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".
Note: Something you may not know is that we also build websites. Many of our customers have Seekom-built, self managed websites with full control, backed by our expert setup and support. If you’re interested in finding out more, please get in touch.
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How Seekom Helps Staff Stay Stress-Free at Spring Creek Holiday Park
Managers: Judy and Gert Theron
Running a popular holiday park is no small task, but Seekom’s property management system has made operations much smoother for managers Judy and Gert Theron.
Nestled just outside Blenheim, Spring Creek Holiday Park spans 5.5 acres with 74 campsites and 26 units, offering travellers a picturesque getaway in New Zealand’s magical Marlborough region.
A seamless booking system and efficient, warm guest communications are vital to the holiday experience, and thankfully Judy knows a good system when she sees one.
Judy says she immediately saw the value in Seekom’s software when she and Gert came on as the managers of the holiday park four years ago.
“The more you use the system, the more you get out of it,” she says. “Some users just use it for bookings, but you can utilise it for reporting, payments, and all your guest communications.”
One of the most recent Seekom features Spring Creek Holiday Park has implemented is SMS messaging, a tool that has quickly become an integral part of their day-to-day operations.
“We started using it in October or November, just after it launched, and now we use it every single day.”
From notifying late arrivals of their site numbers to sending gentle payment reminders, SMS messaging has transformed the way Spring Creek Holiday Park interacts with guests. Unlike emails, which can go unread while guests are enjoying their holidays, text messages ensure quick responses and seamless communication.
She says the park has found guests respond to SMS messages more quickly than email as a lot of people don’t check their emails regularly while on holiday.
Seekom’s PMS doesn’t just enhance guest interactions – it also frees up valuable time for Judy and her team.
“I can get things done quickly, which leaves me a little bit of time for a glass of wine in the evening.”
The system is also very easy to learn, which is essential for a busy team.
“It literally took me 48 hours when I first arrived, and I was up and running. And when I train my staff to use it, they pick it up really fast.”
Seekom plays a crucial role in keeping Spring Creek Holiday Park running smoothly, with three office staff regularly using the system.
“We are really happy with Seekom. You just have to get the right package that works for you, but when you do, it is really powerful.”
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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)
Seekom Quarterly Update | Q3
Seekom Quarterly Update | Q3
Welcome to the third installment of the year of the Quarterly Update. In this update, we will look at new features released in iBex, upcoming releases and some staff updates. If you have any questions please email them through to us at support@seekom.com
First up - the new and improved Image Uploader.
A full visual and functional overhaul has been applied to the existing image uploader, which allows you to upload your photos of your property and your rooms and units to the booking screens.
- Drag and drop, rearrange or edit photos to your property or room type - easy as click and drag.
- File size has increased from 10MB to 14MB - hello higher resolution!
- Ideal dimension specs detailing per image - lets you know if the image will fit the booking screen dimensions at a glance.
- Modern, fresh look with UX to make the process faster for you.
Seekom is almost 20 years old and in that time we have extensively developed iBex which started as a simple booking engine and has grown into a comprehensive total solution consisting of an integrated set of modules including:
- PMS
- Channel Manager
- Booking Engine
- Content Managed Website
- Interfaces to 3rd party products
Over time, technology changes and there are new, better and faster ways to do things. So we are now embarking on what we are calling the iBex Modernisation Project. The goals of this project are to:
- Improve user experience and intuition
- Modernise screen design
- Significantly improve performance
Some of the screens in iBex will be easily changed, some will require a new look at how we do things.
The iBex Modernisation Project (also known as version 5) will be ongoing for some time although we hope to make significant progress during the next 12 months. We have already delivered some of the new functionality as part of this project including:
- Dashboard
- Sales Report
- Booking Source Report
- Unit Owner Portal
- Image Uploader
- Housekeeping
You will gradually see more and more new screen designs which we will switch you over to. But we will retain the old screens for a while to ensure that no important functionality is inadvertently lost.
The next major update will be to the bookings calendar and backend bookings. This is a more significant enhancement and will provide not only better screen design but also considerable performance improvements especially for those customers with large numbers of units such as holiday parks.
We look forward to bringing these improvements to you as quickly as we can.
We’ve also had a few changes in staff that we’d like to make you aware of.
- Steffen has moved on to become a General Manager at a local Hotel. Adrian Roux who was our South Island BDM has since moved into this role.
- Jen & Asa have joined the support team, as Ronny has gone on maternity leave.
- Brook is now managing the Website Team to ensure Fully Managed websites and Hosted Websites get the attention they need to flourish.
Our front booking screens grow closer to completion each day. They are currently in the testing phase and are being evaluated before they can be released to a select group to beta test them.
If you’d like to be one of the first to get your hands on the new booking engine and help us beta test it, please get in touch with support and let them know by emailing support@seekom.com.
Our newest service - Google Hotel Ads, is in full swing. Take control of your Google My Business page and Google Map listing with the power of promoting your direct booking price above the OTA’s.
We’ve got all the information covered on our website which you can view by clicking here.
Millions of searches are performed on Google Ads every day, with Google releasing figures that Google estimates metasearch ads on their platform have a potential to reach over 1 Billion users per week, with 1 in 3 hotel queries start in Google maps and 1 in 4 hotel bookings start in Google maps for accommodation.
With Online Travel Agents already using this service to secure potential customers, why not take full advantage of the Seekom Toolkit and capture those potential customers by sending them directly from Google Maps or Google searches direct to your online booking screens, with instantaneous availability and rates.
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