Winter chill comes early for Wellington hotel market

16th May 2025 By Staff Reporter | news@propertyticker.co.nz | @propertyticker

Wellington’s hotel market appears to be heading into winter early with a sharp fall in revenue per available room seen over the second half of autumn.

Figures from STR showed RevPAR last week was 20% down on the same period last year, with both occupancy and ADR falling more than 10%. 

In comparison with the week of 5-11 May 2024, Wellington recorded for the week of 4-10 May 2025: 

• An occupancy drop of 10.1% to 58.8%
• Average daily rate (ADR) down 10.8% to $184.31
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR) down 19.8% to $108.38

Only Queenstown over autumn has performed consistently above the same season last year, which augers well for winter if the snow is good.

STR collects daily accommodation data from 44% of all hotel rooms in New Zealand, including 70% of all rooms in Auckland, 67% of all rooms in Queenstown, 52% of all rooms in Christchurch, and 50% of all rooms at Wellington hotels.