The employers defend that unique projects can be developed that “add value to the city” instead of limiting the new licenses only to peripheral areas
Barcelona it cannot win new hotels in the areas with the most tourist pull, as regulated by the new special urban plan for tourist accommodation (PEUAT). But the update of the regulations definitively approved last January, where some demands from the sector were collected, has not appeased the hoteliers, who see the plan as a threat to the future quality of the local offer. For this reason, this Monday Barcelona Hotel Guild has announced the presentation of a Sponsored links for this to allow new openings throughout the city.
Currently, the PEUAT divides the lodgings into four zones, so that in the most central ones, not only can no more establishments be opened, but any closure even extinguishes the license, in order to promote decrease. In practice, the new hotels are limited to outlying areas and in a very controlled way, meeting criteria of distance, density and others.
Hoteliers consider that the regulations prevent, for example, that a centennial building in disuse or forgotten can be resurrected as a hotel, even when there is no interest or resources to give it another function. For the Gremi d’Hotels, this limitation can “severely condition the qualitative development of the destination.”
They maintain that “it must be possible to continue developing hotel projects that add value to Barcelona, such as unique proposals that recover buildings with a historical value or architecturalIn this sense, entities such as Barcelona Global have repeatedly warned of the number of properties pending reuse in the city center, and of the economic role that they could recover. The activities suggested are varied, but the hotel management defends that some spaces could be ideal for tourism of the highest category.
Changes after multiple statements
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The special plan was updated at the beginning of the year in response to various contrary court rulings, one of them linked to rehabilitations. Thus, in zone 1, it was previously established that if a hotel wanted to carry out a major renovation, it had to give up 20% of the beds and now that requirement no longer exists, since it led to the degradation of the hotel heritage. Among other modifications introduced, 22@ went from integrating zone 4 to 2, so that it will no longer be able to gain more tourist beds, after having been the most requested territory for new projects since growth was curbed in 2017.
And although the hoteliers disagree with the municipal policies in their area, they do support the city council’s decision (also included in the PEUAT) to prohibit rooms for days for tourists in private flats. For this reason, they have insisted on claiming that this approach be reflected in a “especially restrictive” way in the specific regulation that the consistory prepares for the so-called shared homes.