Dingus is a company based in Palma's ParcBit. It specialises in "tourism properties commercialisation" and offers products such as RoomOnLine for direct sales through hotels' websites. According to Dingus, cancellations for hotels in the Balearics have been around 70%; nationally the figure is 64%.
The company has studied cancellations for 1,200 hotels in 25 countries, assessing the sales channel, the type of stay which had been booked, and particular tourist segments. Dingus says that "contextualising cancellations" in this manner will allow "appropriate refunds policies" to be adopted.
Paula Servera of Dingus explains that direct sales have the most "loyal" bookings, with cancellations for Spain as a whole being below 55%. She adds that bookings made up to four months ago have higher cancellation rates. "In the midst of the pandemic, people continued to book, but they did so with the possibility of cancelling and waiting for more favourable developments. For this reason, reservations are now giving high cancellation levels. In our Spanish hotels, only 36% of sales were confirmed for the period analysed (5 to 20 July), while the cancellation rate was 64%."
In the Balearics, the cancellation rate for this period was 70%. This was the same figure for Majorca, with Ibiza having had the highest percentage of confirmed bookings (32%). Dingus points out that direct bookings had a 62% confirmation rate in the Balearics, while tour operator bookings had the highest cancellation rate (76%).
The Dingus study shows that four-key apartment establishments had the most confirmations (49%), while four-star hotels had a cancellation rate of 69%. Same-day and last-minute reservations in the Balearics had 95% and 94% confirmations respectively. Where bookings were made between six and twelve months ago, the cancellations were as high as 85%.
Single tourists had the highest confirmation rate and the lowest cancellation rate (54%), while families were the segment with the most cancellations (77%). For stays of between five and seven days in the Balearics, cancellation was 71%; for eight to seventeen days it was 79%.
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We lost 50% of our villa booking because not just the host won't refund, but they are also refusing to keep a credit in the account for a future booking. So short sighted! We love Mallorca and would certainly go again when things are calmer, but the way they are dealing with the situation means we will never book with them or AirBNB ever again. Very silly really.
@BMG don't you think it has something to do with the prices of the rents in Palma? Because if you compare them to the salaries... I guess you know that here it's a thing that people live with their partners till they get married, because they can't afford rent... not all have the money to buy a holiday house in a foreign country. But of course, I understand you, I would also like to rent my houses, regardless if what that does to the locals, and I would be pissed if I couldn't....
I notice that people seem not to want to go to hotels. That's based on the indicative figures given given in this article. This indicates the folly of the local government in making life difficult for letting apartments. I myself stopped letting my apartment out when these rules came in and even now get enquiries from past visitors. Many people do not want to stay in hotels. So what the government has done has reduced the possible visitor numbers. Of course no one would have anticipated this situation, but it does indicate that there is a demand for apartments. Driving everyone to stay in a hotel will reduce visitor numbers but give the authorities more control which is basically what they want.