Holiday rentals on the Costa del Sol in Spain take a battering as cleaning services hike prices – Hotels expected to receive a boost

Private cleaning services across Spain’s Costa del Sol have put up their prices and Hotels look likely to receive a boost in bookings.

Holidaymakers to Spain’s Costa del Sol have been cancelling their bookings to private apartments and switching to Hotels on the coast for mid-July.

There are a couple of reasons for this, firstly, I am told by a private landlord, that prices have gone up due to the cleaning service price rise. The other reason is apparently that they, the holidaymakers, want reassurance their stay will be coronavirus-free. Hotels, after all, will be responsible for regular trice-daily disinfections and will be closely monitored – who can monitor the thousands of private lets?

Based on this knowledge I contacted friends of mine, Bill and Angie Gould, regular visitors to the Costa del Sol who have already booked a hotel for August.

Bill said: “Well Tony, you know us, same apartment every year for the last 20 years, this time though Angie wants to stay in a hotel, have to say, so do I. The last thing we want is to catch the coronavirus, we are both over 70 and it could be fatal for both of us. Apart from that, when we called the landlord, Pepe, he said it would be €100 more because the cleaning firm they use said they have to use lots more chemicals and spend more time cleaning the place between lets. Shame, because we liked it there, but it’s only a few euros different if we book an all-inclusive hotel on the paseo in Fuengirola, and that includes food!

A local cleaner who works for one of the companies told me in confidence that landlords are really worried about more cancellations, they already had people skip the rent due to the crisis, it could end badly for them.

Portugal has already announced a scheme where establishments will be awarded with a Safe and Clean Badge should they complete a short course on sanitation, perhaps that is what is needed here on the Costa del Sol? TW.