British tourists have been told they can continue to keep their hotel rooms chilled during Spanish heatwaves despite a new law limiting temperatures in public spaces to 27C.
Shops, bars and restaurants, supermarkets and airports in the UK's favourite foreign holiday destination are banned from setting their air con below 27C in the summer and told they can’t raise their heating above 19C in the winter.
But on Thursday it emerged hotel rooms had been exempted from the new rule because they are considered private spaces.
The government order will apply to parts of hotels considered public spaces, such as receptions and eating areas.
Schools, hospitals, hairdressers and public transport including planes and trains have also been grouped among the exceptions.
The new rules have been greeted with criticism by Spanish hotel and restaurant associations.
Antonio Luque, president of the Seville Hospitality Association which covers one of Spain’s hottest places, said: “We had a very complicated July with temperatures of 40C in the shade. Having to keep premises at 27C will mean customers being uncomfortable.”
He added: “This is another kick in the teeth for the hotel sector and we’re worried.
"We hope we will be able to persuade the government to make changes and let the regions with the highest temperatures set cooling systems a bit lower because Seville is not the same as Galicia where the climate is very different.”
The Madrid Hotel Association described the energy-saving measures as “hasty and improvised”, adding: “We are worried it will affect tourism.”
Lights will also have to go off on shop fronts and empty government offices from 10pm under the new rules, which will be in place until November next year. They come into effect next week.
Earlier this week the Madrid region’s right-wing president Isabel Diaz Ayuso put herself on a collision course with Spain’s left-wing government by pledging to ignore the switch-off, claiming it would cause “darkness, poverty and sadness” and scare off tourists.
She said: “As far as the Madrid region is concerned, it won’t be applied.”
Colleagues later admitted the law would have to be respected following an opposition backlash.
Fines for those who commit “minor breaches” of the new law will be set at up to £50,000. Serious breaches could lead to fines of £83million.
The energy-saving measures are being brought in as Spain is in the grip of its third heatwave so far this summer.
Weather chiefs said on Thursday that last month was the driest so far this year and the second-hottest since at least 1950.
The sea in areas like Costa Blanca is still at 30C.
Javier Andaluz, Head of Ecologists in Action, said of the new government rules which follow an EU political agreement on energy-saving measures linked to the war in Ukraine : “The measures are adequate but also insufficient and too late.
“It’s sad this is being imposed as an exceptional circumstance and a sacrifice for the war in Ukraine when they are necessary and common-sense measures that should be taken because of the climate emergency and the energy crisis we are experiencing.”
