INFLUX OF VISITORS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18708, 14 May 1924, Page 10

INFLUX OF VISITORS.

ACCOMMODATION OVERTAXED : ~V'f ; < : - : •v:; : : SHAKEDOWNS AT PREMIUM. s.wv/ j ;/:« •<*'■* & 7 • ;... • f-. I.••• ■ 1 ■■ " ' ' ' ' J"' ■'".• •.;. EVEN KITCHEN" UTILISED. The influx of. visitors to the city to view tha British Service Squadron has caused some embarrassment to. hotel and boarding house proprietors, Many of the more ' centrally-situated private and public hotels were* fully taxed as to accommodation v yesterday, and in several cases people were being turned away. '

"I only wish I knew some other places which would take ; them," declared the proprietor of a well-known private hotel when alluding to the peoplu he had sent away disappointed. 7 " The look on their faces when they are , told we haven't a single bed ■is so forlorn that it is . hard to 'turn them away." He estimated that he had turned quite 100 people away sinco the beginning of the week-end, and was still besieged. ' On the other band, a 'few hotels had limited accommodation available, in spme cases for men only. It is obvious that women are > finding. the problem of accommodation more difficult than men. v . At one boarding house several visitors from the country, desperate after an unavailing search for beds, sought permission to sleep, in the kitchen for the night. There being no, beds available, and not wishing to turn the weary travellers away, the manageress consented to the request and the visitors (spent the nighv on shakedowns near the cooking range. The proprietor of the private hotel be-fore-mentioned, stated that early yesterday morning 20 people, who had arrived by train and steamer, were waiting at his office on the off chance of getting beds for the night. IBy 10.15 a A m. every bed in the house was taken, Including a number of shakedowns in the ladies' sitting room and the men's smoke room. Ever since the beginning of. the week-end, ha said, a certain number of men had been accommodated in the smoke room and » number of ladies in the sitting room. Beds were made up in these rooms at 9.30 p.m., and were. ready at 10 p.m. Some inconvenience was entailed for the visitors owing to the fact that they were obliged to rise at 6 a.m., to enable the rooms to be cleaned and straightened for the day. • This proprietor stated that ho hud never known a greater rush for accommodation in such a short space of time. Booking for Fleet Week, he said, had commenced as far back as Easter.