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Hostel Occupancy Survey

• 1Contact
  • 1.1Contact organisation
    National Statistics Institute of Spain
    
  • 1.5Contact mail address

    Avenida de Manoteras 50-52 - 28050 Madrid

    
    
• 2Metadata update
  • 2.1Metadata last certified
    12/02/2025
  • 2.2Metadata last posted
    02/01/2025
  • 2.3Metadata last update
    12/02/2025
• 3Statistical presentation
  • 3.1Data description

    The data from the Survey reflect the dual perspective considered in tourism research: from the demand side, information is provided on travellers, overnight stays and average stay, distributed by country of residence of the travellers and category of the establishment they occupy, or by Autonomous Community of origin in the case of Spanish travellers; from the supply side, data is provided on the number of estimated open establishments, estimated bedplaces, occupancy rates and information regarding employment in the sector.
    This information is offered monthly, on a national level and by Autonomous Community.

  • 3.2Classification system
    • Comunidades y Ciudades Autónomas
      01   Andalucía
      02   Aragón
      03   Asturias, Principado de
      04   Balears, Illes
      05   Canarias
      06   Cantabria
      07   Castilla y León
      08   Castilla - La Mancha
      09   Cataluña
      10   Comunitat Valenciana
      11   Extremadura
      12   Galicia
      13   Madrid, Comunidad de
      14   Murcia, Región de
      15   Navarra, Comunidad Foral de
      16   País Vasco
      17   Rioja, La
      18   Ceuta
      19   Melilla
  • 3.3Sector coverage

    Tourism

  • 3.4Statistical concepts and definitions
    • Hostel
      In general, hostels are considered to be establishments that offer the public an accommodation service, mainly in shared bedrooms, with or without complementary services, and usually with the possibility of practising some activity related to the surroundings.
    • Occupancy rate by bedplaces in holiday dwellings
      Percentage-based ratio between the number of overnight stays and the number of vacancies by the days the overnight stays refer to plus the number of supplementary beds used. Supplementary beds are those that do not have a fixed nature and are not included in the vacancies declared officially by the establishment but do appear in the directory.
    • Occupancy rate by bedroom
      The ratio, as a percentage, between the average daily number of rooms occupied in the month and the total number of bedrooms available.
    • Overnight stays or occupied bedplaces in tourism accommodation
      An overnight stay is understood to be every night that a guest stays in the establishment. As occurs with the checking in of guests, occupied bedplaces are broken down according to place of residence.
    • Travellers entering campsites
      All persons who stay one or more consecutive nights in the same accommodation.
      Guests are classified by their country of residence, and people residing in Spain are classified by the Autonomous Community they usually live in
  • 3.5Statistical unit

    The analysis units are all hostels registered as such in the corresponding register of each Autonomous Community and belonging to the Red Española de Albergues Juveniles.

  • 3.6Statistical population

    Youth and Tourist Hostels are studied.

  • 3.7Reference area

    The geographical scope is the entire national territory, except Ceuta (where there are no establishments of this type).

    The information is presented on different levels of geographical breakdown: national, Autonomous Community

  • 3.8Time coverage

    Since 2014.

  • 3.9Base period

    The Hostel Occupancy Survey was first conducted in 2014, and therefore, this is its base year.

• 4Unit of measure
  • 4.1Unit of measure

    Guests, overnight stays, days, people, percentage, establishments and bed-places

• 5Reference period
  • 5.1Reference period

    Month

    Data referred to the period: Mensual A: 2024 MES: 11

• 6Institutional mandate
  • 6.1Legal acts and other agreements

    The compilation and dissemination of the data are governed by the Statistical Law No. 12/1989 "Public Statistical Function" of May 9, 1989, and Law No. 4/1990 of June 29 on “National Budget of State for the year 1990" amended by Law No. 13/1996 "Fiscal, administrative and social measures" of December 30, 1996, makes compulsory all statistics included in the National Statistics Plan. The National Statistical Plan 2009-2012 was approved by the Royal Decree 1663/2008. It contains the statistics that must be developed in the four year period by the State General Administration's services or any other entity dependent on it. All statistics included in the National Statistics Plan are statistics for state purposes and are obligatory. The National Statistics Plan 2021-2024, approved by Royal Decree 1110/2020, of 15  December, is the Plan currently implemented. This statistical operation has governmental purposes, and it is included in the National Statistics Plan 2021-2024. (Statistics of the State Administration).

