Hawke's Bay accommodation full muster for New Year

Hawke's Bay tends to see a sharp rise in visitor numbers around this time of year. Napier city during Boxing Day last year. Photo / Paul Taylor

The dams of lockdown travel seem to have burst as Hawke's Bay accommodation is well on its way to 100 per cent capacity at New Year.

Adrienne Morrin, owner of the Bay View Hotel and Holiday Park, said accommodation is filling up quickly.

"We're pretty full leading into New Year's Eve. By Friday, we'd be 100 per cent full I'd say."

She said the demand that this time was similar to last year, but this year's rush had come after a particularly quiet early December.

"The actual motel units and tourist cabins are full, its just the camping ground that's not, but that's generally the one that will full up by New Year's eve."

A vaccine pass is required to stay at the park, but she said she has only had two or three people enquire without vaccine passes.

Justine Seymour-Wilson, owner of Eskdale accommodation business Kiwiesque, said that their booking levels were "amazing" for New Year and beyond after a struggle with Auckland's lockdown.

Owners of Kiwiesque, Justine and Bayden Seymour-Wilson, are feeling better about their bookings as Aucklanders are free to holiday where they please over the New Year. Photo / Paul Taylor

"Auckland is where most of those bookings are coming from, so when they went into lockdown we kind of were in lockdown too."

She said that their accommodation was fully booked until at least January 4 and will be mostly booked out until the middle of January.

Clinton Posthumus, duty manager at the Crown Hotel in Napier, said the hotel was currently at 84 per cent occupancy for New Year's Eve, but will likely sell out beforehand.

"We have found there are a lot of last-minute bookings, people booking at the last minute on the same day."

He said business was definitely on the rise for the accommodation provider after lockdown, and will continue to improve into the new year.

"We had a few conferences mid-December that kept us busy, but it's picking up after lockdown definitely."

Paddy McCloskey, owner of River's Edge holiday park in Waipawa, said he had lots of bookings, which would have the park close to capacity from New Year's Eve.

"It's on par with what we saw last year, last year was up considerably from the years before, so we're seeing a trend of Kiwis holidaying in their own country because they can't go anywhere else really."

When Waimarama Holiday Park was called, an automated phone message said that from December 23 to January 12, 2022 the park was fully booked.

Zaina Razzaq, spokeswoman for Bachcare, said in a statement that less than 3 per cent of bach properties in Hawke's Bay were still available for New Year's Eve, and there was 33 per cent less availability than the same time last year.

According to the Bookabach website, only 1 per cent of its Hawke's Bay properties were still available over New Year's Eve.