It is five years ago this month when New Zealand Apartments launched their new concept onto the world-wide & New Zealand leisure travel markets. Since that time the collection has grown to 50 apartments in 30 locations and has expanded to also include 20 New Zealand Luxury Motels.

Origins

New Zealand Apartments was the brainchild of Anton and Jules Wilke. Anton had been involved in commercial tourism marketing for 14 years. "I could see a huge range of accommodation but there was little in the way of apartments in the product mix and certainly not a large collection like New Zealand Apartments. It also coincided with the development of some very classy properties in superb locations around New Zealand". With this in mind Anton and Jules travelled New Zealand and personally selected contemporary, modern and well located serviced apartments, with full kitchens and laundries, for their new collection.

Marketing Focus

The collection has been actively marketed to international travel agents at events such as TRENZ and through extensive sales missions to key markets such as UK, Europe, US and Australia. "We focused on the major travel wholesalers offshore selling New Zealand and backed this up with strong relationships at an inbound tour operator level", adds Anton.

An early challenge was to define exactly what a New Zealand apartment is to the global customer who has different concepts of what an ‘apartment’ is to them. "The majority of properties in the collection feature on-site managers, many of whom are Kiwi, are serviced and overall offer a more personalised approach", explains Anton.

Expansion

A new opportunity became apparent to Anton and Jules in the upper end luxury motel market. "We identified some key locations where there were no apartments and established relations with leading 4.5 and 5 star Qualmark rated motels," adds Anton.

New Zealand Luxury Motels was launched in May 2008 and features 20 motels in 19 locations. "The development of New Zealand Luxury Motels has meant we can offer our clients and customers a wider range of accommodation solutions," he continues.

Head Office

Both New Zealand Apartments and New Zealand Luxury Motels operate through a central reservations service from their new office location in Lincoln, near Christchurch. "This allows us to provide a ‘one-stop-shop’ for agents and consumers alike. They can book their accommodation nationwide with one point of contact, surety of rates and know the properties will meet the highest in quality", says Anton. As the complexity of the business grew, so too did the need for a software solution, which has been provided by Seekom.

There are five staff working for New Zealand Apartments and New Zealand Luxury Motels plus additional specialists support provided in the North American market. The parent company is a member of New Zealand Tourism Industry Association, Inbound Tour Operators Council and Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism.

As it reaches this milestone, the company is positioned well for the tougher tourism times ahead by focusing on quality and delivering to customers and clients.

For more information, visit www.nzapartments.co.nz or www.nzluxurymotels.co.nz