The Best Bach Welcome Mat

Bachcare is more than just booking great kiwi holiday accommodation… it’s a full service, multi-location offering to guests and owners. For guests of Bachcare, the welcome mat is out. Holiday Managers greet you on arrival and they are on call throughout your stay should you require assistance, providing local knowledge to make the most of your stay. When it’s time to leave they can take care of everything and send you off with a “see ya next time”.
Bach owners enjoy a holiday home that is available when they want to use it, while rental exposure at other times is maximised through a listing on Bachcare’s own popular website, in addition to direct links to other top domestic and international websites. Owners have the security of knowing that their holiday home is in the best hands when it comes to being enjoyed by guests, cleaned and maintained. Bachcare prides itself on taking care of all the details involved with renting out and maintaining a holiday home, so that owners are free to enjoy ‘all the good parts’ of holiday home ownership, minus the hassle. Whether owners are simply looking to cover the costs of holiday home ownership, or seek to maximise their rental revenue, Bachcare can help.
Bachcare was founded over ten years ago by Leslie Preston, wife and Mum of two pre-schoolers. In the early years the two little helpers were her meet and greet team to make guests feel welcome. Leslie attributes some of the success of Bachcare to the support from her husband Stefan, enabling the business to grow organically with self-funding. Bachcare started with a small number of baches in Hahei and a very manual process of booking, looking after and providing accommodation to guests. Their first website went live in June 2004 and over the ten years since then, business has grown with close to 1,000 holiday homes on offer to guests within the North and South Island of New Zealand.
Gilligan Sheppard and their experience has been there for Leslie to tap into when she has needed it. There have been some teething and compliance issues along the way and Marion Garlick, Director at Gilligan Sheppard, has been a great resource to work with and help find resolutions.

Leslie is very good at forming her own opinions and uses
Gilligan Sheppard to challenge decisions, offer alternatives
or just to be cynical and play Eeyore.

Ten years on and expectations are higher, more capital, technical knowledge and growth is required to be leading edge. The bar has been lifted and Leslie has had a role shift from operational into drive mode.
In 2014 Bachcare Experiences was formed and has been successful with an innovative tourism project grant from Tourism Growth Partnership. Bachcare Experiences enhance guests experience with unique packages that include authentic kiwi culture opportunities – varied budgets to suit all ages and nationalities. This will create more brand awareness and emphasis their full-service kiwi holiday offering, and Bachcare along with Bachcare Experiences will become a serious player in a national and international market.
The grant application process wasn’t for the faint hearted and Rich Carey, Marketing manager, was key in helping with the steps required. Brainstorming sessions were held at the local café working out their offering and whether in met the grant criteria, plus making it attractive enough for the Government to jump on board. Once the coffee had settled the serious work began;

• Stage one – creating the proposal used resources for approximately three days.
• Stage two – the Business Plan used resources for a week
• Stage three – the presentation used extra resources for visual design along with flights to Wellington to present it

After this extensive, hectic and thought consuming process was complete, Bachcare had to wait six weeks for the announcement! With only six applicants being awarded funding, Bachcare was declared a recipient – this is a great achievement and one that calls for celebration and huge Congratulations to Leslie and her team!!
For more information and to check out who Bachcare is rubbing shoulders with click here.
To view Bachcare’s website click here.