Rottnest Island accommodation sells out over Christmas after frenzy over online bookings

Eager holidaymakers have all-but stripped Rottnest Island of all its Christmas accommodation, with barely a single spot available with eight months to go.

Desperate travellers were forced to sit in lengthy virtual queues, along with thousands of others, on the island’s website yesterday after the Rottnest Island Authority officially opened for Christmas bookings.

Once people finally got through, almost every chalet, bungalow, cabin and camping spot was booked out for December.

On key dates, including Christmas eve and Christmas Day and the entire period from December 27 to the 31, are completely booked out.

All that remains on Boxing Day is a single camping spot.

A Rottnest Island Authority spokesperson confirmed 1444 bookings were made yesterday — a three-fold increase on last Christmas.

A technical fail on the island’s website yesterday added to the woes for some travellers. A spokesperson from Rottnest Island Authority confirmed there was a “small issue at the entry point” resulting in a 30-minute outage, causing the long queues.

The spokesperson added that there was always a high demand for Christmas accommodation on the island, and this year is no exception.

The Rottnest Island website has a long history of crashing during high demand periods. In 2019, major technical issues resulted in several outages, leaving visitors queueing for hours.

Holidaymakers will have their chance to score a room for January 2022 when bookings for the new year open on May 3.

The pandemic, along with the threat of further border closures amid further outbreaks, has made Rottnest Island a hot destination once it was reopened to tourists last winter.

In the height of WA’s lockdown, the island was used to quarantine international arrivals to keep them separate from the mainland.

In Broome businesses are also reporting extremely high levels of bookings.

Seashells Broome hotel general manager Deb Williams said they were fully booked.

“The last couple of months have been way busier than usual and we’re very full from now all the way to the end of school holidays in October,” she said.