Industries, groups and businesses with insight into the region’s accommodation shortage are being called on to take part in a Hotel Demand Study.
Bundaberg Regional Council has commissioned the comprehensive hotel demand analysis following an initial AEC consultancy report which confirmed the need for additional short term accommodation options in the region.
According to the AEC hotel investment report:
• Despite recording consistent growth in visitation, visitor spend and revenue per available room there has been no new, branded, 4-star and above hotels built in Bundaberg since 1994.
• The demand for hotel rooms in Bundaberg is expected to increase from 458 rooms in 2022 to 1,600 rooms by 2032.
• This is supported by a projected rise of visitor nights in hotel accommodation facilities from approximately 292,100 nights in 2022 to 802,000 nights by 2032.
Tourism and Hospitality Services Australia (THSA) was part of the initial report development and will be in the region this month to understand the needs and requirements of stakeholders and operators.
Mayor Helen Blackburn said it was crucial the consultants gathered a broad cross section of feedback from a range of stakeholders.
“We want to hear from all relevant industries including tourism, conference and event organisers and providers and even corporate entities, businesses and investors,” Mayor Blackburn said.
“Areas like commerce, education and health can provide valuable insights into the demand for short term accommodation.
“Consultation will be held to gain a better understanding of our region by engaging with local industry, key stakeholders and hotel and tourism operators.
“The results of the study will then be used for hotel investment attraction which is a key advocacy area for Council to support our growing region and thriving tourism and hospitality industries.”
THSA Hotel Demand Study Consultation session
Location: The Bundaberg Multiplex Sport and Convention Centre
Time: 10 am – noon
Date: Thursday 20 February 2025
Register to attend here.
The last motel that was built is the Boulevard Lodge it is 4 star & was often full before COVID hit back when Best Western ran it. It was the case for many establishments we needed more hotels before COIVD. We will rebound from COVID properly in time & need more likely before the olympics. This study is at a time when we still see significant down turn post COVID so it might have poor relevance in a few years time.
What you need is Motels with more rooms. More Rooms makes them more viable. 20+ Rooms as minimum. It is very difficult to run a motel with only say 16 rooms at profit unless you are doing everything yourself.
Definitely need more quality hotels and motels in all price brackets (good quality budget), not backpackers.
Especially close to airport and railway station.
Motels should be added to areas where we don’t have them as priority. There is a number of motels Near the CBD & in West Bundaberg/Avocca that can service both the air port & train station customers but do remember a significant proportion of our visitors come in by road.
More motels in North Bundaberg to service rosedale road, Near wood-gate road to the South, near the new hospital, Kepnock & East Bundaberg to support the growth areas.
What about a conscious effort to bring back customers for the motels after COVID. A advertising campaign would show our area off not just to tourists but also prospective motel operators. If we do this it could accelerate recovery of our tourism sector.
Buy some TV add time or run a youtube advertisement showing off our attractions. Maybe newspaper articles in the Sunday mail or similar? Not just Rum & Turtles we have more tourism attractions then just about any other area of our size. Tourism in Bundaberg should be a gold mine but it isn’t the potential is all there.
Get the CBD rework, Cultural prescient & Hospital done improving our town so it looks better is the key to more tourists & reviving our City because we did have these plans if they were done it could accelerate us ahead of other areas in tourism. We should have done them over COVID while it was quiet but now is better then never.
Get building housing & apartments as well more people living here means more relatives coming to visit that will want to stay in our hotels.
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Connect Steptoe Street to the ring road this would be a great spot for a Motel. That could take advantage of Kepnock town centre & the ring road quick access to East Bundaberg.
Find a spot for the 10,000 seat stadium I’m sure many people would want to build a motel around it.
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Get the Matilda Motel to expand into the old Spotted Dog – Federal backpackers – Bundaberg relestate area. With onsite restraunt & car parking.
Get our local influences talking about what is new in our City & region. How many people who grew up here & left before 2018 know about HMAS Tobruk? or the New Hospital or the New Pool?
Keith Pitt is going to be ambassador to the Holy See in Rome. Name a Sister City in Italy & promote us to them. We would need to send additional people to Rome to do this…
Build them all near Bargara or in the city on the river bank, nothing needed nor wanted in Moore Park Beach
my opinion only
I work at motels often can we get a high end restaurant, gastro pub or tapas bar? Maybe it could be onsite at a motel.
The consensus of actual visitors is the food in Bundaberg is horrible.
Maybe get the former owner of Penny Lane or Les Chefs involved it would help so much.
I was recently under the impression that one was to be built near the airport..
Along time ago I saw plans to turn the rounds arcade into a high rise motel. It could be done in a way that keeps the charm of the arcade intact with a big stylish entrance & ground floor shop space. Could be a great way to rejuvenate the arcade.
Similarly there’s a huge building already built with the waling wall attached to it looks like the current owner is not going through with there remodel?