    
    

    
    These statistics comply with European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) no. 692/2011, of 6 July 2011, relating to tourism statistics. The Spanish version of the European Union regulations affecting this operation is available at: https://www.ine.es/normativa/leyes/UE/minine.htm#30239

  • 6.2Data sharing
    The exchanges of information needed to elaborate statistics between the INE and the rest of the State statistical offices (Ministerial Departments, independent bodies and administrative bodies depending on the State General Administration), or between these offices and the Autonomic statistical offices, are regulated in the LFEP (Law of the Public Statistic Function). This law also regulates the mechanisms of statistical coordination, and concludes cooperation agreements between the different offices when necessary.
    
• 7Confidentiality
  • 7.1Confidentiality - policy

    The Statistical Law No. 12/1989 specifies that the INE cannot publish, or make otherwise available, individual data or statistics that would enable the identification of data for any individual person or entity. Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society

    
    
  • 7.2Confidentiality - data treatment
    INE provides information on the protection of confidentiality at all stages of the statistical process: INE questionnaires for the operations in the national statistical plan include a legal clause protecting data under statistical confidentiality. Notices prior to data collection announcing a statistical operation notify respondents that data are subject to statistical confidentiality at all stages. For data processing, INE employees have available the INE data protection handbook, which specifies the steps that should be taken at each stage of processing to ensure reporting units' individual data are protected. The microdata files provided to users are anonymised.
    

    Due to statistical secrecy, those Autonomous Communities with fewer than 3 establishments are concealed, as are those with fewer than 8 establishments, due to significance.

• 8Release policy
  • 8.1Release calendar

    The advance release calendar that shows the precise release dates for the coming year is disseminated in the last quarter of each year.

    
    
  • 8.2Release calendar access

    The calendar is disseminated on the INEs Internet website (Publications Calendar)

    
    
  • 8.3User access

    The data are released simultaneously according to the advance release calendar to all interested parties by issuing the press release. At the same time, the data are posted on the INE's Internet website (www.ine.es/en) almost immediately after the press release is issued. Also some predefined tailor-made requests are sent to registered users. Some users could receive partial information under embargo as it is publicly described in the European Statistics Code of Practice

    
    
• 9Frequency of dissemination
  • 9.1Frequency of dissemination

    Monthly

• 10Accessibility and clarity
  • 10.1News release

    The results of the statistical operations are normally disseminated by using press releases that can be accessed via both the corresponding menu and the Press Releases Section in the web

    
    
  • 10.2Publications

    The results of the survey are disseminated via the INE website, and some results are included in publications such as the Statistical Yearbook, INE Figures, etc. A press release is prepared monthly, containing the following operations: Holiday Dwellings Occupancy Survey, Campsite Occupancy Survey, Rural Tourism Accomodation Occupancy Survey, Hotels Occupancy Survey, Holiday Dwellings Prices Index, Campsite Prices Index, Rural Tourism Accomodation Prices Index.

  • 10.3On-line database

    INEbase is the system the INE uses to store statistical information on the Internet. It contains all the information the INE produces in electronic formats. The primary organisation of the information follows the theme-based classification of the Inventory of Statistical Operations of the State General Administration . The basic unit of INEbase is the statistical operation, defined as the set of activities that lead to obtaining statistical results on a determined sector or subject based on the individually collected data. Also included in the scope of this definition are synthesis preparation.

    
    

    The specific link for the Hostel Occupancy Survey is as follows: https://www.ine.es/dyngs/INEbase/en/operacion.htm?c=Estadistica_C&cid=1254736176964&menu=ultiDatos&idp=1254735576863

  • 10.4Micro-data access
    A lot of statistical operations disseminate public domain anonymized files, available free of charge for downloading in the INE website Microdata Section
    

    Microdata sets are not disseminated.

  • 10.5Other

    Tailor-made requests are also received, which on occasion become continuous or are extended. The policy for tending to tailor-made requests consists of analysing whether the conditions of statistical secrecy and significance are observed. After this analysis, a viability report is prepared and sent to the petitioner.

  • 10.6Documentation on methodology

    The methodology contains information regarding the questionnaires, variation coefficients, estimators, treatment of partial non-response, definitions, sample. The document may be viewed at the following link:https://www.ine.es/en/daco/daco42/ocupalb/notaeoalb_15_en.pdf

    AC3=100%

  • 10.7Quality documentation

    This standardised methodological  report contains all the necessary elements to be considered a "quality report intended for users", for this operation.

