A specialist fire investigator was assessing damage to a Queenstown hotel kitchen following a fire on Wednesday evening.
The Discovery Sherwood Hotel's kitchen sustained smoke and burn damage, manager Dave Philpott said.
Mr Philpott said because of the smoke ''everything has to come out'' to be cleaned.
Many guests were not affected because they had not been dining at the hotel.
Those who expected breakfast at the hotel were being catered for at the nearby Goldridge Resort.
The Discovery Sherwood Hotel is off Frankton Rd in Goldfield Heights.
After crews extinguished the blaze on Wednesday night, Queenstown Volunteer Fire Brigade station officer Duncan Fisher told the Otago Daily Times it was thought the fire started in a deep-fryer.
Mr Fisher described the fire as small but said it caused ''considerable smoke damage''.
If it had started in the deep-fryer it would be the latest of several such fires.
In September the ODT reported there had been six fires in four years throughout Otago, including the World Bar and Fat Badgers Pizza restaurant fire in Queenstown in May, involving commercial vats.
Specialist fire investigator Paul Glanville, who is based in Invercargill, could not be reached for comment.