The only problem is parking…
We could easily add a few stories of accommodation on top of the exising pubs. Watch the night life & night time shopping that once graced our CBD & made it more successful return.
There’s a large piece of land next to Tomato Backpackers on George Street this would be a good spot for a new Central Motel.
We could open the old Finemore Tourist park or part of the old show grounds to being a motel?
@Frank Rutten
77 Room MVP Airport Hotel was announced in 2024 not built yet
56 short stay apartments as part of Bargara Golf Club announced in 2023 not yet built
4 star European style motel for Millbank announced 2022 not yet built
120 Bed Brothers Sports Club Motel announced in 2018 not built yet
9 story (reduced to 6 story) Esplanade Jewel motel announced in 2018 not built yet
There maybe an additional 27 rooms with 90 beds if someone buys the Grand Hotel but these are backpacker accommodation not 4 or 5 star luxury accommodation.
Problem is even with all of that built it sounds like they want around 800 more rooms.
It sounds like motel demand has returned to pre COVID levels & at those levels we do not have adequate space at present.
59 Enterprise Street is forsale it’s big enough for a large Motel.
78 Telegraph Road is near the ring road is for sale it’s ok for a smaller site.
95 – 97 Barolin Street would be a fantastic location – Half a block of land right near south side central.
105/5 Whalley Street Bargara just screams motel if you retrofitted the existing building.
For road travling customers you could also spice up Childers, Gin Gin, Woodgate, Elliott Heads, Coonarr, Moore Park & outer Bundaberg suburbs as well. It dose not all have to be in the more expensive inner city Bundaberg & Bargara areas. Cheaper to build could mean more options in terms of viable room configurations.
Somewhere like Woodgate could be a fantastic location for longer stays on vacation.
The motel I stay at is maxed out all the time. They need like 5x the rooms just for themselves & that’s without growth that should be happening very soon.
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There’s a huge amount of land on Johnstone street opposite Sugarland & The lawn Cemetery.
Perhaps rezoning more land as suitable for this purpose would be helpful. Especially in the areas where the motels are needed. Air port, CBD/train station, road entrances & growth areas.
@stephen_carney We don’t need them at Moore Park where theres no demand that’s for sure or even Bargara where theres an over supply just yet. It’s Bundaberg that has a tendency of overflowing. We end up with our overflow customers staying in Childers or by passing us all together.
Get the locals to have a Holiday at home. What you do is you go to a local resort, motel, a B&B or a nearby island & spend your money here. See our Tourist attractions first. You still get the proper time off as the motels & restaurants would take care of the chores. This would help support the local tourism sector.
I do this all the time take my partner to a resort or spar room for a weekend mini break.
Judging from the 29 page AEC report.
The occupancy rate is already above 2019 for Both Bundaberg & Bargara. It has been so sense 2020/2021. COVID down turn for motels appears to have been limited to 1 year in our region. Both Bundaberg & Bargara are over 75%.
Bargara has slightly higher occupancy but Bundaberg has over 4x as many rooms.
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Some motels will perform better then others & may already be full on a regular basis.
It’s clear that Bundaberg needs alot of motels but Bargara could be a massive untapped market. We could also use serviced apartments and bed & breakfasts. Customers seem to stay longer in apartments according to the AEC report.
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Once you add Bargara to Bundaberg we are out performing The Fraser Coast(Hervey Bay) with more rooms & higher used capacity but we are being slammed by Rockhampton with 1.3 million rooms(lower used capacity 63%) – Rockhampton benefits from having several inland freeways going to it.
Can we get a Shingle Inn? Gladstone has one. https://www.shingleinn.com/
If you hury up with Building the Level 5 hospital there is buildings on the base hospital that could be of use for accommodation.
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How about a proper resort like The Aquis in Carins it’s going to be built on old sugar cane farms & Employ 20,000 people. Maybe it could be scaled down abit or done in sections to speed up availability of rooms.
Put in for a Uni & Tafe upgrade traveling students could help fill the motels. Time our education offerings competed properly with other Cities.
Have you guys ever thought about calling some chains & asking them or asking a well off local if they would build? You can always lease hold a motel out to someone else to run it for you or hire managers & staff.
I don’t know about motels but we had Sunshine Miter10, Rashays & Oporto because I asked. It took only a few minuets on the phone.
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At the very least you could try calling all the motels in HerveyBay & Rockhamption & see if any of them want to try trading in Bundaberg. Start with Peppers.
Regional Buisness HQ on Quay St. is up for sale (Lot 28 B1583 and Lot 2 RP104433). Add Lot 1 SP339386 and you have over 2,000m square with street access to all sides. My discussions a number years ago with Council had Council supporting in principle a 10 storey building (noting a limit of 9 stories at the time), three levels of underground carpark, retail/hospitatlity/professional businesses on ground floor, conference center in first floor, five levels hotel accommodation, three levels of permanent accommodation at the top. All servcies were run from the top as the building (and CBD) came with 600mm of flooding in 2013.