Will Brisbane Have Enough Hotel Rooms for 2032?

How big is the gap, exactly?

Two numbers define it. The State Government's own target is 14,700 additional rooms by 2032, and CBRE's probability-adjusted pipeline reaches 24 per cent of that. The longer target, Destination 2045, asks for 40,000 rooms. The pipeline reaches 9 per cent.

Property Council Queensland Executive Director Jess Caire put it in one line. "The demand is here, the global spotlight is coming, but the rooms are not."

She also made the point that this isn't a blip. "This is not a short-term dip or a construction hangover, it is a feasibility problem that is getting worse."

Why isn't anyone building?

Money, not demand. Occupancy is at record levels and room rates are rising, which normally triggers a building wave. It hasn't, because the cost of putting up a hotel has outrun what the hotel can earn.

CBRE reports construction costs for three-to-five-star hotels have risen close to 40 per cent since 2019, and forecasts a further 18 per cent across 2026 and 2027. CBRE's Head of Hotels Research Ally Gibson pointed to what makes hotels different from apartments or offices. They're capital-intensive, rarely pre-sold or pre-leased, and have to absorb every cost increase before they earn a cent.

Her summary of the year's supply: "Just one new hotel opened in the past 12 months — the Mondrian in Burleigh Heads. One exceptional property in three major markets."

What did last year actually deliver?

Where will the Games workforce stay?

Not in the same pool as visitors, and that's the part most coverage skips. ABC News reported in July 2021 that almost 48,000 rooms had already been secured across Queensland for the people delivering the Games — not only in the south-east but in Townsville, Toowoomba and Cairns, and including cruise ship berths and boarding schools.

Officials, media and workforce are largely accounted for. The shortfall is the commercial market that ordinary visitors book from.

How accessible are the rooms that do exist?

Barely. The Games Readiness report from Queenslanders with Disability Network and advisory firm Urbis, released on 17 September 2026, audited 170 hotels across Brisbane, Cairns and the Gold Coast — about 22 per cent of the market. It found roughly 2 per cent of rooms accessible in Brisbane and Cairns, and about 1 per cent on the Gold Coast.

Urbis associate director Kali Marnane set that against demand. "One in five trips in Australia are taken by travellers with disability or with some kind of accessibility need," she said. "That really demonstrates that there's a big mismatch between what we have and what we need."

Asked whether Queensland was ready to host, Marnane said the polite answer was "not quite". Her fuller answer: "We're ready in parts, but not as a system."

The same report found only 56 per cent of surveyed Brisbane accommodation providers could reach five or more Games venues by public transport within an hour, and at least four venues in Greater Brisbane couldn't be reached by public transport at all.

So can you book anything yet?

No, and you won't be able to for years. Hotels don't open six-year booking windows, and no official Brisbane 2032 visitor accommodation programme has been announced. Standard hotel inventory opens twelve to eighteen months ahead, which puts the realistic window somewhere in 2031.

What's worth doing now is narrowing the shortlist rather than chasing a booking. Which suburbs put you near the events you care about, what the transport actually looks like from each, and whether you need an accessible room — because on the current numbers, that last one is the booking that'll go first.

Frequently asked questions