Battle for beds in the Balearics

The Balearics is braced for its busiest weekend of the year and finally, hotels will be nearly full as Spain enjoys a long weekend. Unlike last weekend, the skies will remain clear and millions of Spanish people will today start heading for the beaches and the islands with airports, ports and the security services on full alert. In some areas, hotels are reporting 95 per cent-plus occupancy and many hoteliers hope that bookings will remain high until at least the end of month, if not until the middle of next month, on the back of a late booking surge in the UK and Germany - where there are still plenty of 10 to 15 per cent savings to be had. Some hotel chains are even talking of over booking, mainly because of over anxious hoteliers over contracting in a bid to ensure as many guests as possible - however now that demand has reached pretty much normal for this time of year, some have been caught out. President of the Playa de Palma hotel association, whose members have been some of the worst hit by this year's crisis, confirmed yesterday that this weekend the island is full - but the down side is Monday when the Asuncion Fiesta ends, the reality is that hotel occupancy will drop again. One of the big reasons for the huge surge in bookings this long weekend is that Spanish tour operators have been offering a host of special deals which have helped to revive the domestic market which has suffered in the Balearics this year. The hoteliers, for the most part, said that it is the holiday give aways which have obviously helped to boost bookings and that this long weekend, there are problems to find a room. “But because of the huge amount of beds on the island, a room will be found, but not in the popular resorts.”