It’s been more than a month since Maraya Perinat closed the doors to paying guests at the Cotton House Hotel, a swanky destination she founded in 2015 in Barcelona. The closure should have given her more time with her family and hours needed to finish Donna Tartt’s “The Goldfinch,” the book she was reading when Spain’s lodging sector was forced to shut.

She’s found little extra time for her family since then, and her bookmark hasn’t moved. The Cotton House, typically charging the equivalent of about $450 a night for a room,...