A look back at the journey that built one of New Zealand's most trusted short-stay management companies, and a glimpse at what's next.
Ohana is a Hawaiian word. It means family. That's not a coincidence, it's the whole story. What began with Phil and his son Andreas, a cottage in Prebbleton, and a new platform called Airbnb has grown into one of New Zealand's most experienced short-stay property management companies.
Nearly eight years on, we manage around 180 properties across Christchurch, Wellington, and Lake Tekapo. We have a team with real depth, systems built from years of hard-won lessons, and a brand quietly rebuilt from the ground up.
As we step into 2026 with a fresh identity, it felt right to pause and tell the story honestly, the highs, the near-misses, the moments we almost broke, and why we're more confident now than we've ever been.
The platform that started it all.
The spark was Phil. He was one of the first people in the Christchurch area to list a property on Airbnb, a small cottage attached to his home in Prebbleton. It was almost experimental. But the numbers told a different story.
The original cottage in Prebbleton. Where it all started.
His son Andreas spotted the opportunity. Sitting across from Phil at a KFC in Hornby, he made the pitch: take a larger rental property in Halswell, a five-bedroom being used as a traditional tenancy, renovate it, list it on Airbnb, and see what happened. The house needed serious work. The reno was big. But when the listing went live, something clicked.
"It just went amazing. Like it was, it's a gold mine. It makes so much money, you just don't know how it's doing it."Andreas, Founder, Ohana Properties
From two properties, the logic was simple: find more. The short-stay market was growing. Airbnb was beginning to disrupt traditional hospitality. And Ohana had something most competitors didn't yet, a head start. Timing, as Andreas will tell you, was everything.
By early 2020, Ohana had grown to around 20 properties. Then COVID hit. Within days, roughly 150 future bookings were wiped out almost overnight. Properties sitting empty. An industry that runs on movement, completely frozen.
The team scrambled. But they found an unexpected lifeline: New Zealand had thousands of stranded visitors who couldn't get home and desperately needed somewhere to stay for weeks or months. Ohana's empty properties became medium-term refuges. Not hugely profitable. But enough to survive.
Then New Zealand's domestic borders opened. Pent-up demand exploded. Kiwis who'd been locked down for months hit the road, and Ohana was ready.
One of the Christchurch properties in the Ohana portfolio.
The post-COVID years brought a construction boom. Developers across Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch were building rapidly, and properties that weren't selling flooded into the short-stay market. Ohana said yes to almost all of it.
In roughly six to eight months, the portfolio grew from around 80 properties to 180. Three cities. Breakneck pace. It should have been a triumph.
"We were big and we became too big. We could not do a genuine service to the guests that were staying, or to the clients who trusted us with their properties."Andreas, Founder, Ohana Properties
The decision that followed was one of the hardest in Ohana's history: deliberately pulling back. Exiting markets. Reducing the portfolio. Walking away from revenue. It was also one of the most important, because it brought Ohana back to what the name actually means.
Lake Tekapo, Ohana's fastest growing market.
About a year ago, the family went looking for a bach. Phil's son-in-law found a listing in Tekapo. It wasn't anyone's first choice, but the property was exceptional, the location stunning, and the numbers made sense. They bought it, renovated it, listed it.
Tekapo had demand and almost no supply. Nightly rates climbed in a way no one had anticipated. The family bach became a business venture, and the business venture became a whole new market.
To every client who's been with us through the mistakes, the growth, and the recalibrations, thank you. We haven't forgotten what you trusted us with. We won't.
Get a Property Estimate Book a Stay Phil, Andreas and the Ohana team, 2026