Queenstown’s bracing for impact this weekend, with empty rooms and spare tables at restaurants rare as hen’s teeth.
More than 12,000 people are arriving in the resort to take part in tomorrow’s Queenstown Marathon, being held for the first time since 2020, along with their support crews.
Blue Kanu owner Karen Hattaway says the Church Street restaurant’s been fully booked for this weekend ‘‘for months’’.
‘‘What happened, for us, from last year, people just rebooked — they got in and marathoners, I think, are very organised people … there’s just nothing, we’re jam-packed, it’s game on.’’
Good Group Hospitality chief ops manager Hamish Klein says it’s ‘‘all hands on deck’’ for their Queenstown operations, which include Botswana Butchery and White+Wong’s, the latter also opening this Sunday.
‘‘We are very excited … it’s going to be a big weekend.’’
Flame co-owner Lou McDowell says they, too, are completely booked this weekend, but, like many, is concerned about the challenges that lie ahead, particularly given predictions of a booming summer.
She describes the present situation as ‘‘bittersweet’’, given what the resort’s been through over the past couple of years.
‘‘You didn’t have the demand, and now you’ve got the demand and you can’t service it.
‘‘It was a Covid issue, then it was an immigration issue but … now it’s an accommodation issue.’’
Flame’s leased two houses to be used as staff accommodation, which is, McDowell says, the ‘‘only way you can get staff’’.
‘‘We have people who apply for the jobs, they take the jobs, and then they don’t even turn up because they can’t find somewhere to live.
‘‘Or, they turn up and they can’t find anywhere to stay, so they leave town.’’
Hattaway says she’s recently returned from Sydney and ‘‘there’s no staff over there, either’’.
She, too, blames a lack of affordable accommodation for the staffing issues in Queenstown.
The latest Real Estate Institute of New Zealand figures show, as of October, the residential median price was $825,000 — in the Queenstown Lakes that was $1.24 million. Hattaway says rents now run about $800 a week for a house and questions how people who service the service industry can afford that.
‘‘It’s just creating the perfect storm, unfortunately.’’
Novotel Queenstown Lakeside general manager Jim Moore says staff who’ve been living in the hotel since June will this week move to the former YHA hostel, on Shotover St, recently leased by the hotel’s owner.
Moore says this weekend they’ve opened up about 90% of their rooms — and are almost 100% sold out — but they’re being ‘‘a little bit conservative’’ in releasing the remaining capacity, to ensure staff can cope.
Lewers in talks with Airbnb
Queenstown’s new mayor’s meeting with an Airbnb rep next week, but says he’s open to any ideas for overcoming the area’s housing issues, impacting on staffing levels.
‘‘It’s affecting QLDC staff as well,’’ Glyn Lewers says.
‘‘We’re not immune to it.’’
Lewers says it’s virtually impossible to know how many homes, or units attached to homes, are being used for Airbnb, rather than long-term rentals for workers, but it’s in excess of 1500 in Queenstown alone.
The council’s twice tried, under the Resource Management Act, to limit the activity, with the goal of freeing up accommodation for the resort’s workforce, but ‘‘pretty much got told by the commissioners both times, ‘no’’’.
While he’s calling on the government to intervene and regulate short-term letting, Lewers also wants to hear from anyone who might have suggestions to overcome the issue locally.
