However, the company has no immediate plans to invest in its own worker accommodation.
NZSki chief executive Paul Anderson said about 100 beds were made available for the company’s employees this year. Many of those were rooms previously rented as short-term visitor accommodation through Airbnb.
About 45% of NZSki’s 900 Queenstown employees were new to the company this year.
In April NZSki advertised in school newsletters for home owners willing to house the accommodate seasonal workers for the winter.
Mr Anderson said the idea came after speaking to people "making quite good money out of Airbnb", but who were tiring of having three or four people in and out every week, and the additional housework that came with the frequent guest rotation.
"So I thought ‘why don’t you have one of our awesome NZSki employees for the whole season, make $3000 or $4000 and they can look after the sheets and cleaning themselves?’
"We really feel like the community came in behind us, saw the opportunity to help out and get some of those young people into good quality family accommodation and at the same time earn a few dollars themselves."
Those who offered to help included homeowners who were not part of Airbnb, but had spare rooms and wanted to "make a dent in the mortgage".
Last year NZSki resorted to providing subsidised accommodation in Cromwell and bussing workers to and from the ski fields, but only 15 or 20 staff took up the offer.
When asked, Mr Anderson said while the company was not looking to construct its own staff accommodation, it was involved in discussions with developers.He said there were about "half a dozen" developers who were "seriously looking" and building staff accommodation. As yet, he did not believe any had projects consented.
"Our preference is that staff housing, or worker accommodation, is provided by someone who really understands that business. They will do a more specialised job.
"It means that they can work with a number of employers and make sure they can achieve the scale they need to get it working for them."
Given the seasonal nature of Queenstown, the "heat goes on" in winter for four or five months for employers like NZSki to find accommodation for staff. Summer employees need accommodation for six or seven months.
The combined need could help developers "stitch together" a business case to meet the demand, he said.
