More Westin rooms to shut as receivership fight continues

The Westin hotel on Auckland's Lighter Quay. Photo / Supplied

The Westin hotel is "making the best of a bad situation" as a dispute between the owners and receivers of the hotel's management company rumbles on during one of its busiest booking weeks of the year.

The Westin is doing a fraction of its normal trade and has had to turn away several NZ Fashion Week guests after half of the hotel was made off limits earlier this month.

Owners are seeking to cancel the leases of a further 19 rooms at the five star hotel in the next two weeks.

Receiver KordaMentha has confirmed it will not be contesting the application.

Lighter Quay Management, the company that runs the Westin Hotel, fell into the hands of receivers in July after talks broke down between management and creditors.

Westin Hotel general manager Marcus Reinders said the dispute was frustrating but said staff were "making the best of a bad situation and working with it".

The hotel had managed to honour its bookings, but ultimately there would be people who would not have been able to get a room at the hotel, he said.

Reinders said he was not privy to those numbers.

Fashion Week director Pieter Stewart said the hotel had done its best to accommodate guests.

"We have certainly been able to accommodate most of our VIPs and the hotel has been able to accommodate those delegates that had already booked.

"Obviously they could have taken a hell of a lot more though," she said.

The $130 million hotel has hosted a string of stars since its opening in 2007 and is understood to be fully booked for next year's Rugby World Cup.

Owners' representative Graeme Wilkinson said the situation was a bad look for the country.

Wilkinson said the leases of another 19 units at the hotel are due to be terminated in the next two weeks, raising the possibility that more jobs at the hotel could go.

KordaMentha said it did not "at this stage" anticipate further redundancies as a result of the latest court application.

The hotel has apparently been running at a loss since it opened three years ago.

Wilkinson said the owners were also due in court next month where they would be contesting the validity of certain body corporate rules affecting the owners.

"Currently the body corporate has rules which give unequal voting power to the receiver and as a result the owners are unable to access their rooms.. The receiver has told us he's cutting the power off, cutting the phone off and cutting the television off."

"We will be contesting the validity of those rules and asking that the court see certain body corporate rules as ultra vires, or unenforceable," he said.

Michael Stiassny of KordaMentha said no-body had been denied access to their property.

"Mr Wilkinson has in fact inspected the rooms to satisfy himself that they are not being used by the hotel.

"Those services have been discontinued for the rooms the hotel no longer has the use of and Mr Wilkinson has been advised that the room owners are free to make their own arrangements in regard to these services."