The season looks good, at least according to the data handled by Neobookings, the booking engine that manages more than 60% of the vacancies in Ibiza and Formentera: “All indicators are positive. We are currently at the same hotel reservation levels of 2019” says its CEO, José MarÃa Ramón. The maximum volume of hotel reservations, according to his predictive models, will take place in the first week and in the last days of June: “If nothing strange happens, everything indicates that it will be a good season,” he predicts.
Looking ahead to the coming months, for the moment the month with the most nights booked is June (23%), followed by July (21%) and August (21%). This is because user behavior is changing compared to the pre-pandemic period: “37% of hotel reservations made during the last 30 days have been made less than one month in advance. That means that the coming months will be booked at short notice. There is a lot left to sell.” For example, June is still 19% below 2019 data, and July -36% . August, -47%: “As we see the evolution of bookings, this will be corrected as the days go by”, the CEO of Neobookings concludes from his predictive models.
August hotel reservations filling fast
“But although there is still a long way to go to cover the island’s vacancies in August – Ramón warns-, “several hoteliers have already indicated to us that they have little left to sell. Many of them already have days of that month without availability”. Another issue reported by the hotel industry is that they are “finding it difficult to fill their staffing positions with qualified workers“.
Ramón highlights another positive data regarding the cancellation rate, which “is 8% lower than that of 2019, which means that for the hotel reservations that are made less is being cancelled”.
Regarding the markets, the United Kingdom (which until the health crisis was the main market of the Pitiusas) has fallen by 9% compared to 2019: “But it is made up for by the increase in the Spanish (3%), Italian (1%), Dutch (1%), French (1%), German (2%) and Swiss markets (2%)”.
We had very good occupancy in April, something no one expected, being 17% higher than in 2019. And with May yet to end, we are already 6% above”
The results for April and May are, according to José MarÃa Ramón, very good: “We are happy. We have had very good occupancy in April, something that nobody expected, being 17% higher than in 2019. And with May yet to end, we are already 6% higher”.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.