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LEADING OWNERS: TERRY NGAN, CP GROUP
LEADING OWNERS: Terry Ngan
Director of Hotel Operations, CP Group
2022 WAS A positive year for CP Group’s 25 hotels in New Zealand as the country emerged from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic. Five of our hotels in MIQ (Managed Isolation and Quarantine) returned to normal trading in June 2022 but in Auckland this added room inventory (combined with other MIQ hotels) and lack of overseas visitors suppressed Auckland market wide hotel occupancy in the second half of 2022 to mid-60%.
Our Wellington hotels, like the overall market, achieved reasonable occupancy in 2022 and strong room rates due to major events and reduced hotel inventory. This trend will continue in 2023 after the new Takina Wellington Convention and Exhibition Centre opens in May 2023 benefitting hotels strongly for three years until the new SkyCity convention centre opens in late 2025.
Terry Ngan, Director of Hotel Operations, CP Group
Our Fable Christchurch hotel, like most hotels in Christchurch, benefitted greatly from the new Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre which opened in May 2022. This helped push market-wide monthly occupancy over 70% in the second half of 2022, accompanied by strong room rates. The rebuilding of Christchurch following its devastating earthquake 10 years ago, including a new stadium opening in two years’ time, will ensure demand for Christchurch hotels remains strong. With no COVID quarantine restrictions in place for international visitors to New Zealand, all cities and regions will benefit from increased occupancies and room rates in 2023. This is essential to recovering significant cost increases in the hotel industry, particularly in payroll costs which have increased over 20% since 2019.
This visitor growth in 2023 will be supplemented by strong conference and event demand, particularly from the new Te Pae and Takina convention centres and the FIFA Women’s World Football Cup in July-August 2023 and final qualifying games in February 2023.
2022 was the first full year of trading for two of CP Group’s four hotels acquired in 2021, Fable Christchurch and Fable Terrace Downs golf resort, one hour out of Christchurch. These two hotels along with three other Fable-branded hotels in Auckland and Dunedin have helped Fable Hotels, the only dedicated luxury hotel brand in New Zealand, to earn a solid market reputation. CPG Hotels, the in-house management company of CP Group, now manages 13 hotels and 800 rooms – up from five hotels when the company started in 2015 – and plans to launch a new and exciting middle market brand in mid-2023 to complement its Fable brand.
2022 was a positive year for CP Group’s 25 hotels in New Zealand as the country emerged from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic
CP Group also announced in 2022 that it had entered into management contracts with Accor to manage three hotels – Tribe and Jo&Joe in Auckland and Hyde in Queenstown – after their refurbishment in 2023. CP Group rounded out 2022 with the joint acquisition of the 286- room centrally located Stamford Auckland and rebranding it to the luxury JW Marriott brand in December 2022, with a major refurbishment in 2023-2024.
Key staff challenges in 2022, staff and skills shortages and COVID illness, should hopefully be alleviated in 2023 due to New Zealand’s borders opening up to the return of overseas workers and international students, as long as work visas are processed by Immigration New Zealand quicker than has been the case in the last 12 months.
SNAPSHOT: CP GROUP
Year first hotel opened: 1995
Brands in the organisation: Accor brands (SO, Sofitel, Movenpick, Pullman, MGallery Novotel, Ibis); Fable (5 hotels run by in-house management company); and CPG (8 hotels run by in-house management company)
Current number of hotels and rooms (Globally): 33 hotels
Current number of hotels and rooms (Asia-Pacific): 28 hotels
Current number of hotels and rooms (ANZP): 28 hotels; 2600 rooms
Head office location: Auckland
