Lions purr in heartland Kiwi accommodation

Media Release

Lions purr in heartland Kiwi accommodation

British and Irish Lions rugby fans are using a popular camping app to rest up in rural New Zealand.

The CamperMate app connects tourists to campsites, farms, lifestyle blocks and other private properties. The app has been downloaded over 460,000 times and alerts 35,000 tourists a day to over 1,700 unique camping locations all over New Zealand, generating business for campgrounds, wineries, taverns and clubs.

Lions fans are using the app to find heartland hospitality all around the country, CamperMate founder Adam Hutchinson says.

The next major stops for Lions fans are likely to be Bay of Plenty and Waikato, with the Maori All Blacks squaring off in Rotorua on June 17 and the Chiefs going at it in Hamilton on June 20.

CamperMate only takes one booking for a single vehicle per night, which doesn’t trigger the campground regulations.

A host can decide their own nightly rate per vehicle, however it is important to be competitive, Hutchinson says. He suggests a basic parking space with no amenities is between $10 and $15 per vehicle.

CamperMate handles credit card payment on the app, which triggers an email to the host providing guest details.

Within a week, CamperMate pays the host 80% of the total revenue. The company manages the entire booking process and deposits the revenue directly into the hosts account within a week of a visit. CamperMate charges 20% commission to cover its merchant, booking and credit card fees.

Maureen and Colin Binns at Paengaroa in Bay of Plenty have listed their property on CamperMate as ‘Kiwifruit Country’, offering an archetypal slice of rural NZ for $15 a night, “surrounded by kiwifruit, avocados, sheep and dairy cows”. The driveway is fully booked for the next 4 nights.

Three weeks ago, the Binns registered with CamperMate, offering a wide concrete driveway and easy access to nearby nature, including morepork and kereru.

Tucked into secluded woodland, their seven hectare block about 16km from Te Puke and Maketu grows fruit, nuts and truffles. Half of the property on State Highway 33 is protected under QE2 covenant.

“The thing is we live in such a beautiful place. Family and friends come up here and really love it so it’s really great to show what we’ve got,” Maureen Binns says.

In the Waikato, Andrew Henderson is a truck driver offering private accommodation on a 1ha lifestyle block halfway between Hamilton and Cambridge. The property used to be a winery/café and now it’s registered as a private property on CamperMate.

Henderson has hosted a steady stream of Kiwi guests through the New Zealand Motorhome and Campervan Association over the past three years but recently registered with CamperMate to attract overseas tourists. He is offering to drive rugby fans to and from the Chiefs game at Hamilton.

Hutchinson says with freedom camping regulations changing, CamperMate is seeing an increase in the number of users seeking out smaller, unique spaces for use during their travels.

“As many of our users are driving certified self-contained vehicles, all that’s needed is an area such as a driveway to park for the night.”

He says CamperMate was developed to help visiting freedom campers find essential facilities near them, such as toilets and rubbish bins.

“The goal was to make responsible camping easier for tourists by providing them with reliable information on the go”.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment says the number of freedom campers has grown significantly from around 10,000 visitors in the early 2000s, to around 80,000 in more recent years.

Total spending by freedom campers has increased significantly to around $380 million per year, the ministry says.

The number of visitors peaked in 2011 likely related to New Zealand hosting the Rugby World Cup.

Excluding 2011, the number of visitors averaged around 15,000 since 2010. Total spend for this group is volatile, averaging about 50 million since 2010.

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