Tripadvisors barometer announces an overall price increase in half of all hotels

Half of the hotels worldwide will try to increase their rates this year, according to the latest Tripadvisors barometer prepared by the independent firm Ipsos. For the analysis, 44,000 surveys have been collected, of which more than 1,300 in Spain.

 

Slightly more than a third of the hotels surveyed (35%) plan to increase their rates by between 3% and 10%, with tourist resorts being the most likely to plan such increases. South Africa (72%), Austria (68%) and Brazil (68%) are the countries most likely to plan price increases.

According to the results of the survey conducted in Spain, 37% plan to increase rates, 56% will keep them the same and 5% plan to reduce prices. Spanish hoteliers feel optimistic about the positive impact that both the global economy (61%) and the national economy (63%) will have on their profitability this year.

Since the inaugural TripBarometer study two years ago, results have shown a growth of confidence in the hotel industry. In 2013, 67% of respondents felt optimistic about their profitability for 2014. This year, that proportion rises to 73% of hoteliers who feel optimistic about their profitability for 2015.

On the other hand, the study shows that the investment  will increase in many aspects in the hotel sector in 2015, especially everything related to onlinereputation. Three out of five hoteliers (60%) will allocate more resources to managing this chapter and one in four (26%) plan to spend “a lot more”. When asked which elements they consider most important to the future of their business, online reputation is cited as “important” for 95% of hoteliers, and “very important” for nearly three in four (73%).

New to this year's Trip Barometer is the Índice of Hotelier Confidence, which measures confidence levels across the global hotel industry in 27 major tourism markets. The index analyzes hoteliers' profitability expectations, room rate changes and investment plans for 2015. Each country is assigned a score on a five-point scale.

Spain, with 3.44 points, is very close to the global average of 3.51 worldwide. In terms of investment in large-scale renovations, our country has a score of 3.51, above the global average (3.35). In smaller-scale investments, Spain, with 3.82, also scores higher than the average, which is 3.65.