Floating hotels and student digs: Solving Brisbane’s 2032 bed crunch

Berthed cruise ships, urban camping grounds and multimillion-dollar yachts could help counter an expected hotel room shortage for the Brisbane Olympic Games, with thousands of visitors set to descend on the city in 2032.

A Committee for Brisbane roundtable lunch brought together five industry leaders on Tuesday to offer some hotel alternatives, with the city’s waterfront set to have a major role.

Port of Brisbane executive general manager Brendan Connell said the “poster child” of medium-sized Olympic hosts remained Barcelona.

“They floated in 11 cruise ships around that time, and it was a raging success, to the point now where Barcelona is one of the leading cruise destinations in all of Europe,” he said.

“There is a lot of history there, there’s a model there, and it’s a really obvious answer to what’s going to be a short-term surge.”

At the 1992 Games, Connell said, cruise ships that berthed at Barcelona had about 1000 people on board. These days, they hold many more.

But Connell noted there were current constraints – the Brisbane International Cruise Terminal can only take one vessel at a time.

“We are at the Port of Brisbane – it’s not just the cruise terminals – so there’s a lot of quayline space where we could potentially fit more cruise ships,” he said.

“There is a huge opportunity there. It’s just something that’s going to take a bit of time to get in place, so we need to act now.”

Given that superyachts can legally only house a maximum of 12 people, industry chief David Good conceded his sector could not solve the problem.

But the 200 superyachts that he expected could make the journey to south-east Queensland in 2032 could help pay for the Games, with the Brisbane River expected to be prime real estate.

Good said he was meeting with Maritime Safety Queensland after the lunch to push for additional moorings, which could be used by recreational boaties when the Games were not in town.

“One [legacy] that we can measure is the value that these vessels and the crew will inject – it’s worth $1.8 billion,” he said.

“I don’t know what the total cost of the Olympics is going to end up being, but $1.8 billion is a pretty good payback from just 200 vessels.

“And the one [legacy] that we can’t measure is that these owners will be here and fall in love with the place and invest … No one can predict that that’s going to happen, but I can guarantee you, it won’t happen if they don’t come.”

UniLodge chief executive Matt Row said legislative changes to allow student accommodation to be used more broadly should also be considered, even as a temporary solution.

“We’re covered by the Residential Tenancies Act and that would potentially take some negotiation with the government for special dispensations during that time,” he said.

“But I think the biggest challenge is going to be realigning the university semesters to the Games.

“If we’re going to free up student accommodation, we need time before the Games, and time after the Games, to prepare the accommodation and get it back to its former state before we welcome students back.”

Camplify founder and chief executive Justin Hales, whose company links caravan and RV owners to would-be renters, said there were some constraints.

“We have some really good infrastructure on the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, but not so much in Brisbane itself – there’s probably only one, or maybe two, holiday parks here,” he said.

“We’ve done a lot of work with government on setting up temporary parks for events.

“The biggest opportunity is how you turn some spare space into a temporary holiday park for people to be able to park it [their vans] and access the city during that period of time, and knowing where transport networks are going to be, and where public transport is going to be.”

But perhaps the most obvious solution to room supply is short-stay accommodation.

Airbnb global accessibility lead Suzanne Edwards said about 400,000 people used the app to book accommodation for the Paris 2024 Games.

“You struggle for accommodation at the best of times, so to have more accommodation options, I think, is never a bad thing to attract more people,” she said.

Edwards said the 2032 Games could be the catalyst for many Brisbane property owners to rent out rooms, or their homes, on a more regular basis.

“If they’re making a little bit of extra cash, they’re then possibly plugging that back into the local economy. They’re going out for coffees more. They may be going out for dinner with their friends,” she said.

“There is a massive benefit from the economic empowerment opportunity of hosting your spare room, or your whole home.”

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