Wānaka’s largest holiday-home booking platform grows with Seekom

Wānaka Selection has the most impressive portfolio of any regional booking site in Wānaka, offering 85 high-end holiday homes and apartments to guests seeking luxury accommodation in the town’s awe-inspiring alpine surroundings.

She says Seekom is a trusted silent partner helping both businesses thrive with homeowners feeling supported and guests enjoying seamless booking experiences, she says.

“Seekom was able to cope with the growth of our business, and we’ve had massive growth, with the holiday houses we’ve gone from one property to 85 now.”

Timely support valued

Mandy says one of the highlights of Seekom for her is its ability to make a property visible and bookable immediately across various booking channels and online travel agencies when a new property owner lists their home on Wānaka Selection.

"One of Seekom’s best offerings to us is having people working for them that understand our business and understand our time restraints."

"Once we get photographs done there is an expectation from our owners that their property is going to be live and running on multiple websites immediately. Seekom are great at being able to onboard as we’ve grown."

Giving owners control

Homeowners love Wānaka Selection's homeowner portal, a Seekom tool that gives them direct access to view bookings and manage their own availability, without revealing sensitive information, Mandy says.

It also lets homeowners be aware of future bookings and make calculated decisions on rates depending on the performance returns they’re looking for, as well as making it simple for them to book out their own properties and enjoy them over prime summer periods.

“Additional offerings like the homeowner portal mean we're not having to deal with homeowner bookings and a huge amount of extra admin looking after not only our guests but also the house owner parts.

“For our business we have two clients for every property we’ve got. The homeowner is a client to us and without them we wouldn’t have a business, but also the guests – without them we wouldn’t have a business. The portal and Seekom help us offer good service to both.”

Mandy says she’s proud of how Wānaka Selection and Te Wānaka Lodge have developed over time, with the lodge operating as a family-run business for around 35 years, mirroring Wānaka’s growth as a tourist destination.

She says when she started in the accommodation-management business, Wānaka was the “poor cousin over the hill” to Queenstown, but now things have changed.

“We have our own unique selling points and our own unique story, and I think that has elevated Wānaka now to a really fantastic place in the New Zealand market.”

For accommodation providers looking to manage multiple properties or run a regional booking platform, Wānaka Selection demonstrates how the right accommodation-management software provider can help property managers flourish – just like Wānaka.