Crisis-hit 2009 is over. The hotel sector felt the full force of the global economic collapse. However, it seems the worst is behind us, and confidence is growing in all quarters that 2010 will be a better year.

With this in mind, hotel.info, the free online reservation service for more than 210,000 hotels worldwide, conducted a survey of the hotel sector entitled "Confidence Barometer 2010", to ask its partner hotels in Europe what expectations hotel operators had for the coming year.

Within just 12 hours, more than 2,000 hotels of all types responded with the following results:

Almost half of hotels (46.08%) are approaching the new year with cautious optimism, and, according to hotel.info, expect a moderate, albeit slow, recovery. Nevertheless, 24.44% are more optimistic in their outlook, and believe they will be doing significantly more business very soon and will be operating at higher capacity. In contrast, just 6% anticipate a rise in hotel rates this year. Only 16% of the hotels see no material improvement in 2010 compared with the fourth quarter of 2009, revealing a less optimistic viewpoint than their colleagues. Around 7% of hotel operators admitted to uncertainty and felt unable to provide an assessment.

Overall, however, the hotel.info sector survey revealed a comparable attitude across Europe. Only Spanish hotel operators, a country that has been particularly badly hit, have a more reserved view of the immediate future than their European counterparts. The percentage of hotels that expect a tangible recovery before long is lower here (15.28%). Indeed, a considerable majority (55.56%) even believe the recovery will be slower. Taking into account the number of hotel operators who believe in a recovery of any sort - be it slow or fast - Italian hoteliers seem to be most positive (76.59%) about the prospects for 2010. The comparable average figure for Europe as a whole is 70.52%.