Pullman Quay Grand Sydney Harbour exterior EDITED 2

AccorHotels is reporting strong demand in hotel occupancy ahead of the AFL and NRL Grand Finals weekends with Melbourne and Sydney markets highly constrained at 89% and 98% respectively.

A limited number of rooms are still left to sell at the group’s Sydney Olympic Park precinct across 3-star to 5-star hotels which are expected to be at 100% occupancy on Saturday 3 October.

AccorHotels Pacific, Chief Operating Officer, Simon McGrath, said: “Both the AFL and NRL Grand Finals are always a major feature on the events calendar with our hotels reporting strong occupancy across the board.

“We are expecting a bumper weekend in Sydney with two Queensland rugby league teams travelling interstate for the NRL Grand Final, in what could be a possible first premiership for the North Queensland Cowboys.

The strong hotel occupancies we are holding are also being driven by the combination of school holidays and the Labour Day long weekend.

“The AFL Grand Final is always a major feature on the events calendar with our Melbourne hotels already holding 89% occupancy prior to the result for the West Coast Eagles on the weekend. Holdings have since shot up 50% versus last week and we expect to welcome an influx of visitors from Perth from Thursday.

“Having a local Melbourne team in the AFL grand final in conjunction with the game falling over a long weekend with the first public holiday on Friday should see the city hotels full.”

“While demand for hotel rooms will peak on Saturday night across both Sydney and Melbourne, and given the Grand Finals fall within the school holiday period and over long weekends, we expect our hotel occupancies to pick up over the next few days so guests will need to get in quick as availability is limited,” McGrath said.

James Wilkinson

Editor-In-Chief, Hotel Management