Conflict over motel charges

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32977, 25 July 1972, Page 1

Conflict over motel charges

A written assertion by a Christchurch motel owner that a minimum of $8 a head a night would be charged for accommodation during the 1974 Commonwealth Games has roused the ire of the Mayor of Christchurch (Mr N. G. Pickering) and caused the chairman of the Games accommodation committee (Mr D. L. Hogan) to invite himself to a meeting of the Christchurch Moteliers’ Association this evening.

The motelier wrote to an Auckland man, with a wife and three children, telling him that the minimum charge at all motels in the association (about 70 out of the 100 listed in the Christchurch area) would be $32 for four taking a unit, and that extra persons would be charged $8 a head.

A charge of $4O is almost treble the charge being asked in the motel at present for a family of five.

However, the president of the Christchurch Moteliers’ Association (Mr T. Challis) said that the motelier had got things “all twisted.” The association had merely resolved to advise the Games committee that prices in January, 1974, could be up to $8 a head for better-class accommodation.

Mr Pickering said he had been shocked and dismayed to receive a written complaint from the Auckland man, who had booked in his family in June last year, but had been informed by the motel last month that the charges had gone up. “He has been informed that it will cost him $4O a night for accommodation —a minimum of $8 a night a person—for the Games. That is $4OO for 10 days of the Games, without food, admission prices, petrol or bus fares, sight-seeing, and so on,” Mr Pickering said. ‘•Priced out” "This means that the average New Zealand family man will be priced right out of seeing the Games. “I am drawing the matter to the attention of the Prime Minister (Mr Marshall) and the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Kirk). Charges such as these could ruin the Games.”

The Auckland man, Mr D. Paterson, of Kohimarama, also complained to the chairman of the Games Organising Committee (Mr R. S. Scott), who referred the matter to Mr Hogan. Mr Hogan said last evening that the committee would not accept such a steep rise in prices. The motels were going to put on a special service, but that could not justify such an increase in charges. When a reporter telephoned one of the owners of the motel last evening, and referred to Mr Paterson’s complaint, the motel owner replied: “I have no comment

to make. There will be a meeting of the association tomorrow evening. I have no comment to make on the resolution of the association on minimum charges for the Games.”

Mr Challis telephoned “The Press” later to say that the motel owner had “got the matter all twisted.”

Mr Challis said that at a general meeting of the association, a letter arrived from the Games accommodation committee asking what

would be the approximate motel prices for the Games. “It was discussed for about 10 minutes and it was agreed —it could have been resolved, the secretary will have something about it somewhere—that the motel prices could be up to $8 a head a night,” Mr Challis said.

“Personally, I think the charges will be above that in some of the motels—up to $lO or $l2 a night. I am talking about the better-class ones, of course. We face a rise in rates and probably another rise in rates before the 1974 Games. Electricity is bound to go up. Some motels are charging $8 now.” He agreed that the motel owner involved offered firstclass accommodation.

A statement might be made after the meeting of the association’s executive this evening, he said.