Related news: Mallorca hotels: Modernisation and higher star ratings

From 2015 to 2023, the number of four and five-star hotels in Mallorca increased by 88%, while one to three-star hotels decreased by 27%. The Mallorca Hoteliers Federation estimates that over that period three billion euros were invested in modernising the island's hotels and improving their quality.

In 2023, the last year for which there are complete figures from the AETIB tourism strategy agency, there were 452 four and five-star hotels in Mallorca. These compared with 241 in 2015. In the one to three-star bracket there were 238, almost one hundred fewer than in 2015. These are figures for establishments with the H hotel classification and don't include the HA apartment hotels.

The investment in repositioning and improving the hotel industry over the last decade is reflected in the Monitor of Responsible Tourism Competitiveness in Spain's Sun and Beach Destinations recently published by the Exceltur alliance of leading tourism and travel companies. This report shows that from 2019 to 2024, there was a 16% increase in the number of 'premium' hotel places (beds) to a total of 13,834. The definition of premium does rather depend on the establishment; government figures for 2023 listed 21,725 places in Mallorca's five-star and five-star 'grand luxury' hotels. The total number of hotel places (one to five-star) in 2023 was 234,616.

The Exceltur report notes only a 5.2% increase in the number of places over the past decade. One of the big drives behind hotel modernisation and quality improvement came with the so-called Ley Delgado, the 2012 Balearic tourism law named after the then tourism minister, Carlos Delgado. This allowed additional floors (a maximum of two) to be added to hotels. In exchange, the hotels had to be upgraded in terms of their star ratings. It was a process that did remove a good deal of the three-star stock. But it didn't involve an increase in the total number of places, as hotel chains had to lose them somewhere else; that was the theory anyway.

This aspect of the 2012 law was extended by the Armengol government up to 2017, the original provision having expired in 2015. But the effects continued to be felt later, because of the processing of licence applications.

Other figures given by Exceltur are a 39.6% increase in hotel revenue from 2019 to 2024, a 40.4% increase in the 'profitability index' and a 3.1% increase in occupancy. Job creation is said to have risen by over 16%, the hoteliers federation saying that cumulative salary increases over the past ten years have amounted to 33.6%, ten points above the consumer price index for the same period.

"We are focused on providing and distributing value before and after the peak months to smooth out peak demand and stabilise employment, benefiting other economic sectors and retaining local talent," says the federation. This strategy has meant 80% of hotels remaining operational in October and two out of ten being open in November and December.

"We are aware that we cannot grow indefinitely during the summer months . That's why we have repositioned ourselves, improved our products, and customers have understood this, which is why many are choosing to come during the off-season months. This is the way forward, there is no other."

Some of these figures have relevance for the new collective bargaining agreement for the hospitality industry. The negotiations are currently getting nowhere fast, the two sides wide apart on pay increases. The unions can point to hotels' increased revenue and profitability index, while the employers can counter by pointing to the above-inflation pay rises.

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