State of Market in Prime-Location Hotels in Barcelona

[eddygonParticipant]

Hi All
Does anyone know what the current state of the prime-location, hotel real estate market is like in Barcelona? Buoyant? Depressed? Recovering? Any recent examples of hotels coming up for sale in the 100 bed category (c.$25-$40m category)? I hear that a number of office buildings have recently been converted into hotel spaces, yet office rental rates are dropping? The tourists seemed to have returned this year- has this reduced the number of prime-location hotels available for sale or increased the office-to-hotel conversion activity. And how generous is the Generalitat with granting new hotel licenses? I heard that some political spokespersons (various parties) have suggested that we need to increase our promotion of the tourist economy as this is the only income generator at the moment of any worth to the Barcelona economy. If this is true, it is a sea change from the discourse that developed when the original economic and construction crisis erupted, no? I live on c/casp and anecdotally, the hotels at the Tetuan-end seems to be doing a brisk trade!
Look forward to hearing our thoughts
Best
Ed

[DBMarcos99Participant]

Many people say there are already too many tourists in Barcelona as it is.
There is already a backlash:

http://www.02b.com/en/notices/2013/08/twitter_account_prompts_tourists_not_to_visit_barcelona_5498.php

[eddygonParticipant]

Thanks DBMarcos99. I was asking more about our opinions on the prime-location hotel market in Barcelona rather than the tourism market. Nevertheless, if we are to believe the Social Media movement then such tweets drive bricks’n’mortar markets- so maybe there’ll be some possible knock-on effects on the hotel sector if people change their intentions based on such info. What is the current state, rather than future state-of-play in the prime-location (100 bed +) hotel market in Barcelona?
Best
Ed

[Author]

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