Enlarged motel group plans hotel chain

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33096, 11 December 1972, Page 23

Enlarged motel group plans hotel chain

? (New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN, December 8. Associated Motels, Ltd, which operates the Logan Park motor hotel, I Auckland, and Vacation Motel, Ltd, will merge and establish a chain of medium-price hotels in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. The company will operate as Associated Motels, Ltd, for the time being.

The merger, which the new general manager (Mr A. Henderson) described as a move towards the establishment of a chain of mediumprice hotels throughout New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, comes after the merger last year between the

two Queenstown companies, Frankton Motor Hotel, Ltd, and O’Connell’s Hotel to form Vacation Motor Hotels, Ltd. This complex, which with View Motels, Ltd, provided nearly 400 beds in the Queenstown area, was under the joint directorship of Mr IJ. O’Connell and Mr Henderson. Vacation Hotels, Ltd, has now sold its interests to Associated Motels, Ltd, by way of a share exchange. This is to be accomplished in two stages and began last week with the purchase by Associated Motels of 51 per cent of the shares of Vacation Hotels. To complete the second stage of the merger, a meeting of shareholders of Associated Motels will be called early in the New Year with a view to increasing the capital of the company from s2m to ssm. Part of this increase will be used to acquire the remaining 49 per cent interest in Vacation Hotels. Mr Henderson said that when shareholders’ approval to the new issue of capital had been obtained, it was hoped to complete the merger by the end of March next year. Mr Henderson said that the new company would proceed with proposals for an additional 200-bed hotel on the site of the former White Star Hotel, Queenstown, which was purchased last year by Vacation Hotels, Ltd. Plans have been submitted to the Licensing Commission for approval. Vacation Hotels earlier this year applied for one of the two new hotel licences issued by the commission for the Queenstown area. Mr Henderson also announced that the new company was about to sign an agreement for the purchase of an existing accommodation facility adjoining the Te Anau waterfront. The present 26 bedrooms in the Te Anau complex will be extended to 50 bedrooms before Christmas of next year with plans for further accommodation to be added as the need arises. Mr Henderson said that the new company would be examining “many other areas” in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands in its bid to develop a medium-priced hotel chain.

Discussing future management arrangements, Mr Henderson said that he would move to Auckland in May to (take up the post of general manager of the company. The O’Connel family would continue to play an active part in the hotel business. Mr! Henderson said, while Mr B. Sheehy, of Queenstown, at present marketing manager for Vacation Hotels, has been offered the position of New! Zealand sales manager for’ the new company.

“Each of the hotels and! motels in the new group will! operate under its own name in the meantime,” Mr; Henderson said.

“But it is anticipated that we could use a group name such as Vacation Hotels in due course,” he said.