Eden Park B & B converts Rugby World Cup into tourism opportunity of a lifetime

An exclusive Auckland bed and breakfast which hit the headlines for its plans to charge $1600 a night during the Rugby World Cup is on the market for sale – after being booked out for the tournament.

Eden Park Bed and Breakfast is just a 200 metre walk from Eden Park rugby ground. It shot to the attention of the world’s media in May, following its plan to capitalise on the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand next year.

Following the publicity, an Australian tourism wholesaler negotiated an exclusive booking with the owners of the four bedroom Bed and breakfast – taking the upmarket accommodation venue for the entire period for an undisclosed price.

Eden Park Bed & Breakfast owners Anthony and Marlene McAnulty say that while the Rugby World Cup deal with the Australian tour operator was confidential, combined with other confirmed bookings in 2010-2011, Eden Park B & B now had “substantial” forward reservations and deposits in its accounts.

Anthony McAnulty said that as an unintended consequence of the immense media coverage, he and his wife were now taking the opportunity to sell up and head south - leaving the financial value of the bookings in the pot as part of the deal. All rooms at Eden Park Bed & Breakfast are booked out for this weekend’s All Blacks vs South Africa match at Eden Park.

“When we started fielding Rugby World Cup booking enquiries from the likes of Australia, Argentina, France and England as a result of the publicity; Marlene and I thought this would be the perfect time to sell, not only an immediate going concern, but also a tourism business with guaranteed earnings,” he said.

“We obviously had a long term business plan for the Eden Park Bed & Breakfast, but of course that never factored in the sort of turnover created by the Rugby World Cup. This is the sort of business opportunity which only comes up once in a lifetime.”

The couple have lived at the 231square metre residence for 22 years, converting it from a family home into commercial accommodation in 1998 – beginning with two rooms, and steadily developing additional rooms with en-suites over the ensuing years.

The premises – which sits on 562 square metres of land - is fully resource consented as both a bed and breakfast, and aged care home, and has an automatic sprinkler system operating throughout. The business is the number one ranked Auckland bed and breakfast on the website Trip Advisor.com, and has a 4.5.star rating under the Qualmark brand.

In addition to the commercial accommodation upstairs, the residence also has a private separate living area downstairs for the owner/operators. The stylish Victorian-themed rooms have a standard rate per night that increases every year.

Contracts with the inbound wholesalers and offshore companies ensures that a regular flow of international clients are booked at the property – which is 10 minutes drive from Auckland CBD and has train and bus services close by.

Eden Park Bed & Breakfast is being sold by Bayleys through an auction process, with the auction taking place in Auckland on August 4. Bayleys sales consultant Henry Thompson said that while it was unusual for such a property and accommodation business to be sold with such solid forward bookings, the venue also had enormous potential as the result of ‘piggy-backing’ off the upgrading of nearby Eden Park Rugby Stadium.

“The development of Eden Park is the start of a whole new era for the stadium, and in parallel, a high-end bed and breakfast such as this in such close proximity to the facility will similarly be entering an exciting new stage of its operation,” Mr Thompson said.

“For example, there’s talk of the Warriors shifting their home-ground status from Mt Smart to Eden Park. There’s also a lot of speculation that the New Zealand leg of the IRB 7s will move from Wellington to Auckland because of the ability to serve a far greater crowd capacity.

“Add in the new conference and function amenities being installed at Eden Park, and the wish of the new Eden Park Trust Board to double the activities at the new stadium, there will be considerably more activity going on around the facility than in the past”.

“That’s where the real opportunity and future for Eden Park Bed & Breakfast lies,” he said.