Hotel prices vary greatly, depending on the agency

Research carried out by the watchdog's Price Disparity Index study group said that together with soundings taken in Andalucia, the variance is the highest in the country.

The analysis was undertaken using the same hotel room and investigating different prices available through online agences such as Rumbo, Logitravel, Barcelo Viajes, and Atrapalo. Findings showed that the average hotel price variation using different agencies at a national level is 25 percent.

The difference in prices, explained www.trivago.es, increased according to the location of the hotel. There was greater variance, it reported, in regions of the country which bordered coastline. Following on from the Balearic Islands and Andalucia in terms of price differential, were Catalonia and Valencia where average price disparity touched 28 percent, and in third place the Canary Islands with 26 percent.

Apparently the region of Murcia is the area of the Mediterranean coastline where hotel prices vary the least with an average of 22 percent disparity.
The regions in the north of Spain were those with a coastline which revealed the least variance in hotel prices, said the watchdog. Galicia and the Basque Country had differences of no greater than 19 percent and in Cantabria there was just 16 percent disparity between hotel costs. Researchers showed that hotels in the interior of the country tended to be smaller and as a result there was less chance for agencies to offer widely varying reservation costs.

Around 63 percent of 52 resorts and popular holiday destinations in Spain included in the study had hotel price variations which were above the national average including Palma where disparity reached 37 percent, and Playa d'en Bossa on Ibiza at 38 percent.