New Zealand Tour Map Travel Blog » New Zealand Accommodation

B.Y.O Toilet Paper

Administrator — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:11:15 +0000

It is happening even in the best of New Zealand’s accommodation establishments. I’m talking about hotel rooms that don’t have spare toilet rolls. In these recessionary times I am increasingly finding rooms are poorly equipped with supplies. Forget the coffee sachets, who drinks instant coffee or Milo, but we all need to be supplied with more than half a roll of toilet paper?

The weekend trek to Dunedin delivered the same experience, a large one bedroom apartment style room equipped with a 40 inch flat screen television in both the living room and bedroom and a lovely marble bathroom…. supplied with half a roll of toilet paper. The concept of a half roll is creepy enough but no spare roll is terrifying.

Its been happening all over New Zealand of late. At first I thought it was a simple case of slack house keeping. As this was not the first time this has happened at this particular establishment I thought I should enquire about the lack of one of life’s essentials.

Apparently since the recession, guests are taking the spare rolls, all the tea and coffee and even the towels are on their ‘most wanted list’.

View your NZ Accommodation on the Internet

Administrator — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:44:30 +0000

Google has now added Street Views to their mapping of all New Zealand towns. This gives travellers the ability to view your potential accommodation prior to booking.

Many inbound travellers pre-book NZ accommodation using the internet and rely heavily on hotel websites. Disappointed travellers often complain that the accommodation is not what was offered on the website. Lake front can turn out to be across the road from the lake, Lodges can be glorified bed and breakfasts and walking distance to town can be many kilometres away.

Now using Street Views you can see exactly the property and the surrounding area avoiding disappointment and bypassing the often over hyped website descriptions.

Popular camping ground first of many to close over winter

Administrator — Thu, 15 May 2008 23:26:42 +0000

One of the South Islands iconic camping grounds is to close for the winter season.

Glendhu Bay in Wanaka is a popular camping ground for the winter ski season traveller and temporary ski field staff alike. However, the camp was losing money as visiting skiers and boarders increasingly chose to park on the side of the road in sleeping vans.

Many of these itinerant workers follow the ski season globally and choose to live in their vans by the side of the road. They then expect to be able to come into the camping ground to use the shower, toilets, kitchen facilities and waste dumping stations.

Glendhu Bays Ms Illington claim that it is getting worse every year. She often counts between eight to fifteen sleeping vans parked outside the camping grounds gates each night.

With the onset of the ski season local police are also preparing for the usual influx of temporary workers and itinerant ski/snowboard travellers. Crime rates greatly increase with these new arrivals.

Businesses in ski resort towns are already reporting the usual steady flow of itinerant hopefuls looking for employment.

Most real estate agencies have also reported that short term rental accommodation has all been let. Agents however report that there is an increasing unwillingness for home owners to rent their properties to ski season visitors.

Backpacker Wins 1 Million Dollars

Administrator — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 02:20:43 +0000

An Australian backpacker who arrived in New Zealand just two days before he purchased a winning lotto ticket now plans to upgrade his accommodation and travel in style.

The lucky tourist purchased the ticket in Christchurch and then immediately travelled to the Wellington Lottery headquarters to claim his prize.

He initially planned to get seasonal fruit picking jobs to fund his two month NZ holiday.

Fortunately with the high New Zealand dollar exchange rate with the Australian currency, his windfall still equates to $870 000 AUD.

Dodgy Lodges

Administrator — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:36:48 +0000

The tourist industry has once again hit out at the many New Zealand accommodation establishments that brand themselves as “lodges” or “boutique lodge” accommodation.

NZ has many wonderful lodges that have invested vast amounts of both money and energy to create internationally recognised accommodation. Huka, Kauri Cliffs, Blanket Bay and Grasmere Lodge are but a few of New Zealand’s internationally recognised five star lodges.

Unfortunately many “mum and pop” run bed and breakfast or home stay accommodation use the term “lodge”.

Many of these cottage industry type accommodations promote themselves heavily via the internet. Their websites show pictures of vast views, lake or river edge gardens that are often many miles from the actual accommodation.

