Opera House sleepover lottery
Want to spend a night away somewhere fancy? How about the Sydney Opera House?
Plans are afoot to introduce a lottery giving people the opportunity to stay one night for free in Australia’s most iconic building dedicated to putting on exclusive and pricey performance arts.
NSW Planning is looking at proposals allowing overnight guests to stay in six areas inside the UNESCO World Heritage-listed building.
These would include the harbourfront Utzon Room. The plan is to give it a temporary conversion into a “Danish-themed” boudoir. According to documents now being examined by state planners, the building’s Board Room and Utzon Room could house five guests for up to two nights, five nights a year. And the rooms could be temporarily converted into luxury suites with Danish-inspired interiors.
While the prospect of an overnight stay in the Opera House is likely to attract a lot of interest, the proposal has left heritage consultants underwhelmed.
Office of Environment and Heritage acting manager for conservation Katrina Stankowski was scathing in her submission to NSW Planning.
“Tourist-based overnight accommodation was not envisaged by the original design. It detracts from the primary function of the Opera House and it is noted that overnight accommodation for patrons is readily available at nearby hotels,” she said.
A spokeswoman for the Opera House said there were no plans to charge people for the stay.
“At this stage, it is not anticipated that we would charge people to stay overnight at the Opera House,” the spokeswoman told The Australian.
“Plans are yet to be finalised, but could include ballots, visitor experiences, competition prizes or promotional activities,”
Still, it could generate revenue in different ways. The partnership program at the Opera House now includes 11 major sponsors such as Airbnb, Google, Etihad Airlines and Adobe and the spokeswoman would not rule out the prospect of the Opera House negotiating something with Airbnb.
“Discussions with partners are commercial in confidence, but as indicated ... we envisage that some partners may wish to collaborate with us on the proposed overnight experience,” the spokeswoman said.
by Leon Gerttler, January 18th 2017
