Individual Hotel Booking Rates in Greece Set to Rise by 10-15%

POX President Grigoris Tasios

Individual booking rates for hotels are expected to rise this summer by 10-15 percent, said  Hellenic Hoteliers Federation (POX) President Grigoris Tasios, adding that the soaring energy and product prices are set to impact hotel costs by 25 percent, an increase they cannot absorb fully.

“Prices cannot remain the same, the industry cannot afford to absorb market increases, especially of energy. For individual bookings, we see an increase of 5 to 10 percent,” said Tasios in an interview to public broadcaster ERT this week.

Tasios, who is also vice president of the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), said he expects 2022 tourism performance to be improved compared to 2021 with some destinations such as Athens already seeing tourists flows. But he added that there were differences based on region.

Monastiraki square. Photo source: @Municipality of Athens

“Hotels in northern Greece are not all open yet, they will open after the 15th of May with an average capacity for the month that does not exceed 40 percent,” he said, adding that other regions, like southern Greece and the islands, such as Kos, Rhodes, Crete are faring much better. 

“In the Ionian, Corfu and Kefalonia are doing well, mainly with the visitors from the UK, and we expect the season to gradually do better, especially in the June-September period,” he said.

In terms of tourism revenue, Tasios said he expects receipts to recoup 80 percent of pre-Covid 2019 levels.

Lastly, he said hoteliers are expecting two state-funded tourism programs – Tourism for All and the Social Tourism scheme – to help boost domestic travel. 

“It’s important to be able to do things online which will facilitate both the customer and the hotelier,” said Tasios.

Meanwhile, in relevant news, according to the latest data by the Institute for Tourism Research and Forecasts (ITEP), average occupancy for full-year-operation hotels in Greece for April was down by 50 percent. 

ITEP said 90.3 percent of all full-year-operation hotels was open in April reporting an average occupancy level of 48.7 percent and average double room rate of 62 euros.