The house that hosts people, not bookings
Joyavero has been run by the same family since 1987. Thirty-eight rooms, two venues, one lake at the end of the garden — and a front desk that has never once asked a guest to "press 1".
Three pillars, poured in 1987
"A hotel is just a house that decided to be generous. Everything else is furniture."
Built and kept by hand
The cedar sauna, the bar top, the garden benches — all made on site by our own maintenance team. If it breaks, the person who built it fixes it.
Where the house is heading
- Carbon-neutral heating by 2027 (boiler swap underway)
- Zero single-use plastic in rooms since 2024
- 80% of the kitchen sourced within 50 km
- Two community garden plots open to locals
Four decades on the same shoreline
Joyavero started as a six-room guesthouse for trampers who missed the last bus to Wanaka. The bus timetable changed; the welcome didn't.
EST. 1987 — FRANKTONA guesthouse with a wood stove
Alistair Joy buys the Frankton cottage and opens six rooms. Rate: NZ$18, breakfast included, boots dried by the stove overnight.
Twelve more rooms, one big window
The lake wing opens with the first proper suites. The "walk you to your room" habit starts here and never stops.
Mara takes the front desk
The founder's daughter takes over operations, keeps the paper comment cards and refuses — politely, firmly — to install a check-in kiosk.
A hall for 180, built into the hillside
Conferences, weddings and the first Cardrona retreat. The hall books out three winters in a row from day one.
Every room touched, nothing sanitized
Nine months, local trades, wool and rimu. The house keeps its creaks — they're load-bearing memories.
The build log
The Frankton Wing renovation
All 26 rooms re-built with local rimu, wool insulation and new plumbing — while the hotel stayed open. Occupancy barely blinked.
The lakeside garden restoration
600 native plants, the original 1987 stone path rebuilt by hand, and two vegetable plots that now feed the kitchen.
The events hall build
A 400 m² hall cut into the hillside, acoustic-lined, with the stage window framing the Remarkables. Our biggest bet — and the best one.
People you'll actually meet
We hire for warmth and train for skill — you can teach someone the PMS in a week; you can't teach them to mean "good morning".
Ask about current openings"I've watched this industry invent the app-key, the robot-bellhop and the checkout kiosk. Meanwhile our guests keep telling us the best part of their stay was a person. I know which side of that trade I'm on."
The numbers we're happy to defend
"In a market full of dynamic pricing, Joyavero's static-rate honesty is quietly radical — and their return-guest curve shows it works."