Vibe and Adina hotels open as lockdown lifts
The operator of Vibe and Adina hotels says school holiday bookings are beginning to build as it gets ready to open two new Melbourne CBD hotels within weeks of the pandemic lockdown lifting.
Like many accommodation providers, TFE Hotels’ plans for rolling out multiple new hotels across the country were upended by the COVID-19 outbreak.
It managed to open the Vibe Hotel Melbourne in April just as the full force of the pandemic hit, but postponed the openings of its Adina Apartment Hotel Southbank and Adina Apartment Hotel West Melbourne as the virus disrupted business.
Opening dates for the 220-room Southbank venue were pushed out to November 9 and the 99-room West Melbourne hotel to December 4.
Melbourne’s hotel industry is gearing up for an easing of border restrictions, but the CBD-based venues will have to overcome the lockdown malaise and travel restrictions on business and international visitors that are cruelling occupancy across the sector.
Both Sydney and Melbourne CBD hotels have seen room revenue slump three quarters on the year before.
TFE Hotels chief executive Antony Ritch is cautious about the sector’s immediate prospects, but points to a lift in school holiday bookings and strong visitation at regional hotels as leading the way out of an arduous year.
Asked how optimistic he was the industry will bounce back next year, Mr Ritch said: “It’s relative. The key is charting a course through next year to the years ahead.”
“Everything is about taking a long term view in tourism. The reason why we are opening the hotels and we continue to open them, is we look at the long term view.”
TFE will open another 241-room venue, under the Quincy brand, in Melbourne early next year.
It is also moving ahead with rolling out the Vibe Hobart in Tasmania later this month, a premium 130-room Adina product in Canberra in January next year and a similar 194-room venue in Sydney in March.
That will be followed by the Travelodge Hotel Hurstville, also in Sydney, in August 2021.
Mr Ritch expects corporate travel will take some time to open up.
Domestic visits accounted for around 80 per cent of the market prior to the pandemic. Hotels, including those in city centres, were now focused on soaking up demand from Australians unable to travel abroad.
“That’s a market that people are very focused on. But the balance is going to be the recovery of the business traveller,” he said.
Mr Ritch said people were hesitant to make bookings until they knew which restrictions were being lifted and where. “But we expect to see that ramp up nicely as we get through the next couple of weeks,” he said.
“Everyone’s working towards making sure the holiday season is going to be an active season for CBDs as well as regional locations.”
Melbourne and Sydney’s CBDs are “very reliant” on each other, Mr Ritch said. Because they were interlinked, they would feed into each other once restrictions were lifted in both locations. “The Sydney market has not had the full recovery it would have, should Melbourne have been open,” he said.
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