A new royal decree-law allows price caps on hotels and transport during emergencies
Royal Decree-law 32/2026 requires anything charged above the cap to be refunded when an emergency is declared. It refers to hotels and transport and does not say whether holiday lets are included.
- If an emergency is declared in your area, do not go above what you offered in the previous 30 days without checking whether a cap applies.
- Keep a record of your nightly rates: it is the benchmark the rule uses to set the maximum.
- If you use dynamic pricing, make sure the tool does not push rates up automatically during an emergency.
What happened
Royal Decree-law 32/2026, published on 4 November, adds a new article 20 ter to Spain’s General Law for the Protection of Consumers and Users. It allows prices to be capped when an area is declared seriously affected by a civil protection emergency, or by agreement of the Council of Ministers, and can cover hotels, airlines, trains, buses, ferries, car hire and other related tourism services.
The cap is based on the highest price offered in the previous 30 days; if that is more than 50% above the previous average, the benchmark becomes the average plus 50%. Customers get back whatever they paid above the cap, and penalties apply separately. The Government may ask sellers, including booking platforms, for their previous average and maximum prices. For the Urda rail accident, the measure applies initially until 10 November.
What it means for your property in Málaga
The article refers to hotels and does not mention holiday lets, nor does it specify which areas are affected, so it is not yet clear whether the cap would apply to you. Even so, it sets a direction: during a declared emergency, charging much more than the previous month could end in a refund to the guest.
The practical step is to keep track of your pricing history and know what your dynamic pricing system does when demand suddenly spikes. If an emergency is declared on the Costa del Sol, check before raising rates.
How I handle it in the properties I manage I use PriceLabs with maximum prices set by date, so a spike in demand does not push the rate up without me reviewing it. I also keep the pricing history for each property.
Summary written with the help of AI and reviewed by Brian Donneys on 7 Nov 2026. General information, not legal or tax advice.