NACE I551/I552/I553 accommodation classes

They are the three class-level categories under NACE section I that European tourism statistics use instead of informal labels like 'hotel' or 'campsite'. Eurostat's Capacity of Tourist Accommodation (tour_cap_nat) reports 'number of establishments, bedrooms and bed-places for hotels (NACE I551), holiday and other short-stay accommodation (I552) and camping grounds/RV parks (I553)'. The demand side uses the same split: Nights Spent at Tourist Accommodation (tour_occ_arn2) breaks results down by 'accommodation type (NACE I551 hotels, I552 holiday/short-stay, I553 camping)'. Because both cubes share the classification, supply and demand can be joined cleanly at country level - the granularity of the capacity cube being 'by country x accommodation type (NACE I551/I552/I553) x capacity unit'.

Class boundaries define what a 'room' or a 'night' means, so mixing them corrupts both occupancy math and market sizing. Camping pitches and hotel bedrooms sit in different classes; averaging bed-places across I551 and I553 produces a capacity figure that matches no real property type. The classes also gate comparability over time and across countries: a national series that folds short-stay rentals into hotels reports higher hotel occupancy than a Eurostat-consistent neighbor, purely from classification. Buyers who verify the I551/I552/I553 basis up front avoid reconciling two irreconcilable hotel numbers later.

1. Demand the class codes, not adjectives. Eurostat publishes both capacity and demand by I551/I552/I553; sources that only say 'hotels' leave the boundary undefined.

1. Match capacity units to the class. Establishments, bedrooms and bed-places are distinct capacity units in tour_cap_nat; occupancy rates need the right denominator per class.

1. Join supply and demand on the same classes. tour_cap_nat and tour_occ_arn2 share the I551/I552/I553 axis, so occupancy can be computed without remapping.

1. Check geography alignment. National totals are the common denominator; sub-national demand series key to NUTS 2 region levels and need care when combined with class splits.

1. Treat camping as a first-class segment. I553 carries its own establishments and nights, so excluding it silently biases tourism totals in camping-heavy markets.

Three neighbouring concepts carry the same I551/I552/I553 structure: bed-places (the capacity unit counting individual beds, the supply-side ceiling on demand), nights spent (total guest nights, the core volume measure of demand) and the NUTS 2 region (the EU's second-level geographic key below national totals).

Where to see the classes in context: hotels-resorts-cruise-lines data.