Waikato District Council
Enabling Smarter, Data-Led Bookings Across the District.
Customer Profile
The Waikato district covers more than 400,000 hectares (418.893ha). It borders Hamilton City from the north, east and west. There are 2,422 kilometres (km) of roads which you can travel on throughout the district. The information below outlines an overview of our district and briefly profiles who lives here, our economy, industry and education.
Nearly 40 per cent of New Zealand’s total population lives within a 150km radius of the Waikato district. However, the number of people living within the district itself (81,473 – NIDEA, 2020) is not high compared to other similarly-sized districts in New Zealand.
Key towns are Raglan, Huntly, Ngaaruaawahia, Tuakau and Te Kauwhata. Smaller settlements include Gordonton, Matangi, Tamahere, Meremere, Port Waikato and Pookeno.
The Waikato district is rich in natural resources, wilderness reserves, natural resources, native bush reserves, lush farmland, stunning west coast beaches, community history and culture.
The Hornsby Shire is located in the Upper North Shore area of the Sydney, covering an area of 455 km sq and home to around 160,000 people. Hornsby Shire is the largest council in the Greater Sydney Metropolitan region by area and is bound be Ku-ring-gai Chase national Park in the east and the Hawkesbury River to the north.
Council's Challenge
Waikato District Council previously relied on paper forms, PDFs and Excel spreadsheets to manage bookings for over 100 open spaces. Processes were slow, duplicated across teams, and lacked visibility. This led to confusion, lost revenue, and missed community engagement opportunities.
Paterson Park, Ngaruawahia, Thursday 1 August 2024. Photo: Stephen Barker / Barker Photography. ©Techlight Ltd
The Solution
Attekus introduced the Bookable platform to unify bookings across council teams and open spaces. Key features include:
- Centralised community self-service access
- Integration with TechnologyOne for finance, customer records and reporting
- Streamlined H&S workflows and cross-team collaboration
- One source of truth for open space usage, bookings and documentation
The Results
Key outcomes included:
- from 30 bookings over 3 months → 142 bookings across 103 venues in just over a month.
- Over 16,000 hours of booked time recorded
- Admin time reduced from 30 hours/week to ~7 hours/week
- Improved visibility of usage enables data-led investment in infrastructure
- Strong internal team feedback – especially Parks and Zero Harm (H&S) teams
- Increased equity in access and engagement from previously unknown user Groups
“Attekus Bookable isn’t just a booking system- it’s helping us serve our our communities more effectively.”
Emah Lane, Waikato District Council
What’s Next?
Following its success with open spaces, Waikato District Council will:
- Expand Attekus Bookable to more facilities and event types
- Use booking data to guide future funding through the Long-Term Planning process
- Continue reducing manual processes and improving equity of access district wide.
Related case studies
City of Whittlesea
Read how Whittlesea introduced Attekus Bookable to modernise bookings, customer management, payments and communications, reducing manual invoicing effort and giving customers real-time access to availability and their booking history.
City of Launceston
See how the City of Launceston located in northern Tasmania, Australia, revitalised a historic site and empowered the community with a seamless self-service booking platform.
Ready to make time work for everyone?
Attekus Appointments takes the stress out of scheduling – protecting staff time, reducing no-shows, and making it easier for your community to connect when it matters most.
