Our story
It started with a risk. A run down motel and a belief that accommodation could be so much more of an experience. School friends Nick & Josh were up for the challenge, packing up life and moving down to Rotorua, learning on their feet as they transformed the Havana Motor Lodge into Aura Accommodation at the tail end of 2016.
While Josh moved on from the business in 2020, things have become more of a family affair, with Nick & Amy retaining full ownership, and often seen with 3 young kids in tow.
2023 brought on a new challenge in taking on the Best Western, accommodation, restaurant and events space and creating Ripple Rotorua – highlighting the uniqueness of this stunning property driving the vision.
Come 2024 and we’ve added a holiday home into the mix, just a short stroll from the stunning Redwoods Forest in Rotorua.
And through this journey, the focus has never shifted, creating unique hospitality experiences that break from the norm.
Work with us
We’ve learnt a few things in our time, things that have made us break from the norms and stick out from the crowd.
From squeezing more out of every touchpoint, building efficient systems for the future of hospitality based on automation, elevating and digitalising the guest experiences, and increased profitability, creating new brands and launching them into the market, implementing processors and systems to deliver sustainability initiatives that make a difference.
We are really proud of our achievements and keen to hear from you to see if we can realise even more possibilities together – new properties, elevating old ones, creating brands, or implementing strong processes or systems.