Over the next three years, Wyndham Hotel Group plans to add six hotels with about 500 rooms to its New Zealand portfolio. Following the recent opening of Ramada Hotel & Suites Queenstown Remarkables Park (in partnership with New Zealand-owned development and construction company Safari Group), six new franchised hotels under the Wyndham umbrella are scheduled to open by the end of 2019 across the country.
Two hotels in partnership with Safari are Ramada Suites Albany on Auckland's North Shore and another property in East Auckland. Another three properties being developed in partnership with Safari Group are in the pipeline and due to be announced soon by Wyndham and Safari Group. The sixth new hotel will be in Auckland in partnership with another developer.
In the last two years, Wyndham Hotel Group has opened four Ramada hotels in Rotorua, Auckland, Taipa and Christchurch.
New Zealand Trade & Enterprise Research published last month estimated an extra 26 hotels would be needed over the next decade beyond those already in the pipeline and under development. (Auckland alone was estimated to have a shortfall of more than 1,700 rooms.) The research was part of “Project Palace,” an initiative that will try to sell hotel projects to investors in Asia, the Middle East, pockets of the United States and Europe.
Head of capital at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, Quentin Quin, said in April that agency staff around the world are aiming to get a piece of an estimated $73 trillion in investment capital for the country’s hotel sector. "We've got major constraints in Queenstown, Christchurch, Rotorua, Auckland and we have had Wellington on that list as well, although the forecasts for future builds suggests the constraint will be unlocked," he said. Quit also said that staff in New Zealand were working with local groups and regulators to ensure proposals were "shovel ready" before being promoted around the world. Hotels, he added, could cost up to $200 million to build.