The receiver of one of Auckland's top hotels says belligerence by owners of the complex's rooms has cost 99 staff their jobs.
Nearly two-thirds of rooms at the Westin Auckland Lighter Quay Hotel on the Viaduct are closed for business.
The receivers, KordaMentha, and the owners had been trying to find a way to restructure the hotel business to keep the rooms open but negotiations broke down.
The owners bought individual unit titles on 114 rooms at the five-star hotel as an investment, but after not getting the rent they were promised, they put the developer into liquidation and went to court to get their leases cancelled.
Receiver Michael Stiassny says everything possible has been done to keep the hotel at capacity, by coming up with a deal to make the unit owners more money - but with 114 rooms out of action there was no option but to make the employees redundant.
For his part, the owners' representative, Graham Wilkinson, is blaming the situation on KordaMentha, saying that if the receivers had accepted the owners' offer to buy other assets at the complex, room closures could have been avoided.