$55 million of hotel bookings confirmed for RWC 2011

A total of 230 hotels across New Zealand have received confirmed bookings valued at NZD$55 million for Rugby World Cup 2011 (RWC 2011), Tournament Organiser Rugby New Zealand 2011 (RNZ 2011) announced today.

“This is a great start and underscores the tremendous economic benefits the Tournament is bringing to New Zealand,” said Martin Snedden, RNZ 2011 CEO.

“It also underlines the foresight of the Official Accommodation Bank (OAB) we created two years ago. The OAB was set up to meet the Tournament accommodation needs for the teams, officials, and sponsors and to provide assistance to the official travel and official hospitality agencies bringing customers to New Zealand.

“More than 300 hotels across New Zealand decided to support the OAB initiative.

“During the last three months the OAB has placed confirmed bookings for approximately 109,000 room nights, using a total of 230 hotels. The value of the OAB’s confirmed bookings to date is NZD $55 million.”

The hotels that joined the OAB agreed from the outset the start that the minimum night stay applying to all OAB rooms would be two nights for all but the last weekend, when it increases to three nights. This compares well to other international tournaments such as Rugby World Cup 2003 in Australia where hotels in Sydney imposed nine night minimum stays during the knockout phase.

“The sales volume to date suggests that, in general, most prices being charged by hotels for what is a peak period are reasonable,” said Martin Snedden.

“We are confident that the free market will provide solutions so that hotels that are overcharging will have to reduce their prices or face the prospect of empty beds during RWC 2011.”