Most of Spain’s hotels keeping doors closed until ‘new normality’ when people are free to move round country

MOST of Spain’s hotels will be keeping their doors closed until people are free to move round the country, according to the CEHAT sector association.

A good part of Spain moves into the phase one of the lockdown de-escalation on Monday, under which hotels and tourist accommodation are allowed to open.

But the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation president Ramon Estalella told Spanish press that he is pretty certain that most establishments will not open up for now because people are not allowed out of their province, island or heath district authorised to enter into the first phase. The number of potential guests is therefore inevitably limited.

Estalella believes most establishments will remain shut until there is the “new normality.”

For hotels in locations with strong national tourist markets this means when people are able to once again move between provinces, he said.

“Until there is inter-provincial movement, I’m sure they will not open because nobody is going to go from being confined at home for the same in a hotel room,” he commented.

The CEHAT president pointed out that under phase one regulations hotel and tourist accommodation communal areas are out of bounds, and that meanwhile the health procedures set out by the ICTE Spanish Tourist Quality Institute have yet to be rubber stamped by the Health Ministry.

Estalella stressed the sector needs a clear health safety protocol and clients, and for the latter people need to be able to go “from one place to another.”

He said hotel chains like the Barcelo Hotel Group, RIU Hotels & Resorts, NH Hotel Group and Room Mate already have safety, health and hygiene procedures in place to guarantee the protection of their staff, guests and suppliers, but are not opening at this time.

Phase one is a step forward, he acknowledged, “but while there are restrictions on movement and establishments’ occupation, it is unviable to consider the opening of hotels in Spain.”