Spanish hotels face August with record prices: how much does a room already cost

The National Institute of Statistics (INE) collects and validates hotel data in Spain basically through the Hotel Occupancy Survey (EOH), integrated into the monthly operation of Hotel Tourism Situation (EOH/IPH/IRSH). The methodological note included in the latest press releases, such as that of June 2026 (Hotel Tourism Situation, June 2026), allows the main procedures and processes to be reconstructed.

1. Framework of the statistical operation

According to the methodological note of June 2026, the EOH is a continuous monthly operation whose objective is “to know a series of variables that allow describing the fundamental characteristics of the hotel sector, both from the supply and demand perspectives.” In the same operation, the following are calculated:

• EOH: overnight stays, travelers, beds, occupancy rates, etc.
• IPH (Hotel Price Index): monthly evolution of prices applied by establishments.
• IRSH (Hotel Sector Profitability Indicators): ADR and RevPAR, to facilitate decision-making in the sector.

The geographical scope is the entire national territory and the population scope covers “all hotel establishments.” Results are published monthly in press releases and in INEbase, where detailed exploitation by autonomous communities, provinces, zones, and tourist points is offered.

2. Sample design and selection of establishments

The INE explains that it uses stratified sampling, with strata defined by:

• Province (or island in insular provinces).
• Category of the establishment (gold or silver stars).
• Size of the establishment (number of beds).

Within this design, it is indicated that the 5 gold star category is exhaustively investigated, that is, not by sample but covering all hotels in that category. The sample size is around 8,000 establishments in winter and 10,000 in summer, allowing representative and disaggregated estimates.

3. Data collection

The methodological note of June 2026 specifies several key elements of the collection process:

• Reference period of the results: the full month (for example, June 2026).
• Reference period of the information: “seven consecutive days of each month, randomly chosen so that all establishments together cover the entire month.” That is, each hotel is assigned a block of 7 days, but the sample as a whole covers all days of the month.
• Collection method: “questionnaire completed directly by the hotel establishment.” The establishment provides its own data on occupancy, beds offered, overnight stays of residents and non-residents, etc.

The questionnaire and instructions are part of the official methodology of the operation, accessible from the references to “methodologies” and “standardized methodological reports” cited in the June 2026 note.

4. Cleaning, validation, and revisions

Although the Hotel Tourism Situation notes do not detail all internal controls step by step, they do provide several clues about the validation procedures:

• In several notes, including that of June 2026, it is indicated that the INE “updates data” from previous months (for example, data from June 2025) when new information is available or after review processes. This shows a cycle of review and cleaning after the first publication.
• It expressly refers to the methodology and the standardized methodological report, where consistency controls, inter-month comparisons, and outlier analyses are described, although these details do not appear literally in the press release.
• It is emphasized that INE statistics are produced “in accordance with the Code of Good Practice for European Statistics,” which requires documented procedures for quality control, validation, and review of information.

In practice, hotel data go through a sequence: collection via questionnaire, consistency and internal coherence checks, review against historical series, and, if applicable, updating of already published figures.

5. Quality guarantees and transparency

All recent notes (2024–2026) emphasize that the EOH, IPH, and IRSH comply with the mentioned European Code of Good Practice, and provide links to:

• The methodologies of EOH, IPH, and IRSH, where field and office processes are described in detail.
• The standardized methodological reports, which explain sample design, sampling errors, and revision management.
• The Quality section at INE, which collects the general principles applied to all statistical operations.

Overall, these documents show that INE’s hotel data production relies on a robust sample design, direct collection by establishments, and a systematic cycle of validation and review, with harmonized criteria at the European level.

The National Institute of Statistics (INE) is the public body responsible for the production and coordination of official statistics at the state level in Spain. Its competencies focus on collecting, producing, and disseminating reliable, homogeneous, and comparable statistics that serve as a basis for public decision-making, research, and economic activity.

