23 April 2008

WA Boom sparks search for hotel rooms

A report in the West Australian says that Ffars that WAÃ¢â¬â¢s flourishing tourism industry will be damaged by the big shortage of hotel rooms has forced Tourism WA to look for buildings that could be converted easily to hotels.

The move comes as Perth is named the tightest Australian capital city for finding a hotel room, with the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data showing PerthÃ¢â¬â¢s occupancy rate has hit 82.5 per cent, outstripping SydneyÃ¢â¬â¢s 81.6 per cent and MelbourneÃ¢â¬â¢s 81.1 per cent.

The data for the last December quarter shows PerthÃ¢â¬â¢s occupancy rate was up 3.3 per cent in a year.

To meet demand, Tourism WA asked the WA division of the Property Council of Australia for a list of buildings which, even if old, were good enough to be renovated viably into three or four-star hotels.

But it will be hard for Tourism WA to then convince the owners to forgo rocketing rents for office space Ã¢â¬' up to $850 per square metre for prime space Ã¢â¬' in favour of hotel room rates.

Property Council executive director Joe Lenzo said one possibility was to convert older D-grade buildings as apartments. Ã¢â¬ÅâœInstead of converting them to residential, because we have got quite a number of apartments, they would be converted to hotel use,Ã¢â¬~ he said.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœIt is an issue we have to address over the next year or two or it will have a major impact on tourism.Ã¢â¬~

Hotels such as The Duxton and Rydges in the city are prime examples of how existing buildings can be converted into successful hotels. Mr Lenzo said that for 10 years hotel room rates in Perth were so low nobody looked at investing in hotel accommodation, resulting in the shortage.

Colliers InternationalÃ¢â¬â¢s sales executive for hotels, Greg OÃ¢â¬â¢Meara, said Tourism WA was marketing WA interstate and overseas to drive leisure business into the State but there was little accommodation for tourists.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœYou canÃ¢â¬â¢t find a hotel room to put your customers in,Ã¢â¬~ he said. Ã¢â¬ÅâœAnd sometimes it can be once bitten, twice shy, and if you canÃ¢â¬â¢t get them in this time, well, you will send them somewhere else, to Queensland or whatever.Ã¢â¬~

The hotel statistics reflected the strong state of the WA economy.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœThere is no office space, no car bays and no hotel rooms,Ã¢â¬~ Mr OÃ¢â¬â¢Meara said. Ã¢â¬ÅâœOur supply of hotel accommodation is still of a size such that a couple of significant conferences or a special event can max out the inventory of hotel rooms in Perth.Ã¢â¬~

Tourism WA acting chief executive Rick Thomas said though converting existing buildings into hotels was not a permanent solution, it might improve the situation significantly in the short term.

In the longer term, the increased occupancy levels in Perth was driving up yields, creating a climate ideal for investment.

by:The Mole