But most spoken to do not regret shutting, despite the flood not eventuating, and say it was a good evacuation "practice run" for the future.
Flood protection measures will remain in place in Queenstown's CBD, even though the lake continued to drop yesterday.
Heavy rain in the resort between 7am and 11am yesterday pushed the lake level from 311.362m at 6am to a peak of 311.4m at 9am, but by 7pm it was back to 311.360m, below the weekend peak of 311.480m.
However, it could be at least a week before the water drops below the danger level of 310.8m and the threat eases to lakefront Queenstown.
Steamer Wharf restaurants Wai and Finz Seafood and Grill co-owner Martin James said the two businesses had lost between $5000 and $10,000 after closing for two days.
He had decided to close and move all the furniture and equipment out of the restaurants on Thursday.
"We don't have the best flood insurance cover so when the council gave us the warning we thought we better get out.
I don't regret going because we have over $1 million worth of gear which could have been destroyed," he said.
"My thought process was if it did flood we would want to get back up and running as soon as possible, which we couldn't have done if our fridges and everything had to be replaced.
"So we thought `get out', so all we'd have to do after a flood was clean up and roll everything back in," he said.
Glassons manager Aurora Goodin said staff moved all stock out of the shop on Thursday night.
The shop stayed closed until yesterday morning.
She said she had not yet tallied how much the store had lost from the three days' closure.
If staff had been rostered on those days, they had been paid.
The company was happy it had been cautious.
"Luckily, the predictions did not come true."
David Anderson, of Anderson Outfitters, had closed from Thursday afternoon and reopened yesterday morning. He also had not calculated the loss to his business.
"It's hard to put a figure on it but it's enough to be annoying, especially coming into the shoulder season," he said.
Style and Grace owner Jan Warwick said she lost one day's business because of the flood warning.
Staff moved everything out on Thursday but decided to move back in on Saturday after the forecast improved.
"We are lucky it happened at a quiet time of the year but it will affect cash flow.
We are hoping to recoup our losses now by having a sale.
It's also a thank you to all the local people who helped out.
The town really rallied around," she said.
Pier 19 manager Diana Piecruschke said the restaurant had reopened on Saturday after closing on Thursday.
She was happy with how the QLDC had responded to the rising lake levels.
Mayor Clive Geddes said it was important to understand the lake was affected by the rainfall in the entire 3000sq km catchment.
"Wind remains the single greatest risk for the next few days [blowing the water ashore] and neither the council nor any of the business operators are removing any flood protection measures, other than to enable access to the shops and cafes etc."
Fine weather and only light winds are forecast until tomorrow, but rain and stronger winds could arrive on Thursday and Friday.
The MetService said a trough of low pressure in the Tasman Sea was expected to bring heavy rain to southern Fiordland on Thursday night and spread to northern Fiordland and Westland on Friday.
Forecasters said rainfall could hit levels in the ranges that would spark warnings.
They advised people to keep up to date with weather forecasts.
