The average price of hotels in Spain decreased by around 9 percent in November, that’s according to the monthly THPI survey carried out recently by travel portal Trivago in Spain. Although a decline in prices is considered normal at this time of year, due to the fact that we are now firmly in what is considered the low season, nevertheless the percentage fall was higher than in October when hotel rates fell by some 6 percent across Spain.

The biggest drop in prices was among hotels in the region of La Rioja in northern Spain where prices fell by some 21 percent. This was followed by hotels in Andalusia where prices were 18% lower, then Catalonia down 15% and then the Basque country and Galicia, both down 12%. At this time of the year it looks like some of the cheapest hotel rooms in Spain can be found in the regions… Click to read more about hotels in Spain

Low cost hotel chain Travelodge has opened its latest hotel in Spain in the area of Manises in Valencia after investing €10 million on the project.

The new hotel has 116 rooms and is located near the airport of Valencia and is connected to the city centre with two lines on the city’s metro system. The hotel also has a substantial area for parking and offers its customers a self service cafeteria. According to Travelodge, within just a few days of opening, their newest hotel in Spain is already registering an occupancy rate of 90%, most of whom are British guests. All the rooms in the Travelodge Valencia Airport have air conditioning / heating, work desk, plasma TV and Internet access.

The Travelodge hotel chain aims to have 100 hotels in Spain by 2020 by making an investment of some one billion euros. The hotel group has identified Spain as the second most important… Click to read more about hotels in Spain

The Casa Fuster hotel, located on the central Paseo de Gracia thoroughfare in Barcelona, and which belongs to the Hotelescenter hotel chain in Spain, has been nominated as a finalist in the Hospitality Initiative Awards of Grand Hotel magazine in the Best Urban Hotel section. This nomination is in recognition of the high standard of the hotel facilities in general, the quality dining experiences on offer and excellent customer service. The Grand Hotel magazine awards will be announced on November 3rd.

This unique Barcelona hotel previously won this award in 2008 and continues to maintain and improve its high levels of quality and service. To give the hotel its full title, The Hotel Casa Fuster 5 * Monument Grand Deluxe, is the only Barcelona hotel to be nominated in Best Urban Hotel category of the Grand Hotel magazine awards this year. The hotel has managed to blend the prized architectural heritage of a… Click to read more about hotels in Spain

The Palace Hotel in Barcelona, which was formerly the Ritz, is currently up for sale. International property and hotel consulting firm CB Richard Ellis is handling the sale and is understood to already be in a second round of negotiations with potential investors. According to the Head of the hotel division of CB Richard Ellis, Jorge Ruiz, “we have received numerous offers from foreign investors and some from Spain with bids coming in at between €60 and €70 million”.

However, one well-known investor is currently missing from the list of international parties interested in the hotel. Lebanese investor Boutros El Koury, who last year acquired the hotel Husa Princesa and Husa Moncloa in Madrid and the hotels Miramar and La Florida in Barcelona has not yet expressed an interest in the Barcelona Palace.

The former 5 star Ritz hotel has 125 rooms and was built by Swiss hotelier César Ritz. It opened… Click to read more about hotels in Spain

Kings, presidents, prime ministers, artists and judges are among many of the guests who have stayed in hotel Los Fariones on Lanzarote over the 45 years since it opened in 1966.

Hotel Los Fariones has not only been responsible for pioneering the tourism sector in Lanzarote but has also attracted a parade of personalities from around the world to stay on the island. This Lanzarote hotel is located in the privileged area of Puerto del Carmen, between Playa Grande and Playa Chica, and boasts spectacular views over the Atlantic Ocean.

King Hussein of Jordan and King Olav (father of the present King Harald of Norway), former Prime Ministers of Spain Adolfo Suarez and Felipe Gonzalez, are just some of the well-known personalities who have stayed in Los Fariones over the years. The managing director of the hotel, Bienvenido Saavedra, remembers “a secret meeting being held at the hotel in the early eighties between… Click to read more about hotels in Spain

It would appear that the hotel business in Barcelona is one of the very few sectors that is still attracting investment and experiencing growth in the current difficult economic climate in Spain. The development of houses, offices and the construction sector in general has practically ground to a halt. However, investment continues into the hotels in Barcelona, albeit at a slower rate than some years ago. After a difficult time at the start of the global crisis, the hotels in Barcelona now seem to be managing the economic crisis better than many other businesses in Spain. By the end of 2011 eight new hotels will have opened in the Catalan capital including two five star establishments, three four stars and three in the three star category. Another twelve new hotels are planned for Barcelona next year and a further thirteen are planned for 2013. A report by consultancy company Global… Click to read more about hotels in Spain

In August the hotels located in the Balearic Islands were among the most expensive of all the most popular tourist destinations in Spain. Last month the hotels in this part of Spain experienced price increases of some 18 percent achieving an average price of €151 per night. During the same period the prices in the hotels in the Canary Islands rose by 13 percent to an average of €94 per night. This information was extracted from the monthly HPI (Hotel Price Index) survey produced by Internet travel portal trivago.es. The survey showed that prices also rose about 10 percent along the Mediterranean coast. In some places like Benidorm there was an increase of 12 percent meaning a night in the popular resort would set you back, on average, €145 whilst in Salou prices were up 6 percent to €167 per night.

The study also highlighted Marbella, where hotel prices exceeded €200… Click to read more about hotels in Spain

The number of reservations in the five star hotels in Barcelona almost doubled in July this year compared to the same month in 2010, recording an increase of some 87.75 percent. This increase in bookings can be ascribed mainly to the reduction in prices that these establishments have been setting as a way of attracting guests in the midst of the ongoing financial crisis in Spain and beyond. At the moment there are quite a few five star hotels in Barcelona that are more affordable than one would expect of accommodation with their characteristics. A data analysis firm, The Data Republic, recently produced a study of the profiles of clients of five star hotels in Barcelona. The analysis was based on more than 6,000 web user reviews and revealed that the profile of the majority of guests of five star Barcelona hotels are young couples. This group, by far, makes the… Click to read more about hotels in Spain

Hiking, diving and all sorts of adventure sports are now being promoted as holiday options to attract new tourists to Spain in addition to those who seek the traditional two-week, beach holiday. All across Spain hotels have started to seek synergies with other activity-based businesses in their vicinity so that they can promote a wider selection of holiday options to potential guests.

For example, the Abba Huesca hotel recently came third place in a list of the best hotels in Spain for enjoying an active holiday as produced by travel portal trivago.es. Guests have can enjoy walking or hiking both in the great natural environment that surrounds the town of Huesca or in the Natural Park of La Sierra Guara and the Pyrenees mountains which are not too far away. The nearby Canyons of  Guara also provide many opportunities for practising a wide variety of outdoor adventure activities like canyoning. The nearby natural environment… Click to read more about hotels in Spain

The ‘Ciutat Vella’, or old town, in Barcelona city centre is starting to increase the quality of both its tourism offering and the type of travelers it is attracting thanks to the fact that some good quality hotels have set up business in the area. These hotels have focused on the marriage of the traditional architecture in the old town and first-class, modern design and service to entice guests to this charming, if somewhat forgotten, part of the city. This combination of architecture and tourism has provided a way of reinvigorating previously run-down areas of many large cities and Barcelona is no exception.

A good example of this is the Hotel España, which has enjoyed great success since undergoing a complete renovation during 2010 and making its 82 new rooms available for booking again earlier this year. Previously known as the Fonda España , the historic original building dates back to… Click to read more about hotels in Spain