Traditional backpackers’ still popular
Astrongly-performing backpackers accommodation hostel in the Coromandel tourist town of Whitianga is for sale. Turtle Cove Backpackers sits on edge of the small centre’s CBD, and is a purpose-built accommodation venue with multiple separate buildings licensed to sleep up to 62 guests.
The 430sq m of lodge buildings sitting on 1624sq m of freehold land split over adjoining land titles zoned commercial 8A. Turtle Cove’s 16-room inventory is configured to support a range of occupancies — ranging from single-sex and mixed gender bunk style dormitories and single rooms, through to stand-alone share twin and double rooms.
Turtle Cove sits across two adjoining sites — 12 and 14 Bryce St — with unfenced access between the rear of the two properties so guests can move freely between their units and communal living, recreational spaces.
There is an owner/manager’s residence as well as two en-suite family bedrooms sustaining a total of 12 beds. Portable cabin bedrooms are situated at the rear of the section to increase the site’s accommodation inventory.
Turtle Cove backpackers owns two of the cabins, while the other four are leased. Guest services include a fully equipped kitchen with gas hobs, ovens and extensive food preparation benching; separate male and female bathroom facilities; a laundry room; TV lounge and large covered outdoor area on a concreted floor plate.
The land, buildings and business are being jointly marketed for sale by Bayleys Whitianga and Bayleys Hamilton at auction at 11am on May 17.
The property features in Bayleys’ latest Total Property portfolio magazine. Salespeople Belinda Sammons and Josh Smith said the breadth of room sizes at the Whitianga property meant the business could service single travellers, couples, and even families.
“Turtle Cove is a stereotypical New Zealand backpacker accommodation venue — catering to the budget end of the free independent travellers market in a style which has been immensely popular since the 1970s, and shows no sign of changing,” Smith says.
“Turtle Cove, like many backpacker establishments, is now attracting a generation of backpackers who first enjoyed the free-spirited style of accommodation some 30 or 40 years ago.
“Now, still wanting to hold on to that environment, those former guests are coming back as middleaged adults with their children, who will probably go on to become the next generation of guests.”
Chattels include the stoves and fridges/freezers servicing the communal kitchen, the furnishings within the communal lounge, the tables and chairs in the covered outdoor dining/socialising deck area, commercial-grade washing machines and driers, all the back-office operations and accounting systems, all bedding linen and Manchester, and a cupboard full of spades for digging hole sat the famous thermally irrigated Hot Water Beach nearby.
Sammons says the backpackers business runs as a commercial “lifestyle” enterprise — staffed by an owner/operator full-time manager and housekeeper, supported by parttime housekeepers and cleaners brought in as occupancy levels demand.
“As with most accommodation businesses, Turtle Cove Backpackers tracks its busiest trading period over the December to March summer phase where the occupancy level regularly sits at around 82 per cent,” she says.
Latest commercial accommodation data from Statistics NZ for the Coromandel region for the year ending February 2018 show that visitor guest nights at backpackers were up 3.7 percent year-on-year to 80,690 bookings, with the average length of stay being 1.83 nights per venue.
Capacity in the sector remained virtually the same. Nightly rack rates at Turtle Cove range from $25 for shared dormitory through to $195 for a private six-person family room with ensuite, says Sammons.
“Turtle Cove Backpackers is in a fortunate location — the closest accommodation venue of its type to the commercial heart of Whitianga with the pillar retail amenities such as supermarkets, bars, convenience food outlets, and liquor retailers which backpackers frequently use during their stays.”