Hanmer’s Heritage Hotel ‘not viable’ for future
Hanmer Springs’ Heritage Hotel will not reopen after the Covid-19 lockdown.
The increased number of holiday homes in the town and the financial pressure of the lockdown are being blamed for the permanent closure of the prominent hotel in the centre of the town. Forty full-time equivalent jobs will be lost.
Graham Wilkinson, a director of Hanmer Management Ltd, which operates the hotel, said there has been a slow deterioration of trading conditions in recent years.
‘‘The proliferation of holiday homes operating in the Canterbury and Hurunui regions on booking platforms such as Airbnb have seriously undercut hotel occupancy levels.’’
The news comes days after the Hermitage Hotel in Aoraki/Mt Cook proposed axing all but eight of its 178 staff and plans to start from scratch when it is able to reopen.
Wilkinson, who also operates two hotels in Queenstown and the Rydges Hotel in Wellington, said a specialist hotel accountant’s report confirmed the Hanmer operation was not viable for the future. ‘‘It’s simply not profitable in any way, shape or form.’’
Reopening the hotel
after lockdown would have also cost a minimum of $300,000 and that money could not be recouped, he said.
The hotel’s 40 fulltime equivalent staff would be paid their full entitlements, he said.
The company had received the Government’s wage subsidy and Wilkinson said 100 per cent of that money had gone to staff.
He said there could still be some jobs available for staff at other Heritage hotels and staff would be needed to look after the grounds.
The hotel’s 66 units are all privately owned and leased back to the hotel. Owners of those units jointly owned the land and buildings, which are run as a body corporate.
Christchurch man Doug Pflaum, who has owned one of the units for 20 years, said he was not surprised at the decision to close the hotel. He had not received any payments from the operator since April 2019.
He said the unit owners were considering their options.
Wilkinson said the owners of the units would meet soon to decide what to do with the property. ‘‘No decisions have been made at this time.’’
He said if someone wanted to continue operating the property as a hotel then he encouraged them to get in touch. ‘‘There’s been no interest to date.’’
Hanmer Springs Business Association chairman Michael Malthus said he was disappointed the hotel, which was one of the bigger employers in town, was not reopening.
The hotel dates back to 1897 when it was an 18-room wooden lodge. It was converted to a hospital for soldiers returning from World War I. The existing Spanish-style building was built in 1932 and a number of separate units have been added over the years.