Hotel squeeze, rooms $1000 a night
Perth's chronic shortage of hotel rooms has pushed rates to more than three times the national average, with Tourism Minister Kim Hames confirming reports of some hotels charging more than $1000 a night for a standard room.
The scarcity of rooms has spawned anecdotal reports of tourists and other short-stay visitors hiring cars to sleep in.
While Perth's average hotel occupancy rate is 85 per cent - the highest in the Asia-Pacific region, according to local tourism officials - most city hotels are virtually full from Tuesday to Thursday.
Unless 2000 rooms can be found by 2020, economic modelling suggests a $660 million annual loss in potential tourism spending in WA.
In the past six years, only 223 rooms have been added to Perth's hotel market.
The shortage has prompted the State Government to develop incentives to encourage hotel developments, including yesterday's release of inner-city State Government land for a new hotel.
The 7350sqm site at 480 Hay Street comprises the former Perth Chest Clinic and FESA House.
The site, which will include bonus plot ratio incentives, is open to registrations of interest that will, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels' Aaron Desange, attract local and Asian developers who have been "circling for hotel opportunities in Perth's CBD for some time".
Other sites, including a section of Royal Perth Hospital, are being investigated for a similar use.
Dr Hames said Perth desperately needed more hotels because it was difficult to attract tourists to the State when there was insufficient accommodation in the capital.
He was disappointed that some hotels had chosen to increase room rates so dramatically, as price gouging would damage the reputation of the industry.
Australian Hotels Association WA chief executive Bradley Woods said he would be disappointed if local hotels were involved in price gouging, though there was no evidence to suggest they were.
In a report released yesterday, Deloitte Access Economics said Perth's average room rates were projected to reach $249 by the end of the year - a 14 per cent annual increase, more than three times the national average.
It said Perth's high hotel occupancy rates were being generated by the resources boom, with a high demand for rooms from "the resilient business market".
Source: The West Australian, 23 May 2012
