Christchurch Hotels to Reopen

New Zealand’s largest hotel group, Accor, announced today plans to open two of its four Christchurch hotels, which were closed following the February 2011 earthquake.

Hotel Ibis Christchurch
is the first hotel scheduled to re-open, with a target date of September. Novotel Christchurch will follow, with a planned re-opening date of April 2013.

Decisions on the future of Accor’s two All Seasons hotels in Christchurch are still pending as access, particularly to the Cashel Street property, has been severely restricted by on-going demolition work in the area.

“When we re-open the Ibis and Novotel hotels they will be effectively new hotels,” Regional Manager Zayne Boon said in a statement. “Both of the hotels were relatively new—the Ibis was built in 2007 and the Novotel 2010 - so they were built to very exacting standards and their structures received only minor damage during the earthquakes. The main problems were internal and required a complete re-fit of both hotels, so when they re-open they will have a very fresh and new feel to them. The heritage Warners Hotel wing of the Novotel had to be demolished, but the new part of the hotel survived the impact of the earthquake very well, despite being located right in the heart of Cathedral Square.”

Boon noted that Christchurch is currently facing "a critical shortage of accommodation," and that the re-opening of these hotels will help revive Christchurch’s commercial and tourist fortunes.