Motels also finding ’Games gloom'

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33443, 26 January 1974, Page 10

Motels also finding ’Games gloom'

The same “Games gloom" experienced by restaurant owners has also struck hotel and motel keepers; and out of 14 well-known i motels telephoned last evening, only one could not offer accommodation.

The rest had the same story: the number of cancellations is rapidly overhauling the number of filled units. “They’re booking out in their droves to go on tours and sight-seeing excursions; but they want to come back for the last two days of the Games,” said one motel owner. In a number of instances, too. guests were calling on a cyclostyied letter to support the late cancellations. Produced by an Australian travel firm, the letter claimed to quote the Games accommodation committee as saying that 24 hours notice was all that was needed for a cancellation. “These bookings were made months and, in some cases, years ago. You must plan for them, particularly for provisioning, and then you’re left with stock on your hands,” said Mr P. Diver, of the Gainsborough Motor Lodge. “We have 20 units here and a dining room to cater for

the 65 guests that fill the motel. That’s 65 meals a night and we’ve laid in provisions for that number,” he said.

“On the two nights since the Games started we hare served four meals on one night, two on the other,” he said.

He had only two empty units, but most guests seemed to be going out for meals, he said. When told of the “Games gloom” of restaurant owners. Mr Diver said: “Well, where are they all going then?”

The smaller hotels in Christchurch seem to have been hard hit too. Three of them in the central city' have been left with empty rooms, rooms which were booked through the Games accommodation committee. “Only a few guests want to come back for the closing ceremony. Most of them are booking out for good,” said the manager of one. “It’s chaotic. There’s been so many — um — muck-ups; that it’s not funny. From what I know of my own situation and from what I’ve gleaned from others in the business, more people will be losing money' than making it over the Games period,” he said. —