Main competencies of the INE

• Production of basic official statistics: INE designs and executes the main state-level statistical operations (surveys, censuses, exploitation of administrative records) in demographic, economic, social, and territorial matters. These include population and housing censuses, household surveys, and business surveys.
• Coordination of the National Statistical System: acts as the reference body to coordinate official statistics produced by ministries and other General State Administration bodies, as well as their articulation with statistics from autonomous communities, ensuring methodological coherence and avoiding duplication.
• International representation: represents Spain before international and European statistical organizations (especially Eurostat), participates in the development of common standards, and ensures that Spanish statistics are comparable with those of other EU countries.
• Quality and confidentiality guarantee: INE sets and applies statistical quality standards (reliability, timeliness, coherence, and transparency) and guarantees statistical secrecy, so that individual data collected in surveys and censuses cannot be identified or used for purposes other than statistics.
• Statistical planning: collaborates in the preparation of the National Statistical Plan and its annual programs, which include all official statistical operations, their responsible bodies, periodicity, basic methodology, and objectives.
• Dissemination and access to information: is responsible for making results available to the public, administrations, companies, and the academic community through its electronic headquarters, databases, publications, press releases, and anonymized microdata for research.

Relevant economic indicators published by the INE

INE produces a large number of economic indicators published regularly (monthly, quarterly, or annually). Some of the most used are:

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP): quarterly and annual accounts of the Spanish economy, broken down by demand components (consumption, investment, exports, etc.) and by branches of activity. It is the fundamental indicator to measure economic growth.
• Consumer Price Index (CPI): measures the evolution of prices of a representative basket of consumer goods and services, nationally and by autonomous communities. It is the key reference to analyze inflation and update wages, pensions, or contracts.
• Producer Price Index (PPI) and other price indices: record price variations at factory gate in industry, as well as prices in the services sector or housing, providing early information on inflationary pressures in stages prior to consumption.
• Active Population Survey (EPA): provides quarterly data on employment, unemployment, activity, and employment rates, with multiple breakdowns (gender, age, sector, type of workday, autonomous community). It is the main labor market reference.
• Turnover and production indices: include, among others, the Industrial Production Index (IPI) and turnover indices for the services and trade sectors, which allow monitoring the cyclical evolution of business activity.
• Business and productive structure statistics: such as the Central Business Directory (DIRCE), structural business surveys, and business accounts, which provide information on the number of companies, size, sectors, turnover, and margins.
• Tourism sector indicators: hotel occupancy, apartments, campsites, rural houses, tourism expenditure surveys, tourist movements of residents and non-residents, essential for a key sector of the Spanish economy.
• Construction and housing statistics: housing prices, transactions, new building permits (through joint exploitation with other bodies), which help monitor the real estate cycle and its economic impact.
• Non-financial and financial national accounts by institutional sectors: show the financial position and savings of households, companies, public administrations, and the rest of the world, allowing analysis of indebtedness and financing capacity/needs.

Overall, these competencies and indicators make the INE a central actor to understand the situation and evolution of the Spanish economy, providing homogeneous and methodologically solid data that serve as a reference for governments, central banks, companies, and researchers.

In Spain, the preparation and publication of official statistics on the tourism sector is supported by a dual regulatory framework: on one hand, the general regulations on public statistical function and the National Statistical System; on the other, specific European rules on tourism statistics that require producing operations such as FRONTUR, the Resident Tourism Survey (ETR), and the Satellite Account of Tourism in Spain (CSTE).

1. General framework of the public statistical function in Spain

The starting point is the exclusive competence of the State over "statistics for state purposes" recognized in article 149.1.31 of the Constitution. From there, the basic piece is Law 12/1989, of May 9, on the Public Statistical Function (LFEP):

• Defines what statistics for state purposes are and sets the principles of confidentiality, statistical secrecy, quality, and proportionality.
• Assigns the National Institute of Statistics (INE) the preparation of state statistical operations entrusted by the National Statistical Plan and the coordination of the entire system, as recalled in numerous agreements published in the BOE, for example the INE–Gipuzkoa Treasury–Eustat agreement:
  Resolution of July 15, 2025 (INE–Gipuzkoa–Eustat agreement).
• Establishes the National Statistical Plan (PEN) and its annual programs as the organizing instrument of the statistical activity of the General State Administration. The PEN includes all operations mandatory by European regulations and describes, for each, its responsible body, periodicity, scope, and dissemination.

