No more room say hoteliers

Tourist accommodation providers in Whangarei have posted no vacancy signs for days when mid-week Rugby World Cup pool matches are played in town as demand for room soars.

Most hotels and motels are nearly packed to the brim, with hundreds turned away in the past three months.

Toll Stadium will host two matches - Tonga v Canada on Wednesday and Tonga v Japan on September 21.

For some such as the Settlers Hotel, all 52 rooms will be taken up by Japanese and Canadian players on successive weeks beginning today.

General manager Rick Codlin said they've had to turn away people because players would occupy all the rooms until September 22.

The hotel is getting used to sporting stars having recently hosted the Pakistan cricket team and South African Super Rugby franchise Cheetahs.

Tongan players will be billeted at Kingsgate Hotel on Riverside Drive where almost all the 115 rooms are fully booked from tomorrow to September 21.

Few rooms are available for that period but a spokeswoman said all should be sold out by the end of today.

All 21 rooms at Flames International Hotel in Onerahi have been taken up by Northland-based RWC organisers, some of whom will stay for three weeks while others for a couple of nights.

The Grand Hotel in central Whangarei, where the All Blacks team was named in 1987, has only eight of the 29 rooms to be booked.

"Requests started coming in from last year but demand has really cranked up in the last three months," administrator Di Butler said.

She said half the visitors were Kiwis and the rest were from overseas.

Most will stay for a night only, she said.

Sky Television crew had booked Avenue Heights Motel three years ago, said owner Allan Forrest.

He said hundreds were turned away for mid-week stays.

With only two pool games scheduled for Whangarei, accommodation providers hope visitors will head to Northland once the tournament finishes on October 23.

The Tongan team and management will be formally welcomed to Whangarei this evening in a civic ceremony at Te Manawa/The Hub in Whangarei Town Basin from 7pm.

Tickets are still available for both Whangarei games, but only the $32 for adults and $15 for children general admission tickets for the Northland Events Centre's grassed banks.