SOUTH ISLAND HOTELS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27563, 21 January 1955, Page 10

SOUTH ISLAND HOTELS

Wellington Visitor’s Comments

EXPERIENCES DURING TOUR

“Is the New Zealand Government more interested in getting tourists to New Zealand than in investigating the class of accommodation that tourists booking with them are getting?” asked Mr H. B. Riggs, of Wellington, last evening, referring to the conference of the Pacific Area Travel Association at The Chateau next month. Mr Riggs, who is in Christchurch on an extensive car tour of the South Island, was criticising accommodation he had been allotted in some towns through the Government Tourist Bureau. Scenery throughout his trip had been excellent, and accommodation and service had in some places been faultless, he said. But of other places he said: “The Government has no right to recommend such accommodation. They should short circuit those places rather than let overseas tourists think that is what we have to offer in New Zealand.” Mr Riggs said he had made his hotel bookings through the bureau early last year, and most were confirmed about June.

His trip through Westland, including Greymouth and the Fox Glacier, had been “grand,” said Mr Riggs. He considered The Hermitage far too old a place to deal with. Only one porter was available to deal with the baggage of busloads of people. Service there was, however, quite adequate, and the management did try to entertain their guests. At the Milford Sound Hotel this was not so. It was the most modern hotel in New Zealand, but the

management had a lot to learn regarding entertainment of guests in their spare time. “We spent four nights there and the only person who attempted to entertain visitors was the president of the Southland Automobile Association who was there. We ordered breakfast in bed when we were brought morning tea at 7 a.m A waitress asked: ‘what do you want,’ at 8 a.m., and brought the only choice—bacon and eggs—on a single tray at 9 a.m. Why were two trays not used?” said Mr Riggs, describing a difficult breakfast. “In the four nights we had pictures once, and were told by a member of the staff that it had been the only time in seven weeks. A picture of the Milford track was so old the colour had gone out of most of it.” Mr Riggs described how at Lake Wanaka he had been placed in an attic bedroom with one chair, but no wash-basin, and a window facing the garbage tins. Next night he was shifted to a room with no chair and no wash-basin. At Arrowtown he was in a back room with no blind and facing the toilet facilities for the bar trade. Dinner menu was stuffed marrow or cold mutton, but no sweets. “As far as catering for outside tourists is concerned that place should be condemned,” said Mr Riggs of his accommodation at Lake Manapouri. He said there was no hot water at times, and no electric light until nearly 8 p.m. He had stayed in bad hotels in Australia, but this was worse, he said. Invercargill and Dunedin hotels were all that could be desired. A leading Timaru hotel had offered him a back room, obviously a single room with a double bed and no room for his luggage. “The Government Tourist Bureau should have investigators checking conditions being given to their own customers. It seems that a person asking for bookings under a business letterhead can get better service than he can through the bureau,” said Mr Rig^s - •