    Based on European Parliament and Council Regulation 692/2011, the European Commission (Eurostat) assesses the quality of the transferred data and publishes reports on the quality of European statistics. To this end, each country provides a quality report within the 9 months following the end of the year. 2012 The link is as follows:

    https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/metadata/en/tour_occ_esms.htm

• 11Quality management
  • 11.1Quality assurance

    Quality assurance framework for the INE statistics is based on the ESSCoP, the European Statistics Code of Practice made by EUROSTAT. The ESSCoP is made up of 16 principles, gathered in three areas: Institutional Environment, Processes and Products. Each principle is associated with some indicators which make possible to measure it. In order to evaluate quality, EUROSTAT provides different tools: the indicators mentioned above, Self-assessment based on the DESAP model, peer review, user satisfaction surveys and other proceedings for evaluation.

    
    

    The Hostels Occupancy Survey periodically performs activities for the revision of the statistical process, in order to meet the quality conditions required on both the national and international levels. The main activities are the revision of both the data collected, such as the survey directory, and a microfiltering upon receipt of the data, followed by a macrofiltering. An improvement in the data collection were made due to the use of the IRIA systemas a questionnaire collection method.

  • 11.2Quality assessment

    As shown in the following sections, which include detailed quality indicators, the HOS presents very high quality, with data from the operation being made available within a 30-day period. Total non-response is usually approximately 5% for provisional data and 2% for definitive data, and the variation coefficients have levels that are approximately 6.4 for the main variables. Periodical updates are made of the directory. Lastly, the Eurostat Methodology regarding tourism surveys is also followed: Methodological Manual for Tourism Statistics, available at the following link: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/tourism/methodology/manuals-and-guidelines

• 12Relevance
  • 12.1User needs

    Users are quite varied: tourism boards/consortiums, individuals, establishments, consultancy companies, Autonomous Community governments, municipal councils, universities, associations accommodation businesspersons. The data received is used for analyses, studies, reports and policy design. User needs that are not met are those that do not comply with the conditions of statistical secrecy and statistical significance. In addition to the information available on the website, users also request data for time periods other than those published, and for special zones, which is provided by carrying out customised calculations.

  • 12.2User satisfaction

    The INE has carried out general user satisfaction surveys in 2007, 2010, 2013,  2016 and 2019 and it plans to continue doing so every three years. The purpose of these surveys is to find out what users think about the quality of the information of the INE statistics and the extent to which their needs of information are covered. In addition, additional surveys are carried out in order to acknowledge better other fields such as dissemination of the information, quality of some publications...

    On the INE website, in its section Methods and Projects / Quality and Code of Practice / INE quality management / User surveys are available surveys conducted to date.(Click  next link)

     

    
    
  • 12.3Completeness

    The HOS meets all of the requirements set out in the international regulations relating to tourism statistics from the supply perspective. 100% of the information requested by the Regulation is supplied. (R1=100%)

• 13Accuracy and reliability
  • 13.1Overall accuracy

    The estimators used are unbiased, and therefore, the bias is null. Variation coefficients are available for the main variables, travellers and overnight stays. With regard to non-sampling errors, we try to minimise both coverage errors and total non-response errors. More information may be viewed in the survey methodology, which is available at the following link: https://www.ine.es/en/daco/daco42/ocupalb/notaeoalb_15_en.pdf

  • 13.2Sampling error

    In order to measure the precision of this statistical operation, variable coefficients are available for the traveller and overnight stay variables, broken down between residents in Spain and residents abroad. The values of the variation coefficients may be viewed at the following link: https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Tabla.htm?t=9670&L=1

    In October 2024 for total number of guest A1= 7.25

     

  • 13.3Non-sampling error

    The estimators used are unbiased, and therefore, the bias is null. Among the non-sampling errors, coverage errors are minimised by carrying out periodical crosses between the Autonomous Community directories and the HOS directory, for the purpose of finding possible duplicities, establishments that are missing or those that are no longer active. Total non-response is minimised between the provisional data and the final data, due to the re-contact with the units that did not answer, and in addition, an imputation of data is performed for these cases. Among the non-sampling errors, there is information available regarding non-response, with the non-response rate in December 2023, definitive data, being A4 = 3.1

• 14Timeliness and punctuality
  • 14.1Timeliness

    30 days elapse from the reference date of the data to the publication of the provisional figures, whereas for the final data, one year and one month elapse for the months of January to June, and the final data for the rest of the months are published during the 3rd quarter. That is, in April 2024, the provisional data for March 2024 and the final data for March 2023 are published, and in September 2024, the final data for 2023 that was not disseminated previously are published.