The most recent plans, such as the National Statistical Plan 2025‑2028, are approved by royal decree (the consulted documents expressly cite the "Royal Decree 1225/2024, of December 3, approving the National Statistical Plan 2025‑2028") and include tourism operations: FRONTUR, ETR, and tourism-related statistics and satellite accounts, among others. Recent agreements with telephone operators indicate that both operations are "included in the National Statistical Plan 2025‑2028"; e.g.:

• INE–Orange Agreement (FRONTUR and ETR)
• INE–Telefónica Soluciones Agreement (FRONTUR and ETR)

2. General European statistical regulations

The production of tourism statistics is part of the European Statistical System, governed by Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics, which:

• Defines the common legal framework for the production of comparable European statistics.
• Recognizes the role of national statistical institutes (in Spain, the INE) and Eurostat, and enables access to administrative records and private sources for statistical purposes (articles 17 bis and 17 ter, cited in several INE agreements).

This regulation has been recently amended by Regulation (EU) 2024/3018, of November 27, 2024, which strengthens the access of statistical services to administrative and private data and foresees, in certain cases, compensation to private data holders for specific treatments. The reform is mentioned, for example, in:

• INE–Ministry for Digital Transformation Agreement (data governance)
• Council press release on the revision of Regulation 223/2009

Additionally, INE methodological notes indicate that its operations are prepared in accordance with the Code of Good Practice for European Statistics, which complements this legal framework with standards of independence, quality, and transparency.

3. Specific tourism statistics regulations

Within this general framework, official tourism statistics are especially conditioned by sectoral European regulations, in particular:

• Regulation (EU) No 692/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of July 6, 2011, on European tourism statistics, which sets the variables, definitions, periodicity, samples, and transmission requirements of information on:
  • inbound tourism (non-resident visitors),
  • outbound and resident tourism,
  • capacity and occupancy of tourist accommodations.
  INE agreements with operators (Orange, Telefónica) expressly state that ETR and FRONTUR are carried out "to comply with Regulation (EU) No 692/2011."

In Spain, this obligation is materialized through:

• Demand operations:
  • Tourism Movements at Borders Statistics (FRONTUR) – measures monthly the influx of international tourists, framed in the PEN 2025‑2028 and supported by traditional survey sources and progressively by mobile positioning data (agreements with Orange and Telefónica).
  • Resident Tourism Survey (ETR) – collects trips of the resident population and also adapts to 692/2011, incorporating mobile data as a complementary source, according to the same agreements.
• Synthesis operations:
  • Satellite Account of Tourism in Spain (CSTE), which integrates information from multiple operations (FRONTUR, ETR, occupancy surveys, national accounts) to measure the weight of tourism in GDP and employment. Its methodology and results are disseminated by INE, according to national accounting principles and European macroeconomic statistics standards, as shown in the specific press release:
    Satellite Account of Tourism in Spain 2021‑2023.

The specific regulation of each operation (description, variables, periodicity, response obligations, etc.) is reflected in the National Statistical Plan sheets and its annual programs, which are approved by royal decree. On this basis, INE signs agreements for access to administrative and private data — such as those cited with telecommunications operators — under the LFEP, Regulation 223/2009, and its 2024 reform.

4. Summary

In summary, the regulations governing the preparation and publication of official tourism statistics in Spain are structured as follows:

• At the state level: Constitution (art. 149.1.31 CE), Law 12/1989, on the Public Statistical Function, and royal decrees approving the National Statistical Plan and its annual programs (which include FRONTUR, ETR, occupancy surveys, and the CSTE).
• At the general European level: Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics and its amendment by Regulation (EU) 2024/3018, along with the Code of Good Practice.
• At the sectoral European level: Regulation (EU) No 692/2011 on European tourism statistics, which determines the minimum technical content that operations such as FRONTUR, ETR, and associated statistics used in the CSTE must comply with.

The combination of these instruments ensures that Spanish tourism statistics are official, comparable within the EU, and produced under strict guarantees of statistical secrecy and methodological quality.