At a meeting held last week between the various authorities and the unions and hotel owners, the Consell announced that it will commence the process of legalizing tourist beds from January, at a cost of between €4,300 and €6,000 each. This figure has been agreed to fall in line with that used in Mallorca, but the Hoteliers Federation finds it to be excessive, as the law establishes that the more places a hotel wishes to legalize the higher the price which has to be paid for each bed.
A maximum of 9,000 beds may be legalized, as this is the number of places which have been taken out of the system. However, the Consell representative does not believe that the number will even reach ten per cent of that figure. In Ibiza there are 81,000 legal beds, but it is impossible to estimate how many non-registered places are on offer.
Juanjo Riera, President of the Hoteliers Federation, claimed his association was against the moves, adding that there was already not enough demand for the number of beds on offer.