It's a concept that has been trialled in China and Japan and the $9 million, 271-bed hotel leased for 15 years from Christchurch Airport will be the first in Australasia. Jucy is paying for the $1 million fit-out.
Jucy was co-founded in 2001 by brothers Tim and Dan Alpe initially as a campervan company with its brand led by the 1950's pin up girl Lucy. It started out with 35 vehicles and now has 3,500 and has grown to a sizeable company by New Zealand standards with multiple interests.
It has since expanded into rental cars, a cruise boat at Milford Sound, coaches, hotels, and a new tourism app, Skoot, developed with Tourism Radio and Spark's app company Putti.
The app, launched last November, can be downloaded via a tablet on the dashboard or a smartphone and provides Wifi, GPS navigation, and geo-located information and offers as tourists drive around the country. It's now being trialled by a number of other rental companies.
Chief "Jucyfier" Tim Alpe said while he's wary of "biting off more than we can chew", he hopes Jucy Snooze will become a bigger national chain in New Zealand and to spread across the Tasman next year.
The 256 bed Queenstown hotel will be part of an existing building owned by local property developer Ian Hamilton on a long-term lease. Queenstown has had shortages in tourism accommodation over the peak season.
"Not many people build two at a time but an opportunity came up in Queenstown," said Alpe. "We see a real opportunity to create something unique and different."
The Alpe brothers always intended creating an international brand and have just opened an office on the Gold Coast, their seventh in Australia. Rental cars were added to the Australian business 18 months ago and it now has 700 vehicles.
We see a real opportunity to create something unique and different.
Alpe said the company's other big priority is expanding on the US's west Coast where it has 350 rental vehicles and offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
The market opportunity is huge and being based in the northern hemisphere also lessens the impact on the business of the winter tourism slowdown in New Zealand, Alpe said.
The company has so far been funded from its shareholders, with the two Alpe brothers owning 35 per cent each and their father 30 per cent.
Alpe said they no longer plan to list the company on the sharemarket though "you never, say never".
The improved performance of listed Tourism Holding was a good sign though if they did eventually decide to go that route, he said. In an investor update in April, THL advised it was likely to hit an improved net profit after tax of $24 million for the 2016 financial year and moved forward by a year its target of hitting $30 million in NPAT now in 2018.
Chris Alpe founded Maui Campervans in 1980 which later became part of THL, of which he was a director.
