After several layoffs, the sector now tries to find alternatives to meet the requirements, because the high season is coming
Lack of housing and the one that exists is too expensive for the workers. This is the reality in most of the most profitable areas for the Meliá Group, the largest Spanish chain, which has taken a different measure to ensure that it has employees to respond to the offer that comes with summer.
Spanish hotel chain CEO Gabriel Escarrer announced on Monday that he is investing in the purchase of properties to accommodate seasonal workers.
The hotel chain bought an old hostel on the island of Menorca and plans to purchase others. Ibiza, Majorca and Canary Islands are some of the places to be studied by the company, and are also one of the most profitable for the group, which has in the exploration of bathing zones one of its best businesses. The decision is made at a time when the housing crisis in Spain can cause labor shortages in the country’s tourist sector, especially when it starts to prepare the high season in the hotel.
The CEO admits that he began to realize that just “paying well” to employees was no longer enough to “retain talent”. In this way, the company felt the need to ensure accommodation for its workforce that has no possibility to get accommodation in extremely tourist areas, where demand ends up inflating prices.
The investment in these housing is, according to Gabriel Escarrer, a “radical” solution, and in the last two years, the Meliá group has been forced to host some employees in hotel rooms to prevent them from firing.
Earlier this month, the Spanish group announced that it plans to hire 1,800 workers to face the one that the large Spanish hotel chains predict being the best summer in their history. They believe that this year the mark of 100 million foreign tourists in Spanish territories can be “easily” achieved, according to the.
“Due to the explosion of short-lived rentals for tourists, finding an apartment at the time has become an odyssey,” Gabriel Escarrer admitted.
The Spanish Union Confederation Working Commissions (CCCO) warned that hotel workers’ salaries increased by 3% last year, while the rents in Spain increased an average of 11.5% in 2024. Unions also called a two -day strike in Spanish hotels during Easter week.
“Salaries are not increasing as hotels margins and accommodation is a problem in the tourist areas,” said union leader José Maria Martinez.
Iberostar assumes to resort to the solution found by the Meliá Group and to offer free hosting to its workers in destinations with shortage of offer and high prices. Already the direction of the hotel group Cehat argues that most hotel owners cannot “give luxury” to give the workers a house.
In addition to this measure, the Meliá Group is investing in alliances with educational institutions to develop training programs in destinations where they are finding the most problems to occupy positions.
