Snug beds for budget business travellers

Budget-conscious business travellers will be able to bed down in a new pod hotel planned for Auckland’s CBD.

Jucy Snooze’s new four-storey pod hotel, scheduled to open at the end of next year, will accommodate more than 466 visitors a night in a mix of podstyle units and ensuite rooms.

Unlike the brand’s Christchurch and Queenstown hotels, the Auckland Jucy Snooze will also target business travellers as well as the leisure market.

Jucy chief executive chief executive Tim Alpe said that while the hotel was primarily designed to meet the needs of budget international tourists, he also expected it to appeal to visiting overseas conference delegates, as well as to New Zealanders who regularly commuted to the city to work two or three days a week.

The new pod hotel will have a number of flexible work spaces available for use by longer-term business travellers, and the accommodation package would include the provision of office facilities.

Alpe said the inner-city location on the corner of Cook and Nelson streets would be within walking distance of SkyCity’s new convention centre, offering a low-cost alternative for international business travellers attending conferences.

He said the concept of combining accommodation and a flexible working space had started to appear overseas and he believed it would work in New Zealand.

‘‘We see potential demand from out-of-town businesses, such as startups who need to come to Auckland regularly but can’t justify the cost of establishing a permanent office here,’’ Alpe said.

‘‘The new Jucy Snooze Auckland will provide a costeffective way to do this, and at the same time offer networking opportunities for guests when they utilise the shared space with other like-minded companies, including the relocated head office of Jucy itself.’’

The co-working concept, to be called Jucy Share, will include meeting rooms that visitors to the CBD could hire by the hour.

Alpe said the Auckland hotel would include design ideas adapted from the Christchurch and Queenstown hotels, such as double pods and more common spaces. The new hotel will employ about 30 staff members and the building will also house a new retail centre, a Miss Lucy’s pizzeria and a bar.

One of NZX-listed Augusta’s investment funds owns the property, which it will lease to Jucy for 20 years with rights of renewal.

An artist’s impression, above, of the Jucy Snooze building planned for central Auckland, where budget-conscious business travellers will be able to sleep in pods like those shown at left.