(1888PressRelease)
October 10, 2008 - Bachcare Ltd announced it has acquired Kiwigetaway.com and merged with Blue Penguin Holiday Homes to create New Zealand’s largest full service holiday homes rental and management company.
The new Bachcare-branded group now manages a comprehensive portfolio of more than 900 holiday homes throughout New Zealand. The extensive portfolio covers NZ’s most popular holiday regions including Bay of Islands, Coromandel, Rotorua and Taupo Lakes districts and Ruepehu in the North Island and Marlborough Sounds, Nelson, Queenstown and Wanaka in the South Island.
Leslie Preston, Bachcare founder and General Manager, says the partnership between these three leading players gives a strength and depth unparalleled in the New Zealand holiday homes rental market. Rental demand is high and growing each week, and in some areas demand for rental holiday homes is out stripping supply.
For property owners, holiday home rentals is a good option for those wanting to earn extra income in the current economic environment. Last year, Bachcare’s owners earned on average nearly $6,000 in gross rental revenue with some owners exceeding $20,000. And, in the current market where demand is high for rental holiday homes, Bachcare is currently inviting owners to take advantage of this opportunity.
Bachcare’s full holiday home property management service is different to that of booking only sites where the owner has to do all the work and manage email communications with prospective renters. Bachcare’s full service means the owner can enjoy the rental returns without having to do the work.
“We are finding more holiday home owners are choosing to rent their holiday homes to provide extra cash flow and help with rising interest costs, council rates, electricity prices and general maintenance. It’s a great option to consider. Owners can maximise their returns by renting through Bachcare and given our on-the-ground network of holiday managers, house investments are kept safe and well looked after taking the hassle out of holiday home ownership,” says Preston. And, the trend for renting holiday homes looks set to continue.
Factoring in petrol prices, rising airfares, and concerns over carbon footprints, people are choosing to holiday closer to home this season. Despite the economic environment, Bachcare is experiencing a 20% rise in forward bookings (like-for-like) compared to last year.
With over 20 years cumulative experience between Bachcare, Blue Penguin and Kiwigetaway, the new business group is ideally suited to help holiday home owners and rental guests enjoy NZ’s holiday homes.
“These are very exciting times for us! We can now offer many more services to our owners and more homes in a lot more areas for our guests to choose from, so everyone will benefit,“ says Glenda Mawhinney, co-founder of Blue Penguin and now a shareholder in and Director of Bachcare.
“As a booking only service, many of our Kiwigetaway owners were finding it difficult to keep up with the on the ground management associated with their bookings. Some owners were even blocking availability (due to their inability to service the houses) which limited their potential earnings off their holiday properties. So, we could see tangible benefits for our owners in Bachcare taking over Kiwigetaway.com with the full range of services they are able to offer,” says Penny Laybourn of Kiwigetaway.com.
A recent survey of Bachcare’s rental guests confirmed that staying in a Kiwi bach is by far the preferred accommodation type for holidays within New Zealand. “Rejuvenate, relax and re-connect,” says Preston are the key themes emerging from Bachcare’s survey of what holiday home renters love about getting away to a NZ holiday home!
”Its all about offering families and friends the kind of holidays and memories they enjoyed as children with their own Mums and Dads - sandcastles and barbeques in the summer, fishing and getaway weekends anytime throughout of the year or snow and log fires in the winter,” Mawhinney says.
For further information, please contact Leslie Preston on leslie ( @ ) bachcare dot co.nz or +64 9 361 1550. For further information on Bachcare, please visit www.bachcare.co.nz.
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