CROWDED HOTELS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21999, 4 January 1935, Page 11

CROWDED HOTELS

BUSY FORTNIGHT ENDED

HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION

RACES AND ROYAL VISIT

Olio of the busiest seasons on record was experienced by hotels and boarding houses in Auckland over the Christmas and New Year holidays. In some cases accommodation is still heavily taxed, but with the end of the racing and trotting meetings many southern visitors departed for their homes yesterday and members of the staffs at the larger city hotels had time to breathe more freely. "From the number of inquiries we received we could have filled the place five times over," said the manager of a leading hotel yesterday. "We are booked out in advance practically every Christmas and, with the visit of the Duke of Gloucester in addition to the races, this year was no exception. Private sitting rooms, 1 am afraid, were almost an impossible luxury this year. They had to lie converted into bedrooms. So keen was the demand for accommodation that I believe we could have fitted out the lounge as a dormitory and filled it with case."

Most of the residential hotels were occupied by regular visitors. A few overseas guests had booked as far back as last summer, but others who arrived at Auckland the week before Christmas could only be given accommodation for two or three days in the leading hotels. Some were able to obtain rooms elsewhere, while others, who intended to make a short stay in Auckland before leaving for tourist 'resorts, suffered very little inconvenience. Another feature of the holiday season has been the booking for varying periods of furnished flats in the several large blocks in the city. The demand for this type cd holiday accommodation has been increasing annually and a city agent said yesterday that before Christmas his prospective clients h a d outnumbered tho modern furnished flats available.

One hotel manager commented on the necessity for more accommodation in the city. Ho pointed out that it was impracticable to build large hotels for a purely seasonal rush. However, the fact remained that with every succeeding Christmas an additional strain was placed on the existing accommodation. Signs were not lacking that the general tourist traffic from overseas was increasing considerably and, as this would mean more visitors over a longer period, the result would almost certainly be the building of new hotels to meet the city's growing needs.

"Tourist cruises are likely to prove invaluable in bringing more visitors to the country," he added. "It has been our experience already that many of the tourists who spend only a few hours in the country during the course of a luxury cruise decide to come again for a longer stay."