Under the weather? Blame the season

As motel hosts, we know only too well that the weather has a huge influence on our business.

When the sun is shining all is well with the world. Our guests are positive and happy to be away from the familiarity of home. When the dark clouds loom and it starts to rain, our guests become dour, depressed and high maintenance.

Over the holiday season, we watch the evening weather with great anticipation. If Jim promises good weather ahead, then our phone will start ringing.

Even our business travellers appear to be influenced by the weather. Good weather brings out positiveness and optimism regardless of the sales figures.

New Zealand Herald
Thursday August 14, 2008
By James Ihaka

If you're feeling cranky and don't give a toss about anything without quite understanding why, the miserable weather could be to blame.

Waikato University social psychology lecturer Cate Curtis says seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, is common during the winter months. Symptoms range from feeling low, lethargic and irritable to not sleeping, having difficulty concentrating and impaired memory. But Dr Curtis said those who weren't SAD-afflicted were often as likely to suffer mood changes with the awful weather.

"Research suggests that temperature, not being able to go outside, humidity, strong winds and stormy weather do affect people's moods and their cognitive ability, their ability to concentrate and their likelihood to help people," said Dr Curtis. "Arguably, it's related to things like boredom and being cooped up with the same people all the time."

Dr Curtis said getting outside - "particularly in the brief patches of sun" - could have an "immediate effect" on a person's mood, which could be bad news for the Bay of Plenty, Rotorua, Gisborne and Hawkes Bay, which MetService says should expect lower-than-normal sunshine hours this month and next.

In reasonably temperate climates, spring was often the time when people's moods picked up, although in summer things could sometimes get out of hand. "In really hot weather people tend to get more aggressive and violent, and that seems to be in part around their difficulty in controlling temperature but also around people being out and about with more interactions."