How Spanish hotels are preparing for the return of tourists this summer

This weekend saw the first step in a four-stage de-escalation plan to bring Spain out of lockdown, one of the strictest in Europe. 'Phase zero' began with adults being allowed outside of their homes for an hour of exercise every day for the first time in 48 days.

In two weeks, potentially from May 11 if the number if infections still continues to decrease, the country will enter phase one, during which time the terraces of cafés will be able to open at 30 per cent capacity. Hotels will also be able to reopen, but with a similarly reduced capacity and access to common areas closed.

What does this mean for the country’s hotels? For those that decide to open, it will be a very different experience to what most are used to. Some hotels, such as the five-star VP Plaza España in central Madrid, are working on a stringent plan.

“We have taken the decision to only open when we have a 100 per cent guarantee that our clients have peace of mind”, says Javier Pérez, general manager of VP Hotels, which has five properties in the capital.

Together with the Madrid Hotel Business Association, they are working on a “common protocol” that hotels can follow in order to obtain a ‘Covid Free Hotels’ certification before reopening. This could include a “quick” Covid-19 test for all its staff and guests on entering the property, either in a specially designated room or an ambulance parked outside.

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Once vetted, guests will receive masks, gloves and a bottle of hand sanitizer (which will also be placed in unavoidable public areas such as the lift), as well as information about new cleaning protocols, including how bed linens are washed. Staff will be briefed on restrictive measures in the city, including transportation.

Tables at the Ginkgo Restaurant & Sky Bar on the roof will be placed at a safe distance from one another, and potentially with a screen separating patrons. Reservations for the bar will be mandatory, a stark contrast to the usual queues that form in the height of summer.

Over on some of Spain’s smaller islands in the Balearics and Canaries, phase one will begin a week earlier, from May 4. This will include places where coronavirus transmission has been lower, including Formentera, La Gomera, El Hierro and La Graciosa.

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Pablo Carrington, Founding Partner of MARUGAL, which has boutique properties across Spain including the 30-room Gecko Hotel & Beach Club on Formentera, told the Telegraph: “Formentera is practically Covid-19 free and as per the government advice we could actually open [on] Monday. The weather is beautiful and the hotel is ready.

“However, transport to and from the island is still very limited so unless our guests want to be dropped off [by] parachute, we will have to wait a few weeks before we can open.” Similarly, sister property Cap Rocat, on Majorca “will indeed reopen but not yet.”

A summer opening date for many hotels on the Balearic Islands, which operate seasonally, may be optimistic. It may not be financially viable for some, given the 30 per cent capacity rule and the fact that domestic tourism can only, for the moment, come from the island itself.

During phase two of the de-escalation plan, bars and restaurants will be able to open inside with a 30 per cent capacity, if the number of infections continues to drop. Cinemas and theatres can also open. Beaches and swimming pools will not be able to open until phase three.

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It is thought that Spanish citizens will only be able to travel between provinces at a later date in the de-escalation plan, potentially from June onwards. And as for Britons returning to Spain - there is yet to be a clear timeframe for this, owing to current FCO advice in the UK. Once this is lifted, the Spanish government will need to open the borders to foreign travellers. “It will be a very different summer”, says Carrington.

Regarding his properties in Madrid and Malaga, he told us it was more likely that they would open in June or July. “International travel is still not possible so we think it is better to wait until later in summer.”

The hip, boutique hotel Casa Bonay in Barcelona is planning for a similar timeframe. Speaking to the Telegraph, co-founder Inés Miró-Sans said: "We are planning to reopen but not on May 11 as the government says. On that date, hotels are allowed to open but people are not allowed to move from province to province, so for example, in the case of Barcelona, citizens are allowed to move around Barcelona but not to Girona or Tarragona. So for us, as an independent hotel paying rent... it doesn’t make any sense.

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"On the other side, experience for our guests is a key part of the brand and hotels will not be allowed to open communal spaces. Our plans to open focuses on two different scenarios, one for the end of June/July and the other at the end of August." It also doesn't make sense for them to open their on-site restaurants – a popular part of their offering – at a reduced capacity. "Restaurants run at very low margins so opening at a third or half of capacity will [mean] more losses," she told us.

Bigger Spanish hotel chains such as Barceló, which has hotels everywhere from Lanzarote to Seville, follow in the same vein. They told the Telegraph: “We don’t just sell beds, we sell experiences... Therefore, with restrictions such as not allowing access to the common areas of the hotels, and limiting ourselves to offering them only a bed and a shower, there is no point in us reopening.”