Notes on hotels and restaurants.
Direct bookings, platforms, taxes and new rules, and what a guest needs to see before booking with you.
Hotels and restaurants ·
The law made Booking give you data. It did not make Booking give you guests.
Since November 2024, the EU Digital Markets Act has required Booking to give hotels free, real-time access to the data their business generates, and to let them make offers to their customers through any channel. What the regulation says, what Booking explains in its compliance report, what I do not know, and where the real opportunity lies: in the days the guest spends at your hotel.
Read the note ›Hotels and restaurants ·
A drawn green leaf, “sustainable hotel” and “carbon-neutral stay”. Europe has put all three on the list of things that cannot be done.
Directive (EU) 2024/825 asks member states to treat as unfair in all circumstances, from 27 September 2026, sustainability labels without certification, generic environmental claims that cannot be proven and “carbon neutral” claims based on offsetting. Spain has not yet transposed it. What it says, what I do not know, and why I would not wait to rewrite a hotel website.
Read the note ›Hotels and restaurants ·
Buyers of a hotel-branded residence pay, on average, a third more than for a comparable home. Above all, what they are buying is a service they have not yet seen.
According to Savills, the world was expected to have around 910 branded residence schemes by the end of 2025, with an average premium of 33% over comparable homes and 39% in resort locations. For the developer and the hotel, that premium can decide whether a project gets built. For the buyer, it is the price of a promise of service they will live with for years. What the website should say to back it up.
Read the note ›Hotels and restaurants ·
Since April 2026, a five-star hotel in Catalonia outside Barcelona charges €4.50 in tourist tax per person per night. In April 2027 it will be €6, and a guest booking today may not know.
Catalonia raised its tax on tourist stays on 1 April 2026 and raises it again on 1 April 2027. Since October 2026, each town can also add a surcharge. A guest who books today for summer 2027 may pay more than they saw, unless an advance-booking rule applies that hardly anyone explains. What a luxury hotel’s website should show.
Read the note ›Hotels and restaurants ·
In August 2026, three in four international tourists arrived in Spain without a package. And those staying in rented homes grew faster than those staying in hotels.
Spain ended 2025 with 96.8 million international tourists and spending that grew more than twice as fast as arrivals. In August 2026, three in four arrived without a package, average spending per tourist stayed flat, and tourists staying in rented homes grew more than twice as fast as those staying in hotels. What those figures tell a luxury hotel about who it is really competing with.
Read the note ›Hotels and restaurants ·
In New York, almost half the restaurants that received a Michelin star had closed by the end of 2019. Among well-reviewed restaurants without a star, one in five.
A UCL study followed 276 elite New York restaurants for two decades: 45.7% of those that received a Michelin star closed, against 19% of those that did not. What the restaurateurs themselves said about rent, staff, suppliers and a new public, what the study does not allow us to conclude, and what I would prepare before the ceremony.
Read the note ›Hotels and restaurants ·
Restaurant no-shows in Spain fell to 3.3% in 2025, according to TheFork. 21% of restaurants already ask for a card as a guarantee. The question is in which system.
According to TheFork, the no-show rate in Spanish restaurants fell to 3.3% in 2025, 21% of restaurants now use a card as a booking guarantee and 7% take prepayment. What that average leaves out, why the memory of who did not turn up belongs to the platform, and why a booking on your own website should be at least as well protected.
Read the note ›Hotels and restaurants ·
In 2025, Swiss hotels set their third record in a row. Even so, on average, 43 rooms in every 100 stayed empty.
In 2025, Swiss hotels set their third record in a row for overnight stays. The same statistics show net room occupancy of 56.8%, also a record. And in the following winter season, Asian demand fell by 10% when the conflict in the Middle East escalated. What those three figures together tell a luxury hotel about whom it depends on, and whom it can call.
Read the note ›Hotels and restaurants ·
Your room may be sold cheaper on websites you have never heard of. One hotel in four does not even know whether it happens.
The 2026 European hotel distribution study reports that 51% of hotels see their price undercut on platforms and 44% have their rates redistributed through channels they never chose. The more striking figure is another one: 26% do not know whether it happens to them. Why this hits four- and five-star hotels hardest, what it does at the front desk, and how to spot it before the guest does.
Read the note ›Hotels and restaurants ·
Spain’s guest register does not start at reception. It starts when guests book.
Royal Decree 933/2021 requires hotels, holiday rentals and platforms in Spain to report guest data to the Interior Ministry within 24 hours of the booking and of arrival. In June 2026 Brussels opened proceedings against Spain, finding the data excessive. Until that is resolved, the rule stays in force, and the difference between an irritating formality and a flawless arrival lies in how your website asks for it.
Read the note ›Hotels and restaurants ·
A fine punishes. It pays nothing back.
Spain’s competition authority, the EU Court of Justice, the Swiss Price Supervisor and a collective action in Amsterdam: four fronts against Booking. None of them puts money back into your hotel on its own. Spanish law gives the injured party a right to claim, with time limits worth knowing, and since September 2026 Booking has said in writing that prices on your website do not count for its ranking. What each front means, and what you can do today.
Read the note ›Hotels and restaurants ·
Your website decides the commission.
Many guests find a hotel on a platform and visit its website before booking. The law now lets hotels offer better terms there; whether the guest books with you depends on what they find.
Read the note ›