written by:
Daniela Rodriguez
Summer 2026 is not like the one before it. The question is no longer just how to fill rooms — it is how to sell each room at the best possible price, with demand shifting, travelers booking later, and a global context nobody had in their calendar twelve months ago.
At RoomPriceGenie, we brought together Joni Leal from Expedia, Francesc González from The Net Revenue, and Carlos Buedo, the director of Hotel Daniya in Dénia, to examine what is actually happening and what independent hotels should be doing about it right now. Here is what came out of that conversation.
The context that is changing everything
There are three factors you cannot afford to ignore if you are running a hotel in Spain this summer.
The conflict in the Middle East is sending demand toward Spain. Instability across Egypt, Jordan, Dubai and Turkey is pushing travelers toward the western Mediterranean. Agencies are recording cancellations from those destinations and rising inquiries for Spain, Italy, and Greece. This is not a forecast — it happened in 2011 with the Arab Spring, too. CaixaBank estimates Spain could exceed 100 million tourists in 2026 if the conflict does not escalate further.
Fuel prices have pushed up flight costs. The IATA warned of possible aviation fuel shortages in Europe in June, right before peak season. Ryanair cut 1.2 million seats in Spain for the summer. That said, Joni Leal from Expedia noted that Ryanair has fuel covered through March 2027 and the traffic reduction is concentrated in regional airports, not main tourist destinations. Outlook is still good — but flights are more expensive, which is pushing travelers to book later.
Travelers are booking with less notice and more hesitation. For your hotel, this has a direct consequence: if your pricing is not automated, you will be too slow to catch demand when it finally activates. According to Expedia, demand corridors open up 50 to 60 days before peak season. And as of May 2026, 45% of Dutch travelers had not yet booked their summer holidays.
What Spain’s data is telling you
Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) published its Q1 2026 data in April. The headline is clear: the lever is no longer filling more rooms. It is selling each room at a better price.
The key numbers:
- National average ADR: €116.70 (+3% vs 2025)
- RevPAR: +3.2%
- Average occupancy: 61.9% — flat
By category, the gap is meaningful and points directly at who has the most to gain from automating:
- 5-star hotels: average ADR of €282
- 4-star hotels: €120
- 3-star hotels: €88
Independent hotels in the 3- and 4-star segments are most exposed to manual pricing and stand to gain the most from switching.
By region:
- The Canary Islands lead on ADR at €169 in March (+11%), with Gran Canaria hitting 91.6% occupancy in February
- The Balearic Islands dropped 2.7% in ADR in Q1 — seasonal, but the pressure arrives in summer, and that is when pricing becomes decisive
- The Valencia region recorded Spain’s highest year-on-year ADR growth in 2025 (+7.4%), with Benidorm reaching 90.5% occupancy at peak
- Andalusia leads on domestic overnight stays, representing 17.4% of national hotel revenue
- Catalonia remains the top destination for international visitors, with 20 million arrivals in 2025
The mistake too many Spanish hotels are still making
Francesc González from The Net Revenue said it plainly: “There are still hotels in 2026 running seasonal rates. They are leaving a lot of money on the table.”
His diagnosis does not pull punches. Before even discussing an RMS or AI, there are hotels — not just independents, but chains too — still managing inventory manually in their Channel Manager, with cancellation rates of 25-40%. Without real-time bidirectional sync with the PMS, your revenue manager works eight hours a day. Demand does not.
The starting point Francesc recommends before any technology upgrade is a proper self-audit: review your channel mix, benchmark your ADR against competitors and your destination, and check whether your growth is tracking with the market. As he puts it: “Growing revenue 5% in a year sounds great. But if the destination grew 15%, you left 10% behind.”
Once that foundation is in place, the move to dynamic pricing has a documented impact: at least a 20% increase in revenue in the first year.
A 40-room hotel running static rates next to a competitor with dynamic pricing can miss out on tens of thousands of euros in high-demand periods alone.
The real case: Hotel Daniya, from €0.21 to €8.65 in ADR growth
Carlos Buedo joined Hotel Daniya after 15 years at a large hotel chain. What he found was a property with no functional PMS, no data history, and no revenue tools. He built everything from scratch.
