An accommodation provider north of Auckland has come up with and idea to combat dwindling booking numbers amid the coronavirus outbreak.
The owners of Orewa’s Kiwi Cabins have until recently been basking in a sizzler of a holiday season.
“We’ve had a great summer,” says Rainer Plank.
“We had so many bookings, 90 per cent occupancy."
But now the tide has turned with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic hitting business hard.
“Now we are probably the reverse of that. Next month, we are probably 90 per cent empty,” he says.
But he and wife, Deborah, believe they have hit on a way of minimising their losses while at the same time providing an essential public service.
“What about emergency isolation?” he says.
The couple say they have started to receive inquiries from travellers who need to self-isolate.
“These cabins really are ideal,” say Mr Plank. “They are individual, they have their own entries, so why not? They are a great place for families."
Case-in-point are the Wong family from San Francisco, who arrived in New Zealand ahead of the self-isolation deadline on Monday.
“It’s the responsible thing to do,” said Mr Wong of the family's decision to isolate anyway.
“We’ve been travelling, so we hope we don’t have the virus but in case we do we don’t want to spread it around this beautiful country that we love,” he says.
Mr Plank says his idea “can be done” and it’s an opportunity for helping people in the self-isolation dilemma.
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