Permanent standalone staff accommodation is on the way for workers at the Novotel Lakeside, Kamana Lakehouse Hotel and Rosewood Matakauri in Queenstown, and staff at the other Rosewood luxury lodges in Northland and Hawkes Bay.

For just over a year, about 60 - half the workers at Novotel Queenstown Lakeside - have been put up at the local YHA hostel. ?

Novotel general manager Jim Moore said the offer of accommodation had been a game-changer in attracting and retaining staff.

※We were probably lucky we got the jump on [the hostel], as a few others would have liked it too. But we were able to secure it before a lot of people thought about it.§?

Before that staff had been housed in the hotel itself as the problem became more acute. ?

※We did that for probably about five months and then we knew that that wasn’t sustainable, and it wasn’t good for our staff and it wasn’t good for us, and the hotel was getting busier. So it was going to be problematic. ?

※So I went looking to see what options there were in terms of trying to find something and eventually came across the YHA.§?

That timing coincided with the border re-opening, which is when the director of the investment company behind the hotels, Tony Rose, said they started thinking seriously about a long-term solution.

※That’s when people in New Zealand were moving to work the ski season and then people coming in from Australia, so that’s when the long-term rental pool disappeared but then also the hostels are out.?

※And talking to people down there, the younger ones in their social media group chat or whatever, say ＆Hey, I’m coming down. I’ve got these skills or this job’, and the reply is, ＆Don’t come down here, there’s no accommodation’.?

※It’s out of control, but also we can’t wait on the council or the Government, and you’ve got to look after yourself, look after your own staff.§?

The location is almost smack bang between the Novotel and Kamana Lakehouse - Google Maps estimates a six-minute and five-minute drive, respectively. ?

Moore said other companies were starting to move on long-term housing options, realising the problem was not going away.?

※If you sort of looked around town, people are doing different things. I?know of at least one or two hotels that have gone off and bought houses, some of them bigger houses for five or six people, five or six rooms, and they using those as accommodation. ?

※Scenic hotel for one has bought a couple of properties behind it, and I think others are doing the same.§?

The plans, however, go much further than a large house, or a rented hostel. ?

※The Applicant intends to redevelop the Land to construct 54 new studio rooms to be used as accommodation for staff employed at the Queenstown hotels,§ the Overseas Investment Office decision reads. ※The development will enable the Applicant to attract and retain staff by providing a long-term solution to the shortage of staff accommodation options in Queenstown.§ ?

The $4 million purchase of 90, 92 and 94 Thompson Street in Queenstown is clearly a small price to pay in return for a guaranteed workforce. ?

Moore said that though the hostel solution had helped, it was only short-term and did not suit all of the hotel’s employees.?

He said the new solution was better, although it would still have its problems. ?

※Most owners don’t want to be the landlord as well as the business owner because it does come with its own set of challenges and problems, and blurs lines between people’s private life and their work life. ?

※So I think if we could avoid it we would, and we’ve always tried to do that in the past, but the situation in Queenstown got to the point where that was no longer working.§?

The company, Perfect Match Investments, owns other hotels in New Zealand under various subsidiary companies, including?the Intercontinental in Wellington and the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Albert St, Auckland.?

Rose said the company was working with staff to understand the best design plan for the accommodation. ?

He said it could be that fewer rooms were required if they were larger, or if more storage was required for workers’ ski equipment, bikes or other gear.?

He said specifics, including a timeframe for the build, whether the accommodation would be open to families of those employed at the hotels, or what the contract would state with regard to a notice period for those who finished their employment while staying at the accommodation, were yet to be worked out. ?

※Now we’re all back in the office we’ll come up with a plan.§?

The other application approved came from the US-based Waiaua Bay Farm Limited company. ?

Owned by Alexander, Julian (Spencer) and Julian (Jay) Robertson, sons of the late billionaire investor Julian Robertson, the plan is similar, according to the Overseas Investment Office decision.?

※The Applicant wishes to acquire residential property in proximity to each lodge to house staff employed at the lodges. The Applicant has faced difficulty attracting staff to the lodges due to the scarcity and proximity of rental accommodation in each of the locations.??

※The standing consent allows the Applicant to acquire up to seven properties across the three locations with a maximum area of 2.5 hectares each, for a total of 17.5 hectares.§?

It is unclear whether any purchases have so far been made.

Hotel Council Aotearoa strategic director James Doolan said hotel companies had been forced into acquiring property for their staff because local and central government had failed to put a sensible regulatory framework for short-term rental accommodation, such as Airbnb and Bookabach, in place.

※When properties are listed on platforms such as Airbnb, they are effectively removed from the stock of available residential rental properties, which in turn raises rents for permanent residents, including hotel workers. Short-term rental accommodation providers typically have much lower regulatory compliance obligations than traditional hotels, and provide much lower levels of service, meaning they create fewer permanent jobs in the community.?

※Unfortunately, a shortage of available long-term rentals is also having the effect of increasing hotel employment costs.?Some traditional accommodation providers have been forced to consider acquiring properties to house their staff.?Ultimately, the cost of these sorts of arrangements must be recovered through higher room rates.§

He urged local and central government to develop a better solution.

※[The Hotel Council] considers a better approach is for tourism industry stakeholders, local government and central government to come together and implement a sensible regulatory regime for short-term rental accommodation to help solve the underlying issue.?It may also be necessary to reconsider some of the tenancy law changes made by the previous Labour government, particularly if rental property owners want to be able to use their properties for periodic vacations.§?

Newsroom reported last year a large portion of Queenstown’s housing stock was not being used due to Airbnb-type operations and tenancy technicalities.

For example, healthy homes standards don’t apply to Airbnb, so landlords see an advantage in not having to pay to meet those requirements and can often make more money by renting for shorter periods of time than having a full-time tenant.