Noosa resort suffers Covid drop outs as Sydney has to call it a day on school holiday stay

Resort staff have been kept busy fielding calls from frantic New South Wales visitors either worried about their bookings or cancelling out.

Noosa Main Beach was eerily vacant last year during the height of Covid-19 restrictions.

Queensland’s ban on Greater Sydney residents crossing the state border has seriously impacted the chances of Coral Beach Noosa Resort putting up a full house sign over winter school holiday break.

Finola Thompson, who manages the Noosaville holiday stay, and her staff have been kept busy fielding calls from frantic New South Wales callers either worried about their bookings or cancelling out.

“We were full but we’re not full now,” Ms Thompson said after the Queensland Government shut the door on greater Sydney arrivals due to the growing clusters of Covid in Bondi and beyond.

“These were last minute cancellations and last minute cancellations are hard to sell.

“We obviously support doing what ever needs to happen to keep everyone safe, but does it create chaos? Absolutely … it creates chaos because everything keeps changing.”

Ms Thompson said her resort had taken up to eight calls from people from areas of New South Wales not in the declared hot zone, as well as Melbourne people concerned about having their holiday plans ruined by further restrictions.

“The calls are coming thick and fast – things keep changing and they’re uncertain, they just want reassurance,” Ms Thompson said.

Ms Thompson said her staff were contacting people who have registered on their waiting list.

“It’s hard to know if they will come, because Covid makes everyone nervous,” she said.

Seahaven Noosa resort general manager Alan Golley the Sydney closure had not had a major impact on his holiday bookings.

“Only about 15 per cent of our school holidays bookings are from Sydney but 50 per cent are from Melbourne, so we are really glad we can welcome back our Victorian guests from this Friday,” Mr Golley said.

He said a previous Victorian border closure had resulted in a $200,000 loss of room revenue at his venue.

“We are finding that most of our Sydney bookings are for week two of school holidays, so we have time to cancel them and get them resold,” he said.

“We have a waitlist of guests wanting to stay so we shouldn’t have much trouble filling the rooms,” he said.

Mr Golley said Sydneysiders his staff have been talking to thought they might still be able to travel next week.

“We feel the Queensland Government needs to be clearer with regards to time frames for border closures which help us to cancel interstate bookings and resell them,” he said.