Ibiza housing squeeze hits hotel hiring at 82% of firms

On Ibiza and Formentera, 82 per cent of hotel firms surveyed say difficulty finding housing makes it much harder to recruit or keep staff. The Ibiza and Formentera Hotel Business Federation presented the findings on 28 October 2026 in its first survey of member firms’ staffing problems. The other 18 per cent say housing has a moderate effect.

The companies surveyed run 96 establishments with 24,266 tourist accommodation places. That is nearly 28 per cent of the places in the accommodation categories examined on the two islands.

Hotels help staff find somewhere to stay

Three-quarters of the firms — 76 per cent — have helped house some staff, through their own accommodation, rentals, financial help or arrangements with others. And 90 per cent see affordable housing or help with accommodation as one of the measures most likely to help them keep workers.

The federation says firms are doing this because they need to fill jobs and workers struggle to find housing. But it warns that housing staff must not become a general obligation for employers or take the place of wider action on the problem.

Vacancies hit housekeeping and kitchens

During the season, 78 per cent of the firms struggled to fill their planned positions. Across all respondents, 48 per cent rated the difficulty as moderate or severe, while 44 per cent said a lack of suitable staff had a moderate or serious effect on their establishment’s operations.

Housekeeping was among the hardest areas to staff, cited by 62 per cent. Kitchen and dining-room roles drew 56 per cent of mentions, and restaurant work 44 per cent. Compared with the previous season, 46 per cent of firms said staff turnover had risen.

Topics: Housing · Jobs & labour

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com