FVW Hotelometer: Greek hotel prices on the rise

Germans are continuing to shop around for attractive summer holiday offers, with fluctuating demand for top destinations around the Mediterranean, the Hotelometer results for April (calendar weeks 14/15 and 16/17) indicate.

Turkey appears to have been one of the destination winners in April after months of slumping bookings. There was a moderate rise in enquiries for hotels in top beach destinations in the first half of the month (weeks 14/15) compared to the previous fortnight, and then another moderate increase in the second half of the month (weeks 16/17).

This resulted in higher average prices for some of the most popular hotels in the fortnight from April 17 to 31. The first-placed Delphin Imperial had an average price of €941, up from €908 in the first half of last month. The Miracle Resort in Lara rose to second, with an average price of €757, from eighth in the previous fortnight when it had an average price of €678. In third place, the Royal Dragon also increased its average price to €911 in weeks 16/17 from €847 in weeks 14/15.

In addition, Italy, Bulgaria, Tunisia, Morocco and Malta all enjoyed strong increases in hotel enquiries in the second half of April. Italy and Morocco had already seen moderate increases in the first half of the month, while there had been a slight rise for Bulgaria. Tunisia bounced back from lower demand in the first half of April.

Varying price trends

Spain, Greece, Portugal and Croatia also all enjoyed stable positive demand trends last month, the Hotelometer showed. Price trends for the first two destinations are varying, however.

In Spain, prices for top hotels appear to be falling. The first-placed Iberostar Cala Barca had an average price of €1,229 in the second half of April compared to €1,310 in the first half of the month. Similarly, the Blau Punta Reina, in second place, had an average price of €878 in weeks 16/17 compared to €977 in the previous fortnight. The third-placed Iberostar Pinos Park, in Font de Sa Cala, had a very high average of €1,413 per person, slightly down from €1,444 in the previous two weeks.

In contrast, the top-ranked hotel in Greece, the Pilot Beach Resort, increased its average price to €1,292 in weeks 16/17 compared to €1,163 in the previous fortnight. The Vantaris Palace was also slightly more expensive at €1,178 compared to €1,168 in the previous fortnight. The Esperides Beach, in third place, was slightly cheaper with an average price of €1,214 in the second half of last month, compared to €1,232 in the first half of April.

The big loser in April was Egypt which registered a strong drop in enquiries in the first half of the month followed by a slight fall in the most recent fortnight.

As a result, hotel prices in the country’s top destinations appear to be softening in response to weaker demand. For example, the Dana Beach, which topped the latest ranking, had an average price per person of €953 in calendar weeks 16/17 compared to €976 in the previous fortnight. The third-placed Jungle Aqua Park showed an average price of €878 per person compared to €884 in calendar weeks 14/15. Second-placed Fort Arabesque was slightly cheaper at €844 despite having moved up from seventh in the previous ranking.

Methodology

The fortnightly Hotelometer ranking covers 12 major destinations for German holidaymakers: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Malta, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey.

The Hotelometer is based on reservation enquiries for hotels in popular holiday destinations but not actual bookings. It can thus be seen as a ‘demand barometer’ for specific hotels and more generally for destinations. The price per person is the average of all enquiries, regardless of the number of people per reservation enquiry and the length of stay.

The rankings are based on all enquiries in the market-leading Traveltainment reservations system used by German travel agents and online booking engines. The data is analysed by TrevoTrend and supplied exclusively to fvw in the format of the Hotelometer.