In Brief: Hotels in Queenstown, Auckland, and Christchurch led New Zealand’s RevPAR growth in August, signaling strong demand in these key markets and underscoring the significance of location-specific trends for operators and investors.
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Queenstown, Auckland and Christchurch Drive New Zealand Hotel RevPAR Growth in August – Image Credit Unsplash+
New Zealand Hotel Performance Focus August 2026
August 2026 results showed mixed hotel performance across the country. National RevPAR increased by 10.2% year-on-year, with growth driven solely by strong performances in Queenstown, Auckland and Christchurch. Other key markets recorded either declining RevPAR or only modest year-on-year growth.
Combining our census supply data with occupancy and nationality data reported by HDNZ, we estimate that occupied room nights increased by approximately 5% year-on-year in August. Growth was driven by a 17% increase in international room nights, partly offset by a 1.5% decline in domestic room nights
Hotels reported particularly strong growth in room nights from Chinese visitors, up 41% year-on- year, alongside increases from visitors from the United States, Australia and a range of other international markets.
New Zealand Hotel Performance Focus August 2026