The Be Our Guest by Bayleys Queenstown and Wanaka team posed together for a group portrait.

A badge with a yellow background and black text that reads 'Be Our Guest - led by a local team.'

We’re locals who love where we live.

We're a small team in Queenstown and Wanaka who look after beautiful homes and the people who stay in them, like they're our own.

Talk to our team

We've been part of this region for a long time

Our story didn't start with Be Our Guest. It started in 1983, when a small local accommodation business opened its doors here and never left. Through boom years and hard ones, the 1989 crash, earthquakes, a pandemic that emptied the town, we stayed. We kept our people. We looked after the homes and the families who trusted us with them.

Be Our Guest is the short-stay chapter of that same story: a modern way to host, built on forty years of knowing this place and the people in it. When you stay with us or hand us the keys to your home you're not trusting a newcomer. You're trusting a business that's been part of Queenstown and Wanaka for as long as most of us can remember.

Two Be Our Guest team members, one standing and smiling while holding a white mug, the other sitting at a table with a laptop and printed materials, engaged in a discussion.

Local through and through. Quietly backed by Bayleys.

We're part of Bayleys, one of New Zealand's largest family-owned businesses, which means behind our small, local team sits decades of experience and a network that spans the country.

For you, that's the best of both: the warmth and attention of people who genuinely live here, with the strength and trust of a name that's been looking after this region for generations.

Three simple beliefs guide all Be Our Guest does:

Do the right thing

Always. Even when it costs us, even when no one's watching. It's the simplest rule we have, and the one we never break.

People first

Homes are the mechanism; people are the point. Every owner, every guest, every team member gets treated like they matter, because they do.

Give back

This region built us, so we give back to it by supporting the local schools, teams and causes that make this place home.

“We sweat the small stuff because the little things are never little.”

— The Be Our Guest Team

Meet the Team

Ashley Giles

CEO
Queenstown & Wanaka
+64 21 079 8956
Born and raised in Queenstown, with 18 years in property management and a deep connection to the region. Ashley leads Be Our Guest's short and long-term operations across the Southern Lakes - focused on strong returns for owners and seamless experiences for guests. Outside work, he's sailed the world on a catamaran, always with an eye on the horizon.
Chelsea Hall

GENERAL MANAGER
Queenstown & Wanaka
+64 27 283 3313
Sydney-born, Queenstown local since 2016. Chelsea came up through hospitality and hotel management before moving into property in 2021. Now leading Be Our Guest, she oversees operations, guest services and property performance - with a Level 4 Certificate in Residential Property Management and a real drive to lift the standard of short-stay management. Your investment is in expert hands.
Harriet Warren

SENIOR PORTFOLIO MANAGER
Queenstown
+64 22 883 1152

Harriet brings an unusual blend to property: a nursing degree in paediatric intensive care, four years at Starship, then a leap into London property rising from Building Manager to Head of Lettings. Back home, she pairs that clinical eye for detail with genuine warmth, treating every property as if it were her own.
Cole Williamson

HOLIDAY HOME MANAGER
Queenstown
+64 22 404 3277

Cole swapped Perth for Queenstown to be near the mountains. With a background spanning HR, customer service and hospitality, he's all about helping guests feel welcomed and well looked after from arrival to departure. Off the clock, you'll find him deep in the backcountry or out on the golf course.
Martina Toman

HOLIDAY HOMES MANAGER
Wanaka
+64 21 050 3646

Brisbane-born with a Business degree from QUT, Martina brings deep experience in service, sales and international guest relations. Her hotel background means she anticipates what guests need before they ask and as a Wanaka local at heart, she loves sharing the recommendations that make a stay feel personal.
Emma Furnell

GUEST SERVICES CO-ORDINATOR
Queenstown & Wanaka
+64 21 705 040
Born and raised in New Zealand, Emma brings a genuine Kiwi warmth to every interaction. With degrees in business and event management and five-plus years in customer service, she thrives on problem-solving and making guests feel properly cared for. At home, she's usually being supervised by her two cats, Inky and Skippy.
Aimee Carpenter

ACCOUNTS ADMINISTRATOR
Queenstown & Wanaka
+64 21 247 7096
UK-born, fourteen years in Brisbane, now settled in Queenstown with her husband, two boys and two dogs. Aimee brings sixteen years across finance, retail and hospitality sharp on detail and quietly keeping the numbers running smoothly behind the scenes. Outside work: a kickboxing champion who once represented England, and a firm believer in good food and a glass of wine.