weeks ago that the average tourist has gone from staying 5.3 nights to 4.4, "practically one day less which is very noticeable." "People are no longer here for a week, like they were years ago, and now we need more people to do the same," he confesses.
Regarding possible measures to alleviate the situation in the sector, San Esteban emphasizes the "commotion" of recent days with the issue of a platform or federation of holiday housing associations from Mallorca: "One of the four associations that we started the platform, APTUR, focused on multi-family apartments in Mallorca, is asking for more places to be applied. "The other three associations, which are dedicated to single-family homes," he continues, "are not in favor of increasing the number of places." The AVAT explains that it is aware that in the Balearic Islands there is a "very large overcrowding" of tourist places, which is why they advocate "regularizing those that already exist and penalizing those that are illegal or illegal."
