Diggers and Dealers mining conference sees a price of $10,800 for a place to stay in Kalgoorlie for 3 nights

Three nights in a holiday home for $10,800 may sound reasonable if it’s on the white sands of Tahiti or for a villa along the Mediterranean. But that is what you may pay if you want to attend an industry conference in a desert WA city. Situated in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder suburb of Sommerville, the four by three is one of only two options left on Booking.com if a visitor were to check in on the August 7 start date of the Diggers and Dealers conference and checkout on August 10 - the day after the conference concludes. The property has a garden, “offers access to a patio, free private parking and free WiFi” as well as a number of other features including “a flat-screen TV with streaming services, a fully equipped kitchen with a dishwasher and an oven”. But the house is too far from the conference venue to walk, so guests would have to arrange transport as well as the heft accommodation bill. On Airbnb there were 22 places available in Kalgoorlie over the same period. One of those — the most expensive of the 22 options — was the same home, advertised for $12,593. Kalgoorlie Visitors Centre manager Caro Smith said the hefty price was “crazy, but it doesn’t surprise me”. Ms Smith said the conference always meant that accommodation in town was always booked up and that Kalgoorlie had been in an “accommodation crisis for probably 18 months to two years”. “On any given day there is not enough accommodation in Kalgoorlie,” she said. Ms Smith said new mines and mining closures - which saw an increase in activity and temporary influx of workers - had been the major drivers of this crisis and that the only solution was to “build more accommodation”. “It’s a constant battle that really affects our tourism, because you just cannot get accommodation for people,” she said. The local tourism advocate said the demand for a place to stay in Kalgoorlie around Diggers and Dealers saw locals temporarily move out so that they could rent their homes. Ms Smith said the conference actually led to a decline in general tourism, as regular visitors — perhaps on a trip to see the Super Pit — were unable to find a place to stay.