FINDING A ROOM: Visitor guide Khloe Buckley has seen the accommodation pressure in the tourism sector first hand with having to put up tourists in her own home.

Christchurch's hotel shortage is so critical that at times visitor centre staff have had to put tourists up in their own homes.

Speaking to Christchurch City councillors at their monthly earthquake forum yesterday, Christchurch & Canterbury Tourism chief executive Tim Hunter said the major obstacle to the tourism industry's recovery was the lack of commercial beds in the city.

There were 20 tour companies that could not bring groups to Christchurch because there was no room to accommodate them and the city could not commit to hosting major conferences, despite having the venues, because there were not enough hotel beds.

Over the busy summer months it had often been a struggle to find visitors accommodation.

"We've had staff taking people home for the night because there was no room at the inn," Hunter told councillors.

Only 15 hotels were open in the city at present, although three more were due to reopen in the next 12 months.

Beyond that there were "no confirmed prospects" of any more re-opening, even though there were 20 hotels which were closed.

Khloe Buckley works for Christchurch & Canterbury Tourism at the i-Site Visitor Centre in the Botanic Gardens and knows all too well how difficult it can be to find visitors beds for the night.

Over the summer she spent a large part of her working days trying to find beds for tourists who arrived in Christchurch without any pre-booked accommodation.

She said finding beds for backpackers and budget travellers posed the biggest challenge and on one occasion she had resorted to offering a British couple her own home to stay in because she simply could not find anywhere else that could accommodate them.

"It was the end of the day and we had exhausted all the backpackers and the cheaper accommodation options. They didn't have a car and they were catching a bus the next day at 7am.

"They were talking about sleeping on a park bench so I went into the back room and called my flatmate and asked if she would mind if I brought two random backpackers home with me," she said.

The flatmate agreed and Buckley took them home. She cooked the couple dinner and dropped them off at the bus the next morning.

The couple were extremely grateful and have since sent Buckley an email expressing their gratitude and offering to reciprocate her hospitality if she is ever in England.

Buckley said on a separate occasion another colleague took home a young woman for whom they had been unable to find accommodation.