Hotels ready to ring in the new year as bookings soar

Luxury hotels in Sydney and Melbourne are filling up and some are already booked out.

Four Seasons guest services supervisor Olivia Blackley. Picture: Jane Dempster

Luxury hotels in Sydney and Melbourne are filling up this week and some are already booked out, as both Australians and overseas travellers look for the best glimpse of the New Year’s Eve fireworks.

Tourism Accommodation Australia chief executive Michael Johnson said despite some Omicron-related cancellations, the hotels sector was expecting a strong start to 2022.

“We would envisage that those prime location hotels would definitely be full for new year’s eve,” Mr Johnson said.

With hotels exercising a high level of safety protocols, watching the fireworks from the comfort and safety of your hotel room with harbour views is certainly the wish of many.

“It’s not a bad place to have a bottle of champagne and a cheese plate to welcome the new year,” Mr Johnson said.

While some five-star hotels on the harbour usually require a minimum stay of up to seven nights for bookings made on new year’s eve, many hotels have slashed the minimum stay requirement to just two nights.

“It has been relaxed to ensure that the domestic market can afford to stay,” Mr Johnson said.

One such hotel is the Four Seasons at Circular Quay which offers some of the best views of the fireworks across Sydney Harbour. The five-star hotel is completely booked out – even for rooms that don’t overlook the harbour.

For those staying in city-view rooms, guests have been given two tickets to watch the fireworks from First Fleet Park.

“The majority of our guests this year are locals looking for a safe, reliable place to watch the fireworks as the majority of our rooms have unobstructed views of the harbour,” a spokeswoman said. “Others will be travelling ­domestically to watch the best fireworks in the world.”

During the Delta lockdown, the hotel – which wasn’t a quarantine facility – had occupancy rates of under 20 per cent.

Mr Johnson said hotels across Sydney and Melbourne were operating at about 40 per cent occupancy outside of new year’s eve, and warned the industry was suffering from a workforce shortage.

“We’re going to see that problem for a while and currently with what’s going on with additional cases more PCR tests required, that’s having an effect on staff as well,” he said.

“It’s a difficult time, a really difficult time for our industry.

“We’ve still got a long road back to recovery, that’s for sure.”

After two years as the nation’s first line of defence against imported Covid-19, the nation’s top hotels are 80 per cent full ahead of new year’s eve and working to be a coronavirus-safe location for visitors.

Meanwhile, revellers who booked tickets to watch the fireworks on Sydney’s harbour foreshore through the National Parks and Wildlife Service are showing no signs of pulling out.