The number of bookings that even exceed the levels of 2019, especially in refurbished hotels and higher categories, bookings that are made less and less time in advance and the consolidation of Ibiza as a destination with high purchasing power. These are the three conclusions drawn by the data handled by Neobookings, the booking engine that manages more than 60% of Ibiza and Formentera’s vacancies, and which put in black and white a shared perception among hoteliers: this 2022 season will be very good, especially in the higher category hotels.
Thus, May closed with 9.3% more nights booked than in the same month of 2019. Regarding June, with the data of the 23rd – with only one week left for the month to end – reservations already exceed those of June 2019 by 1.68%, an extraordinary figure if we take into account that 2019 was already a very good year. The data indicate that when the month closes, booking figures for Ibiza could reach 4% higher than those of the last year before the pandemic.
Bookings for the months of July and August are still at a fairly low level but, as José María Ramón, CEO of Neobookings, explains, there is no cause for alarm: “A trend that has been confirmed in this postcovid scenario is that bookings are being made less and less in advance. There is a fear of unforeseen events, and that is why people are hurrying more. 56% of hotel bookings are made less than a month in advance, and 15% less than a week”. For this reason, the forecast is that August reservations will not be closed until the beginning of July.
Four-star hotel bookings are on the rise
The hotel booking figures are very good, but if we break them down by category we will see that the figures for four-star hotels are outstanding. Thus, in the month of June, compared to 2019 bookings in four-star hotels soared by 26.75%, while the rise in three-star hotels was 5.52%. On the other hand, in two-star establishments, a decrease of 9.73% was recorded.
Four-star hotels have also been the main beneficiaries of the early start of the tourist season. Thus, their increase in nights booked in April was 68.15%.
These figures can be explained by the conversion and upgrading of many establishments. A bet that is proving successful, as confirmed by the CEO of Neobookings: “The hotels that have been refurbished in recent years are the ones that work best, and the high category ones, even more so“.
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