The Tourist association feels that these types of accommodation are giving the term lodge a bad name.

NZ Tour Maps recommend visitors that are booking via the internet to research carefully your accommodation and look for the NZ Quallmark standard.

Internet sites like Tripadvisor can give web surfers valuable feedback on accommodation by travellers that have stayed at your potential accommodation provider.

If you would like to see the location of an accommodation prospect you can use our NZ accommodation maps to see their exact true location.

NZ Ski Report

Administrator — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 03:24:45 +0000

With the metres of snow falling on Australian ski fields and the scant amount that has been received in New Zealand, Australian skiers are staying home.

Ski towns are reporting a very average season with Australians notably absent. Accommodation suppliers are claiming below average occupancy rates which could be due in part to the high value of the New Zealand dollar in combination with snow levels.

Generally most ski holidays are booked in advance of the snow falling but it is the spontaneous travellers that often supply the top up to trade. These mainly Australian skiers have some of the best snow conditions experienced at home for ten years. This coupled with a NZ dollar at post float highs has clearly got many tourist business worried for the season

Visitor nights increase despite high New Zealand dollar

Administrator — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 21:36:30 +0000

Statistics New Zealand has reported that the total guest nights in short-term commercial accommodation has risen by 6 percent in May 2007 compared with May 2006. The trend in total guest nights has been increasing since January 2006 after a flat period that began in November 2004.

The May 2007, guest nights were 6 percent higher in the North Island and 5 percent higher in the South Island compared with May 2006. Eleven of the 12 regions recorded more guest nights, with the Bay of Plenty and Waikato regions showing the largest increases.

All five accommodation types had more guest nights in May 2007 than in May 2006, with motels and caravan parks/camping grounds recording the largest increases.

The May 2007 occupancy rate, excluding caravan parks/camping grounds, was 42 percent, compared with 41 percent in May 2006. Auckland and Wellington had the highest occupancy rates, and were the only regions to achieve occupancy rates of 50 percent or more.

The rise can be seen as significant when the tourist industry is struggling with the influences if a New Zealand dollar trading at 0.78 cents against the US dollar and at record highs against nearly all other currencies.

School Holiday Skiing

Administrator — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 05:10:04 +0000

The heaviest snow seen in the Otago, South Island area for many years as reported on previously, meant that the ski fields opened as planned. High winds after the heavy snow fall meant that much of that snow was blown away. Treble Cone and Cardrona ski fields opened with limited ski runs being available for the disappointed shool holiday crowds.

With 25cm of fresh snowfall over the weekend, Wanakaâ€™s Treble Cone has now been able to opened all runs. Operations staff worked frantically Saturday to prepare the Saddle Basin for opening that afternoon.

Cardrona situated on the mountains between Wanaka and Queenstown now also has all facilities open.

Accommodation providers in both Queenstown and Wanaka have reported full occupancy due to the combination of the ski season coupled with Australian and New Zealand school holidays.

Wanaka has employed a full time parking inspector to enforce via parking infringements, Wanakaâ€™s parking problems that plague both Queenstown and Wanaka at this busy period.

Parking in and around the central city area of both resort towns becomes almost impossible after 4.30pm although local rumoursclaim that the newly appointed inspector finishes at 5.00 pm

Accommodation Rates Remain Static

Administrator — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 22:48:51 +0000

The NZ Tourism Ministry’s latest figures showed international visitor spending had remained static at about $2900 NZD a person per visit. These figures have not risen since 2004.

Tourism New Zealand claims that raising hotel room rates is the key to reaching its target to boost international tourist spending by 6.5 per cent a year.

New Zealand Hotel Council chief executive Mark Oldershaw has further commented, claiming that “over the last 10 years, room rates have not risen more than $10. â€œThis increase is not even keeping pace with inflation,” he said. A focus on occupancy rates, rather than yield per room, and a discount culture to keep numbers up had generated a “downward spiral” in prices.

Many accommodation providers claim that the price sensitivity within the domestic customers are helping to keep prices down. Room nights remain the significant portion of annual business within many New Zealand holiday destinations.

