Seekom gives Kauri Court owners time to provide ‘Kiwi hospitality as it should be’
Owners: Neil and Amber Aitkenhead
Palmerston North has no shortage of places to stay. With dozens of accommodation providers competing for guests across the city, standing out takes more than a comfortable bed.
For Neil and Amber Aitkenhead, who invested in Kauri Court Motel & Apartments in 2024, the answer is straightforward: people matter, so be genuinely good to people and make sure the business’ systems run smoothly enough behind the scenes to let you do exactly that.
“Hospitality as it used to be, accommodation as it should be, that's Kauri Court’s tagline,” Neil says.
“We’re family run and operated and great hospitality is what we're all about."
Providing great service needs time and presence to deliver, so Neil and Amber are hands-on owner-managers; greeting guests, keeping standards high, and making sure people feel genuinely looked after rather than just checked in.
Neil says they pride themselves on taking extra time to ‘check in’ with people before they arrive, making sure they have what they need to ensure their stay is a positive experience.
None of that would be possible, though, if the operational side of running the motel was eating up the day.
The Seekom advantage
When Neil and Amber took ownership, Kauri Court Motel & Apartments was spread across three separate systems. They made an early call to switch to Seekom property management software – a decision made easy, thanks to the knowledge some members of Amber's family who own holiday parks around New Zealand and have long relied on Seekom to run them.
"Amber's family has a few holiday parks around New Zealand and they all use Seekom, so she knew how good it was," Neil says.
Now, bookings made through the motel's own website feed directly into Seekom, which updates room availability in real time across every listing channel Kauri Court uses – including overseas travel agents (OTAs). Double bookings can be a problem for operators on systems, Neil says, but with Seekom they simply don’t happen. SeekomPay takes care of payments. The admin that once required juggling multiple platforms now runs seamlessly.
"When I talk to other accommodation providers about the alternative systems they use, I'm both mystified and surprised at all the steps they have to go through. Seekom just makes it easy for us."
With the friction of accommodation management removed, Neil and Amber can give their attention to guests and the welcome that has earned Kauri Court Motel & Apartments such great guest reviews.
The motel offers something relatively rare in Palmerston North: genuine variety under one roof. Its 16 rooms span 12 executive studios and four multi-room modern apartments with inter-connecting options, making it well suited to visitors in town for events or special occasions, large family groups, sports teams, and business travellers alike.
The motel sits five minutes’ walk from the Esplanade and Manawatū River and 15 minutes’ walk from the CBD, including George Street and Broadway, two of Palmerston North's most popular dining and café strips – places Neil and Amber are happy to make personalised recommendations on.
In a city with as many accommodation choices as Palmerston North, Kauri Court's combination of personal service and room variety gives it a strong foundation. The right systems quietly reinforce that – handling the bookings, the payments, and the channel management so Neil and Amber can stay focused on what they enjoy most.
"We're people people. It fills our bucket to see returning guests to Manawatū, Seekom is key to our success".
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Seekom and Trees That Count helping NZ accommodation guests to give back
We’ve joined forces with Trees That Count to make it easy for Seekom properties to achieve their sustainability goals by supporting efforts to plant native trees across Aotearoa New Zealand.
Trees That Count is a registered charity in New Zealand that connects donations for native trees with experienced and passionate planting groups across the country. Seekom is supporting the initiative by making it simple for Seekom users and guests at their accommodation to donate to native tree planting if they choose to do so.
“We’re thrilled to champion Trees That Count to our users across the New Zealand accommodation industry,” says Seekom General Manager Nicole Irschick.
“This is a fantastic way for accommodation providers and guests to help offset emissions and contribute to the environment by planting a tree in New Zealand’s big backyard. Over time we’d love to explore similar initiatives overseas for Seekom users in other countries.”
While there are a variety of ways New Zealand Seekom users can support the scheme, one of the easiest and most powerful is accepting optional Trees That Count donations from guests when they make an online accommodation booking or check in at reception.
Seekom has created some easy instructions (see below) for users who want to set up a ‘Trees That Count Donation’ as an optional add-on for guests and staff to select during the booking process.
Once registered with Trees That Count, Seekom users can access supporter graphics to promote their involvement and keep track of the number of trees they and their guests have funded via a leaderboard in the supporters’ section of the Trees That Count website.
Trees That Count has the largest network of planting projects in New Zealand and accommodation providers supporting the initiative can decide which region of the country the trees they and their guests fund are planted in.
Every $10 donated funds planting of a native tree in a restoration project in New Zealand and contributes to the goal of greater biodiversity outcomes, cleaner waterways, habitats for native species, carbon sequestration and stronger, healthier communities.
Trees That Count at a glance:
- Every tree makes a difference: whether you’re funding 10 trees or 10,000, you’ll join the Trees That Count leaderboard and receive a supporter toolkit to help you spread the word about backing New Zealand’s environment. It’s a highly visible way to make a difference.
- Tax deductible: as a registered charitable organisation, all of your donations are tax deductible.
- Mitigate your CO2 emissions: Trees That Count has the latest science to calculate how many carbon emissions you’ll mitigate during the lifetime of your trees growing.
- They’ll do the work for you: Simply donate or gift native trees online, and they’ll get them planted for you by expert planters in a region of your choice.
- Flexible: Donate as you like, facilitate donations from guests using the Seekom online booking screens or when they check in, or set up a monthly donation so you can set and forget. You could even let guests know that if they decide to skip housekeeping for a day, you will make use of the savings on cleaning products and laundry to fund planting of a native tree on their behalf. Get creative!
- Put the tree-planting power in guest’s hands: Giving guests the opportunity to help plant a native tree during their online booking makes it easy for them to make a positive environmental difference during their trip away. Guests love to support accommodation providers that are championing sustainability and regenerative tourism.
- Trusted by tourism businesses: Trees That Count works with Tourism New Zealand and is helping tourism businesses across Aotearoa take action for nature.
Get started today. Sign-up with Trees That Count and find out more on the Trees That Count website.
How to: Adding a ‘Trees That Count donation’ option to your Seekom account
Step 1:
Make sure you are registered as a Trees That Count supporter! Visit the Trees that Count website and sign-up.
Step 2:
Decide how you want to donate. If you want to facilitate donations from guests, either when they book online or arrive at reception, you can do that in Seekom iBex by navigating to ‘Extras’ and selecting ‘Add Extra’. Just add a ‘Trees that Count donation’ option, describe the Trees That Count initiative and set a price of $10 per tree donated, with the option of donating as many trees as a guest wants to add.
Step 3:
Click save and check the add-on option is live and available to guests during the booking process. Example below:
Step 4:
At the end of each month, donate the money your guests have contributed, plus anything else you have pledged, via your account on the Trees That Count website.
General information about creating optional bookable extras for guests staying at your accommodation is available in our help section.
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Contact Us
4/234 Wakefield Street, Te Aro, Wellington 6011
Phone (NZ) : +64 4 974 9588
Phone (UK) : +44 20 3835 5939
Support: support@seekom.com
Websites: webhelp@seekom.com
Connect With Us
Copyright 2025 © Seekom Limited (NZ owned)