It seems to be a case of no room at the inn as Queenstown prepares to celebrate on New Year’s Eve.
Only a limited number of hotel rooms were available yesterday and many campgrounds and hostels were fully booked.
Queenstown Top 10 Holiday Park turned about 15 camper vans away yesterday.
Manager Lizzie Forbes said she also fielded about 50 calls from people trying to find accommodation.
"I’ve had to say, ‘guys, we have no space’. We are absolutely full across everything; cabins, bunk bed rooms, tent sites, camper van sites. We sleep anything between 220 and 250, depending how many people are in each camper van."
Millbrook director of operations Brian Howie, who is also Tourism Industry Aotearoa’s (TIA) hotel sector regional representative, told the Otago Daily Times year-on-year bed occupancy in Queenstown hit 100% or close to it over the holiday period.
Anyone without accommodation hoping to find a New Year bed in the resort would have to pay through the nose.
"Room rates will reflect the fact it is a peak time of year and demand is high. As always, there is a late flurry ... A lot of the rates these days are dynamically priced, so essentially the rate fluctuates dependent on demand."
A quick check online showed prices across the resort ranged from $550-$1150 for one night. General manager of Novotel Queenstown Lakeside Jim Moore said it had some rooms left but prices had gone up.
"New Year’s Eve is quite extraordinary in terms of Queenstown anyway and prices are definitely higher over that period because everybody is so full."
Hostels and campgrounds were also chock-a-block. Brett Duncan, managing director of Adventure Hostels New Zealand, has two hostels in the resort, one in Camp St and the other in Athol St.
Both were fully booked for the New Year’s Eve weekend, which he was not surprised about.
"We keep beds in hand for international backpackers travelling through last-minute. All these were sold in the last week; the rest were sold well in advance.
"It has very much been on a par with other years. At least at a hostel level, there are not enough beds in town and everybody is full. I would be surprised if there were any hostels struggling for occupancy in the Central Lakes [area]."
Mr Howie said more people opting to use airbnb was one way of increasing "room inventory" in the resort, but it was unregulated.
A government report, released in August, said Queenstown and Auckland hotels would not be able to meet demand by 2020 if occupancy rates continued to grow at their present rate.