    (TP1=30 days) (TP2=13 months)

  • 14.2Punctuality

    Each publication has been disseminated on the date announced in the publication calendar. The calendar may be viewed at the following link: https://www.ine.es/en/daco/daco41/calen_en.htm

    TP3=100%

• 15Coherence and Comparability
  • 15.1Comparability - geographical

    The availability of a methodology, a design and a common process for collection, filtering, publication and elevation for the entire geographic scope, guarantees the comparability of the results among the different Autonomous Communities, provinces, tourist areas and tourist sites. On the other hand, the methodological adaptation to Regulation 692/2011 makes comparability possible with the rest of the European Union countries.

  • 15.2Comparability - over time

    In December 2024, the series have 130 elements. (CC2=130)

    As of January 2021, the statistical population will be extended to include tourist and pilgrims' hostels, calculating link coefficients in order to make the data series comparable over time.

  • 15.3Coherence - cross domain

    Though the variables gathered in this survey are not collected in any other survey, a coherence is observed between the values obtained and the evolution of the economy.

  • 15.4Coherence - internal

    The data has complete internal coherence, as it is based on the same set of microdata, and is calculated using the same estimation methods for the different breakdowns. The arithmetic and accounting identities are observed in the production of the data sets.

• 16Cost and burden
  • 16.1Cost and burden

    The estimation of the budgetary credit necessary to finance this operation , as foreseen in the 2025 Annual Program, comes to a total of 11,514.54 thousand Euros in the INE budget

    This estimation concerns tor the Occupancy Survey in Tourist Accommodations (cod. 9621 in PEN) that is formed by five statistical operation, being Hostel Occupancy Survey one of them

     

• 17Data revision
  • 17.1Data revision - policy

    The INE of Spain has a policy which regulates the basic aspects of statistical data revision, seeking to ensure process transparency and product quality. This policy is laid out in the document approved by the INE board of directors on 13 March of 2015, which is available on the INE website, in the section "Methods and projects/Quality and Code of Practice/INE’s Quality management/INE’s Revision policy" (link).

    This general policy sets the criteria that the different type of revisions should follow:  routine revision- it is the case of statistics whose production process includes regular revisions-; more extensive revision- when methodological or basic reference source changes take place-; and exceptional revision- for instance, when an error appears in a published statistic-.

    
    

    The revision policy is as follows: once the results are published in t+30, more questionnaires from the reference month are received, and therefore, the final version of the results presents greater coverage (increasing from a response rate of 96% in the provisional results to a rate of 97% in the final results). In June each year, a publication is disseminated, which is more detailed than the monthly publication, of the data from the previous year. This publication is final. Though from January to May, the same day that the provisional results from the reference month are published, the final results from the same month the previous year are also disseminated.

  • 17.2Data revision - practice

    Each month, the provisional data from the previous month, and the final data from the previous month the previous year, are published, up until the month of June, in which all of the final data from the previous year that has not previously been disseminated is published. The quality indicators used are MAR, absolute average revision, and RMAR, relative average revision, which is obtained for the main variables, travellers and overnight stays.

    The annual values in 2017-2018-2019-2020-2021 are:

    A6 MAR travellers = 1,724.25

    A6 MAR overnight stays =3,878.18

    A6 RMAR travellers = 1.2604%

    A6 RMAR overnight stays = 1.1283%

• 18Statistical processing
  • 18.1Source data

    The INE compiles a national directory of hostels using the registers provided by Red Española de Albergues Juveniles and by the Autonomous Communities. This directory contains the following information for each establishment: name, address, category, opening period, number of rooms and capacity.
     

  • 18.2Frequency of data collection

    Monthly

  • 18.3Data collection

    The collection methods are: CAWI, post, fax, e-mail. The information in the questionnaires is collected and filtered in a decentralised fashion. The questionnaire collects information regarding the reference month. The questionnaire is updated annually, with the new countries in the EU.

  • 18.4Data validation

    The procedure for supervising the data validation consists of applying a series of validations to the questionnaires. In case some inconsistency is detected, the INE contacts the establishment again. When all of the data has been collected, it is revised again in a centralised fashion. Lastly, a macroediting is performed.

  • 18.5Data compilation

    Firstly, there is a decentralised microfiltering process to detect and filter errors and inconsistencies in the questionnaires. Next, on a central level, the estimators are obtained. Subsequently, a macroediting is performed, prior to the tabulation and dissemination of the results.

  • 18.6Adjustment

    No adjustments are applied.

• 19Comment
  • 19.1Comment