Tough time for commercial providers
It’s going to be a long, hard winter for Taranaki’s accommodation sector, a hospitality spokesman says.
The sector is nowhere near back to 50 per cent occupancy, Hospitality New Zealand Taranaki branch president David Stones said.
‘‘It’s been a very slow start for the accommodation sector in Taranaki. Motels are still struggling, (sales) reps aren’t travelling as much now.’’
While holiday home rentals are getting booked out for the long weekend, traditional motels and hotels are at 15 to 20 per cent of normal occupancy.
‘‘It’s going to be a long recovery for the sector. I’m hoping more restrictions will be lifted so people can travel,’’ Stones said.
Beach Street Motel Apartments owner Deb Tawa said they have had six weeks of zero occupancy. ‘‘Last week I got very excited because that jumped up by a 500 per cent increase, I had five people.
‘‘It’s pretty tough. I’ve seen a smattering of my regulars back.’’
But Tawa hasn’t seen any sales reps come through yet.
‘‘And we’ve had the odd booking coming through for Queen’s Birthday. Not a lot.
‘‘We’re very lucky most landlords have been pretty good and have come to the party with their lessees, so we could get our rents adjusted.’’
The biggest thing that will help the sector is regulating the
Airbnb and holiday home market.
‘‘Everybody is talking about staying local, New Zealand domestic tourism, but if people still continue to travel to Airbnbs, who are not regulated in any way shape or form, then the commercial providers are really going to struggle to come back from this.’’
She did not want to get rid of them.
‘‘We just want the same playing field. They don’t pay commercial rates, no public liability insurances, no rules, whereas there is around us. It’s one of the biggest things that will help our recovery.’’
Tawa has been in Labour MP Andrew Little’s ear a few times in the past couple of weeks.
‘‘The Government has done a wonderful job protecting our employees, but they haven’t given any help specifically to our sector apart from $4 million spread across all tourism.
‘‘As an industry, we are struggling, but hopefully people will start coming back.’’
Bach Break director Jo Bourke said 90 per cent of the 90 properties she managed were booked for Queen’s Birthday Weekend.
‘‘We are very pleased. Basically it’s exceeded our expectations when we opened up. We have good strong bookings coming in, almost fully occupied for Queen’s Birthday Weekend. I think it’s family visiting family in the region and domestic tourism – people wanting to get away for a bit of a break.’’
Going into lockdown, Bourke lost 95 per cent of bookings within 48 hours, but only about three of her owners were looking at long term rentals, she said.
‘‘Many of our clients are farmers who use their properties for family holidays.’’
Bourke was not opposed to regulating the holiday home industry, but said it needed to be sensible.
‘‘We believe there is a market share for all types of accommodation providers and that tourists should have a choice.’’