The tourism sector is warning Auckland may run out of hotel rooms if big-name accommodation developments falter or fail.
The Park Hyatt hotel under construction in Auckland. Photo: RNZ / Tom Furley
Both the America's Cup and the APEC summit are expected to bring in tens of thousands of visitors when the city of sails hosts them in 2021.
A report by commercial real estate firm CBRE in March said there were an additional 3000 hotel rooms planned for the 36th America's Cup.
It said demand was likely to exceed supply during peak times, but additional capacity would be available through the likes of Airbnb.
Several developments are nearing completion with the five-star Park Hyatt Hotel due to be completed in June next year, and the So Sofitel is expected to open in November.
Last week, Hong Kong-based Sudima Hotels and Resorts announced a $65 million four star-plus hotel near the International Convention centre. That would add 200 rooms, and was expected to open in 2020.
Australian firm Ninety Four Feet also just announced it will build a $200m-$250m hotel with 225 rooms on Albert Street.
Its investment manager, Paul Burnaby, said the company would like it to be finished in 2021 in time for the APEC summit.
The country's tourism body, Tourism Aotearoa, said there had been a lack of investment in new hotels for more than a decade, but as the cost of accommodation had gone up so had the interest from developers.
While the America's Cup wasn't expected to stretch accommodation too much, Tourism Aotearoa head Chris Roberts said APEC would require every single hotel bed in the city at some stage.
"That requirement for that short period of APEC is for thousands of hotel rooms, probably more hotel rooms than currently exist in Auckland, so it is crucial that some of these projects get up otherwise we may run into a problem hosting APEC in 2021 if all these hotels aren't provided," he said.
But Colliers International hotels national director Dean Humphries yesterday said the constrained building sector would determine when the hotels would be completed.
He said most of New Zealand's larger construction companies did not build accommodation, which required a higher level of finishing skills.
There was also concern about the shortage of tradespeople and the cost of building supplies.