Inside the five-star Pullman Rotorua

A former office building transformed into Rotorua's first international five-star hotel will open today.

The Pullman Rotorua has 130 rooms and will cater for growing demand for more comfort from leisure travellers and fill a gap in top end accommodation in the city.

Standard room rates start at $349.

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The hotel will have five accommodation options for guests to choose from and the initial cost of the re-fit was put at $11m when consent applications were lodged two years ago.

It will employ up to 100 staff.

General manager Richard Bungeroth said the shape of the building's interior allowed for many different room types with a variety of outlooks.

It was aimed at both international visitors - who are being encouraged to get to regional destinations across all seasons - and domestic visitors.

The former office building Arawa Street is owned by Stonewood Group, owned by the Chow brothers.

Co-founder of Stonewood, Michael Chow, said the finished development would allow Rotorua to keep up with international market demand for premium accommodation options.

Rotorua's tourism economy was last year worth $828 million.

Just on 58 per cent of that comes from domestic visitors. Of the 3.9 million visitor nights a year, nearly 950,000 were in hotels.

There is growing interest in the Rotorua hotel scene with the NZ Super Fund last year adding the Holiday Inn to its growing tourism portfolio.

The hotel will be added to the portfolio of a new investment partnership, NZ Hotel Holdings Asset LP, formed in July this year as a partnership between $45 billion NZ Super Fund, The Russell Group and Lockwood Property Group.

The Pullman Rotorua is the second of the operator's hotels in New Zealand. It has a hotel in the centre of Auckland and will operate another being built at Auckland Airport by Tainui and the airport company.

Pullman has 130 properties around the world and is part of Accor, which has 4900
hotels and residences across 110 countries.