SYDNEY HOTEL

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31004, 9 March 1966, Page 9

SYDNEY HOTEL

Maori Room Planned

Many of the international travellers to stay at the 450bedroom Wentworth Hotel which would open this year in Sydney would be New Zealanders, said the hotel’s sales manager (Mr T. Salisbury) in Christchurch. The hotel would cost £5 million.

Mr Salisbury said that 42 per cent of international bookings for Australian hotels were for New Zealanders. The percentage was increasing. To try to attract New Zealanders, Mr Salisbury has brought an elaborate model of the hotel to the Australia Week exhibition in the Horticultural Hall. "We would like to accommodate as many New Zealanders as can come across,” he said. “One of our functions rooms will be a Maori Room, complete with New Zealand decor, Maori art and artifacts. A main suite will be called the New Zealand suite. It will feature different aspects of New Zealand.” Mr Salisbury said rates would range from £3 16s daily for a single room to £5 8s for a studio double, and up to £l2 16s for a luxury suite.

The hotel would have advanced convention facilities to cater for meetings of up to 1800 people, with simultaneous translation of foreign languages, exhibitions, banquets and displays. Items such as cars and heavy machinery could be carried direct to the convention floor by special lifts. Mr Salisbury said that the convention floor was selfcontained with its own escalators and kitchens so the movements of convention delegates could not interfere with the comfort of other guests.