Through 2022 and 2023, he and his head of reception managed prices manually. One hour a day, seven days a week. Loading rates day by day, 12 months ahead, across 11 room categories. Sunday morning coffee, logged into the PMS to check whether a group booking had come in.
The result of all that work: a year-on-year increase in the average rate of €0.21.
That was the moment he decided something had to change.
In 2025, with RoomPriceGenie connected to his PMS, spending around 10 minutes a day reviewing the system and leaving it to run over the weekends, Hotel Daniya achieved an ADR increase of €8.65 per room sold (€9 at the Alicante property). And in 2026, comparing two years of automated pricing, he is already tracking a further €6.56 increase year-to-date.
The impact went beyond the numbers. “I sleep at night now. I don’t dream about pickup. I don’t dream about average rates.” The time freed up from manual pricing is allocated to other areas: F&B, spa, and refurbishments. “When your revenue goes up, you can invest in the hotel.”
As Carlos put it: “The Carlos from two years ago would not have believed it.”
OTAs and direct bookings: smart coexistence, not war
One of the questions that sparked the most debate in the webinar: given that OTAs are the starting point for one in four bookings, does it make sense to fight them?
Joni’s answer from Expedia was direct: it is not about fighting, it is about understanding what each channel does. “When we sell a hotel in Dénia, the first booking will probably come through Expedia. But if the guest comes back, that reservation should go directly to the hotel.” OTAs generate demand toward a destination — something most independent hotels simply cannot do alone on their marketing budget.
Francesc added the consultancy perspective: there are hotels running 80-85% of their bookings through OTAs, giving away 17-20% margin on every single one, with no strategy to capture any of that traffic directly. The answer is not to walk away from OTAs, but to build the direct channel in parallel. “We complain that OTAs take our business. But we are not doing anything on the direct channel.”
The strategy that works is one that uses OTA visibility to bring in new guests, then works to make the next stay a direct booking.
AI in hotels: real potential, honest adoption
Carlos shared during the webinar that he is evaluating AI tools for guest communications — specifically to free up his reception teams from the volume of WhatsApp messages they deal with every day. “I look at those conversations and it is relentless.”
Joni confirmed that Expedia has already launched integrations with AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity for the inspiration phase of travel planning, but that 59% of travelers still trust established search engines and platforms to actually complete the booking. AI is in the inspiration layer — nobody has effectively monetized it yet.
Francesc was the most grounded: “An RMS is machine learning in a very specific, closed environment. AI can help us get more information and cross-reference it better, but changing a forecast or a strategy requires human judgment. We are still in a very early phase.”
The practical conclusion: AI is a complementary layer, not a substitute for having the basics right — PMS, channel manager, dynamic pricing, direct channel.
5 concrete actions for before the end of the season
Each speaker closed with one action any hotel can start this week:
James, RoomPriceGenie: Compare your Q1 data against your current average rate and the benchmark for your category and region. If you are tracking below, that is not a problem that resolves itself by waiting until September.
Joni, Expedia: Talk to your market manager and plan ahead — not just for summer, but for Christmas and 2027. The hotels that perform best are those that do not wait for demand to build before reacting.
Francesc, The Net Revenue: Run a self-audit. Review your channel mix, your segmentation, and whether your growth is keeping pace with the market. Quick wins usually come out of that process, in things that have not been looked at in a while.
Carlos, Hotel Daniya: Do not be afraid to automate. The key is going step by step: one solution, you test it, you get it running, you keep it under control. No need to implement three things at once.
The window is open now
The average ROI on a well-implemented technology investment in hospitality shows up within 18 to 24 months. Every month of delay is a margin you do not get back.
The hotels that arrive at this season in good shape are not necessarily the biggest or the best-funded. They are the ones who made decisions earlier — on their pricing, distribution, and technology stack.
If you are still not sure whether an RMS is right for your property, Carlos’s answer is probably the most honest one you will find: “Anyone who has doubts — I would recommend it. It more than pays for itself.”
To learn how RoomPriceGenie can help your property increase your property’s profitability, start your free trial of our automated pricing solution today!
