Hotel oversupply shows no signs of waning
Despite hotel numbers in Athens and Thessaloniki, as well as several popular islands, approaching saturation point, more and more people are looking to get into the business, transforming medium-sized or large properties into tourism accommodation units such as boutique hotels, to say nothing of the explosion of short-term rentals.
Earlier this year, Dimitris Andriopoulos, chairman and CEO of Dimand Real Estate, which has made several moves in the hotel sector, stated that “we are seeing the mass creation of hotels of 15 rooms each – just as was the case with ice cream stores and video clubs.”
The flurry of new hotel openings has forced the industry’s main fair, Xenia, which opens its gates on Saturday at the Metropolitan Expo Center at Spata, to impose strict gatekeeping to prevent congestion.
“Some hoteliers are so new to the industry that they do not know what to ask for, they appear confused,” the man behind interior architecture and concept design studio The Interesting Design, Achilleas Kritikos, tells Kathimerini English Edition.
This oversupply of hotels is set to have a major impact on next year’s occupancy rates, given also the growth of short-term rentals, which are constantly eating into hotels’ tourism market share.
