Why Are Hotels in Barcelona Sometimes So Expensive Even "Out of Season"?
Barcelona has been a major attraction for visitors for many decades, and for a variety of reasons. While tourism barely accounts for about 15% of the city's GDP, the city hosts visitors for vacations, business trips, professional tourism, medical tourism, students, retirees, atendees to concerts, sports events and more. The concept of "seasons" in Barcelona has largely disappeared. Although the city receives more tourists in certain months (like summer or December), the flow of visitors is steady throughout the year. That’s why in the tourism industry they speak in terms of "weeks" rather than "seasons." Some weeks see far more visitors than others, and as a result, accommodation availability and prices can fluctuate significantly.
Barcelona has a large number of hotels and tourist apartments and is accustomed to hosting millions of visitors each year—over 15 million, in fact, for a city with a population of just under 2 million. Its infrastructure is generally well-equipped to handle this volume without major issues, although there can be occasional overcrowding during certain periods.
But, as mentioned earlier, beyond regular tourists, Barcelona also hosts a variety of fairs, exhibitions, international sporting events (like F1, MotoGP, and regattas), and concerts by world-famous celebrities. These events bring hundreds of thousands of extra visitors to the city, which can lead to a sharp rise in hotel and apartment prices—sometimes to extreme levels—and availability can become limited. Consequently, some event attendees may need to find more affordable accommodation outside the city. For example, at the end of February, multiple events take place at the same time, including the Mobile World Congress, which alone attracts over 100,000 visitors. During this period, finding a hotel room or apartment becomes much harder, and prices soar. This year's dates are Monday, March 3, 2025, to Thursday, March 6, 2025.
This doesn’t mean accommodation won’t be available during these periods; it simply means that demand will be higher and prices will be steeper. Therefore, when planning a trip to Barcelona, it’s essential to consider these factors. Additionally, the city hosts many smaller events, fairs, congresses, and exhibitions throughout the year. While these generally don’t have a significant impact on prices or availability, their overlap with larger events or holiday periods can create temporary challenges for finding accommodation.
These are just some of the largest annual events in Barcelona—apologies if I missed any!. Google them out for more info.
January/February : ISE (Integrated Systems Europe)
February: Festa Major de Santa Eulàlia
February/March : Mobile World Congress (MWC)
March: Barcelona Marathon
March/April : Alimentaria (Biennial)
April/May : Bridal Week
May : Barcelona Building Construmat (Biennial), Barcelona Comic Fair, MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix, Automobile Barcelona (Biennial)
May/June : Bizbarcelona, Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix, Primavera Sound, Barcelona Design Week (BDW)
June : Sònar Festival
August: Festa Major de Gràcia
September: Festa Major de la Mercè
October: SWAB Barcelona, Barcelona International Boat Show
October/November : Barcelona Manga Fair
November : IBTM World, Smart City Expo World Congress
December: Pont de la Constitució: This is a long holiday in Spain, as both December 6th and 8th are public holidays, and many people take advantage of the "bridge" (the days in between) to extend their time off. In addition to the usual weekend visitors from across Europe, Barcelona -and the rest of Catalonia- also receives a significant influx of visitors from Spain during this time.
Enjoy planning!
nah!, it ain't that difficult, just challenging