Trust your Travel Agent?

Administrator — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 00:02:10 +0000

With Air New Zealand recent announcement of their online sales surpassing $1 billion in a financial year for the first time, it appears that more people are shunning travel agents.A recent guest to New Zealand told me an interesting story regarding travel planning and his experiences involving a large chain of Australian travel agents.

Before the advent of the internet, travel agents were the only way one could book and plan a overseas holiday. There are two methods that travel agents book accommodation in New Zealand for inbound guests-

1. Direct booking with the New Zealand accommodation providers. The agencies in return ask a commission of 30% from the property

2. Many agencies negotiate monthly minimum guaranteed room bookings. It works like this, the travel agent books X amount of rooms per month at a heavily discounted rate and agree to pay the accommodation provider for those room regardless of whether the agents filling these rooms.

Now in both methods the guest, in this case an Australian traveller, pays the travel agent for the full price or slightly discounted advertised room rate. The guest thinks that they are getting a fair deal, however in most cases the hotel, lodge or motel etc is offering the travel agents their lowest class of rooms. The rooms offered are those that the accommodation provider normally would sell last and at a discount. For example a lake front hotel in Queenstown has many non lake view rooms. The travel agent is aware of this but will highlight the â€œlake front 5 star nature at this wonderful priceâ€

Now back to our Australian guests experience. The guest in question booked a 14 day tour via the travel agent and was immediately pushed for a $500 non refundable deposit to get the wheels in motion. Our guest paid the deposit and asked for the luxury accommodation option advertised in the brochure. The agent informed the guest that this luxury option required a quote from the wholesaler as it involved 5 star hotels. The luxury option price came back at a extra 40% which the client accepted was fair based on his experiences of 5 star accommodation prices.

Here comes the hook or you could almost call it a con. When the client inquired about what hotels he would be staying at in New Zealand, the travel agent became vague and elusive. Naturally the guest became alarmed at this lack of information and continued in his quest for the hotel information.

The travel agent finally provided two of the seven properties that he would be accommodated in NZ. These properties were well known international brands that would normally elleviate any fear that an unsuspecting traveller may have. However, due to the battle he had to get this limited information, the guests suspicions where aroused enough to do a little internet research.

Armed with the hotels rake rate list of room types and prices, our guest enquired again with the agent as to what type of room will be provided. The classic travel agent answer was â€œsuperiorâ€. Mmm our guest thought as he recounted the advertised room types as â€œlake view ground floorâ€ â€œlake view 2^nd – 4th floorâ€, â€œ Garden viewâ€ etc.

More questions later and the response from the travel agent was the wholesaler can offer a â€œdeluxeâ€ level room at a supplement price. Well the guest was totally unclear as to what type of room would be provided as the agents room types did not match the room types specified by the hotels website.

Utilising his new found internet detective skills, he found that the additional supplement offered for the room type upgrade matched the difference between a “garden view” and a “ground floor lake view” on the website. From this he deduced that the luxury tour option included 5 star, but basic rooms through out his stay in New Zealand.

One would think that thingsÂ couldn’t get any worse, however the guest spent the day on the internet researching the cost of accommodation in all the towns mentioned in the tour. To his alarm many of the small towns that the tour “overnighted” in, only offered a handful of 3 star hotels. The agents ability to only provide the names of only two hotels now became clear.

The alarm bells were ringing louder than ever now, so our guest decided to cancel the tour and walk away from his deposit. He subsequently decided to use the internet and book the same tour route directly with the hotels. The room types were up scaled to include in one case, a lakefront junior suite. A â€œfull sizeâ€ rental car replaced the tour bus and the resultant price was over 20% less than the luxury tour quoted by the travel agent.

Not only was the price considerably cheaper, but the level of accommodation was markedly better than that offered by the wholesaler and agent. Is there any need now for the use of travel agents other than for very specialised tours?

My experiences mirror those of the Australian guests and those experienced with real estate agents and car sales people. Although in the case of real estate and car sales, you have the opportunity to see what you are purchasing before you pay the price