Hotels in Spain: Sol Melia expects improvement in the fourth quarter

Hotels in Spain have taken a back seat in 2009. Hotels of Madrid, Majorca, Ibiza, Costa Blanca – hotels of almost all the regions of Spain have noted a significant decline in the occupancy of their rooms. One of the largest Spanish hotel chains Sol Melia hasn’t managed to avoid this fate as well. The chain has been reporting a significant reduction of tourist interest in its services for 9 month. However, according to the latest projections, which Sol Melia has made for its hotels, the last quarter of 2009 is expected to be more profitable than the previous months.

Sol Melia predicts the growth of hotel booking in almost all cities in the 4th quarter of 2009 - Reuters reports. This forecast was made according to the current state of hotel room booking. After forecast representation on Tuesday 10 November 2009 shares of Sol Melia rose by 3.6%.

To date, the total capacity of Sol Melia hotels is about 76 000 rooms. Hotels of the chain are represented virtually equally in the sector of business tourism and the in the sector of tourist real estate for recreation.

Nevertheless, despite the positive forecasts, Sol Melia does not plan to raise prices for the services of its hotels in the nearest future. In order to be confident in the permanent off-season nature of the return of tourists to Spanish hotels, professionals of the hotel chain tend to determine how long and stable will be the tendency.

In 2009, Sol Melia has been forced to abandon expansion plans and focus on improving the situation with the debt of the company, which has exceeded 400 million Euros.

The optimistic plans of Sol Melia for the end of 2009, many analysts of hospitality industry tend to associate with the growth of interest in Spain from the business community. As is known, in the first half of 2010 Spain will preside in the EU and that will provide the country with additional investment attractiveness.