CoStar records no occupancy hit
Europe’s record summer heat left little mark on hotel performance. CoStar data taken as of early July, just after the continent’s worst heatwave on record, showed little to no negative effect on hotels.
The heat was severe. The report puts temperatures above 44°C (111°F) in Spain and beyond 43°C (109°F) in France and Portugal. Large parts of the continent came close to 40°C (104°F).
Jan Mindermann, senior vice president of operations at Vienna-based Almanac Hotels, said the group has recorded no cancellations and no other negative effect from the heat. Almanac’s destinations page lists three hotels: Vienna, Barcelona and Prague.
Marta Centeno Sampere, director of PR and communications at the Four Seasons Hotel Madrid, said the heatwave has not touched the hotel’s business directly. She said demand patterns are already changing.
Madrid softens in August as guests head for the coast
August has become a quieter month for demand in Madrid, Centeno Sampere said. “Visitors coming to Spain in August spend fewer days in the city and more time by the seaside or in cooler destinations,” she said.
Madrid’s arrival figures, read off the Spanish series
Spain’s statistics institute, INE, reports 1,031,693 international arrivals into the Comunidad de Madrid in May 2026, a rise of 17.4 percent on May 2025. The accumulated figure for the first five months of 2026 is 4,129,193 arrivals, a rise of 8.5 percent on a year earlier. INE published the release on 2 July 2026 as provisional data.
The two figures sit on different lines of the same table. The 17.4 percent belongs to INE’s monthly line for May. The 8.5 percent belongs to the five-month accumulated line. The reporting on the CoStar piece places the 17.4 percent figure on the five-month period.
Spain as a whole drew 10,260,070 international arrivals in May 2026, up 9.5 percent. The first five months reached 36,821,120 arrivals, up 5.0 percent.
What travellers say about climate in their plans
The European Travel Commission’s Monitoring Sentiment for Intra-European Travel, Wave 25, published on 2 July 2026, records 81 percent of Europeans intending a trip between June and November 2026, four percentage points above a year earlier. On climate, 76 percent say climate-related factors influence their travel behaviour.
Among the travellers adapting their plans, 16 percent seek destinations with milder temperatures. A further 15 percent avoid destinations prone to extreme heat or check forecasts before booking. Two in three say they would modify their plans in response to climate-related disruption or official safety advisories.
The same wave puts Southern and Mediterranean Europe as the preferred region for 61 percent of intended travellers. Safety drew 20 percent as the most important consideration for a destination choice, pleasant weather 15 percent and attractive deals 14 percent.
City heat exposure inside a wider risk map
Cushman & Wakefield’s Future Hazards project assesses climate-related risk across 100 global cities and eight hazard types. Stefan de Goeij is partner and head of sustainability and environmental, social and governance at the firm, with a focus on the Netherlands, central and eastern Europe and the Nordics.
Within that work, Athens carries high current exposure to extreme heat and stands as the only major European city at that level. Madrid, Rome and Marseille carry low current exposure. The firm expects those levels to rise as temperatures climb.
“We see that extreme heatwaves have had a limited negative impact, for the moment, on occupancy,” de Goeij said.
“What was visible is a move from the concrete jungle cities toward coastal hotels, escaping the burning heat in the city and taking it to the coast,” he said.
Cooling systems land on the operating budget
“What will have an impact on costs is the high energy expenditures, as hotels are running air conditioning, refrigeration and cooling systems continuously,” de Goeij said. As of mid-July, he said it was too early to assess the total financial impact.
Northern Europe’s investment bid
Cushman & Wakefield reports increased interest in northern European resorts alongside stronger regional investment activity. “According to our data, hotel transaction volume in the Nordics increased by 87 percent in 2025, reaching EUR 2 billion ($2.29 billion), with more than 10,000 rooms transacted,” de Goeij said.
Nordic hotel transaction volume then rose 1,600 percent in the first quarter of 2026. The firm attributes part of that move to a low-base effect.
Baltic and Estonian operators
The Baltic region is drawing summer bookings from travellers avoiding the south. “While Mediterranean destinations remain very popular, some tourists are now seeking milder temperatures, outdoor activities and a more comfortable climate, which creates opportunities for destinations such as Latvia,” said Andris Kalnins, president of the Association of Hotels & Restaurants in Latvia.
Kulli Kraner, chief executive of the Estonian Hotel & Restaurant Association, said the region’s climate now supports its pitch. “We have largely been spared the heatwaves and unpredictable weather events affecting southern and central Europe,” she said. “For travelers looking to escape the heat, that stability is a genuine selling point.”
Warmer winters at the ski resorts
Lower-altitude ski resorts could see falling demand from warmer winters, de Goeij said. Growing interest in year-round Alpine hiking could offset part of that decline.
The day-room inventory behind the shift
Day-use operators sell rooms by the hour or by the day, and the published inventory sits per country. Dayuse’s country pages carry 1,576 properties in France, 488 in Germany, 238 in London, 135 in the Netherlands, 40 in Austria, 22 in Ireland, 16 in Czechia, 12 in Portugal and three in Sweden, read on 8 October 2026. The same site’s Prague page lists 15 properties.
The paths for Spain, Italy and Greece did not load on the same read. Madrid, Barcelona, Rome, Milan and Athens therefore carry no published Dayuse count in this record.
The shift north and toward the coast is a booking-window question for day-room inventory. A day room sells on the margin of an occupied night. A city that empties in August releases rooms that a coastal property can fill in the afternoon.
CoStar has recorded no measurable occupancy effect so far. Hoteliers describe a change in where summer rooms are booked, and Cushman & Wakefield puts the cooling load inside the cost line.