About Unique Stays & Experiences
Background
Unique Stays & Experiences is a privately-owned New Zealand company, spearheaded by travel and tourism expert Louise Frend. The company offers a cost-effective, honest and personalised sales & marketing solution for Tourism businesses. We provide a platform and services to showcase exceptional New Zealand Tourism products to the trade distribution network both domestically and overseas.
Unique Stays & Experiences has been operating since 2007 and is well recognised and respected for providing a sales and marketing service to boutique tourism products. Our role is to assist and advise on how to navigate the travel industry to become export friendly and raise awareness of the operators we work for.
We understand through experience that many independently-owned New Zealand tourism products can struggle to gain awareness and traction with the international trade. Even owners of the most outstanding product can find it difficult to get cut-through with travel industry, at all levels retail, wholesaler and inbound operators.
Often, the international trade cannot make time to meet with and understand the offering of the small operator, and this is where the Unique Stays & Experience team comes in. There is a significant appetite within the industry to work with owner-operated Kiwi tourism businesses with definitive points of difference, providing New Zealand visitors with a memorable and fulfilling experience. Unique Stays & Experiences specialises in this area, helping to bridge this communication gap, and assisting our partners to deliver significant levels of business over long-term relationships.
The Unique Stays & Experience team provides support to complementary tourism products, giving them a platform to work together under a common banner to grow sales and profile. The Unique Stays & Experiences website works as a resource for Trade to download images and brochure copy.
Louise has worked in national and international tourism & marketing roles for over 35 years. She has working relationships with Tourism New Zealand, TIA, TEC and the RTOs around the country. She is well-known to the NZ inbound and wholesale operators and international trade partners in the key markets for New Zealand.
Unique Stays & Experiences now successfully represents multiple individual Tourism operators. Louise and her team take immense pleasure in assisting with the growth in visitor numbers to these businesses from the New Zealand and International travel industry.
What We Do
Unique Stays & Experiences takes care of your travel industry sales and marketing both internationally and in New Zealand.
Where it is difficult, if not impossible, for each product to work on this individually, Unique Stays & Experiences works to bring together a non-competing group and complementary selection of partners under the Unique Stays & Experiences brand. This allows us to co-operatively promote a group of high-quality tourism operators that together provide the consumer with an outstanding stay and a truly Kiwi experience on their visit to New Zealand.
Unique Stays & Experiences provides clients with a complete sales and marketing solution at a realistic and affordable price, through consumer direct and travel industry sales and marketing activities. Meeting with you regularly gives us real insight into your tour or product, best enabling us to provide advice on strategies that will provide success and growth. With our help and passion for what we do, you can be assured of consistent support and service.
The team at Unique Stays & Experiences prides itself on strong relationships with our clients. Louise believes that a professional friendship based on trust often develops, creating lasting successful, friendly and personal relationships.
Each member of the Unique Stays & Experiences team has extensive experience in sales and marketing roles within the tourism sector and a thorough understanding of the travel industry. We use our expertise to ensure that your product is getting the full representation it needs, both domestically and internationally.
We exist to ensure that New Zealand’s fantastic high quality, luxury, boutique and truly unique accommodation and key tourism experiences get marketed to the two main channels that can deliver you business – the travel trade and the consumer directly. We do this by building strong and trusting relationships between product and buyers, frontline sellers and the consumer.
We work with you to guarantee that your experience is well presented to the travel industry. Louise puts together an annual plan that is personally customised for each client, focusing on the growth of the business, primarily through trade channels. Both directly and through her team, Louise can also provide advice and assistance on all elements of marketing strategy for your business. We can also assist you in outsourcing elements such as social media, web builds, video and photography and much more.
Meet the Team
Louise Frend
Following 30 plus years of working in Hospitality, marketing and tourism, and six years working for Tourism Western Australia, company director Louise Frend established Frend Consulting. This combined her own skills with those of the amazing talented people she has worked alongside over her time in New Zealand. Louise and her partner Jeff bought Unique Stays and Experiences in January 2017, thereby fulfilling a dream of managing a suite of luxury and boutique accommodation and bespoke tourism experiences.
During her extensive career in the tourism industry she has built up an enviable experience in tourism destination marketing, product development and campaign management.
Louise worked in her youth in hospitality all around the world, quickly gaining experience in a variety of management roles whilst living in Western Australia. Based in Broome, she traveled Australia extensively promoting the Kimberley and Luxury Coastal Cruises, and studied at Notre Dame University. Whilst spending a year living and working in Fiji as marketing manager for a resort, she met her partner Jeff and moved to New Zealand in 2005.
Louise has provided a range of sales management, and tourism services for various clients, and has a wide and significant set of skills and a broad and influential network. She also enjoys excellent relationships in the industry. A natural leader with strong communication and management skills. She works with contractors off-shore to assist in her efforts to ensure her clients are kept informed and front of mind. As a team, we assure trade and clients alike of our continued dedication to your business.
You can contact Louise directly:
Phone: +64 (0) 21 278 9952
Email: louise@uniquestays.co.nz
Jeff Tieman
Jeff is Louise’s partner of twenty years and co Director of Unique Stays & Experiences. Jeff oversees all the “Bean-counting”, budgeting, invoicing and book balancing tasks. Essentially he does all the elements of running a business that Louise finds a little dull!! He is not all that keen on the Marketing side so together they are a great team. Jeff has 30 years of Business and Financial Management experience and a strong accounting background. He completed his Bachelor of Business back in 2014, and back in 2017 he became a fully-fledged Chartered Accountant. He keeps the books straight! His advice is also invaluable as he is a sponge for current affairs, business news and trends. A big brain with a big heart and the best sounding board in the world.