Hospitality Listing Eligibility Criteria & Terms
Before submitting your eatery, please review the criteria and terms below. All listings are subject to review and approval by Hamilton & Waikato Tourism. Submission does not guarantee publication.
Eligibility criteria
To be considered for a listing on waikatonz.com, your business must meet the following criteria.
Location
Your business must be located within the Hamilton & Waikato region and operate within the Hamilton & Waikato Tourism Regional Tourism Organisation boundary.
This includes:
Hamilton City
Waikato District
Matamata-Piako District
Waipā District
Businesses located outside this area are generally not eligible for a listing on waikatonz.com. Exceptions may apply where Hamilton & Waikato Tourism participates in collaborative campaigns or partnerships with other regions, organisations, or tourism initiatives.
Business type
Your business must be a visitor-facing hospitality venue or food and beverage experience.
Eligible business types may include:
Restaurants
Cafés
Bars/Pubs
Eateries
Bakeries, dessert venues or specialty food outlets
Wineries, breweries or distilleries with a public-facing hospitality offer
Food-related visitor experiences
Other hospitality businesses that are relevant to visitors
Businesses should provide a genuine hospitality, dining, food, beverage or visitor experience, rather than operating solely as a retail, wholesale, production or private venue.
Visitor relevance
Your business should be relevant to visitors, event delegates, conference attendees, groups, or people exploring the Hamilton & Waikato region.
Listings should support the purpose of waikatonz.com by helping visitors discover places to eat, drink, gather or experience local hospitality while in the region.
Hamilton & Waikato Tourism may consider factors such as visitor appeal, location, accessibility, uniqueness, quality of experience, public reputation, reviews or visitor feedback, whether the business offers something beyond standard convenience food or everyday takeaway service and relevance to the regional visitor offering.
Reputation and quality
Businesses must present as professional, reputable and visitor-ready.
Hamilton & Waikato Tourism may consider publicly available information when assessing listing suitability, including but not limited to:
Public reviews and ratings.
Visitor experience, service standards and presentation.
Complaints, unresolved issues or reputational concerns.
A business may not be approved if Hamilton & Waikato Tourism reasonably considers that the business does not meet the quality, reputation or visitor experience standards expected for inclusion on an official regional visitor website.
Chain, food trucks, franchise and standard takeaway venues
Standard fast-food, franchise, chain, takeaway, food truck, market stall or convenience food outlets are generally not eligible for a hospitality listing unless they offer clear visitor value or a distinctive regional experience.
This may include, for example:
A locally owned hospitality business with a strong regional story.
A venue connected to a recognised visitor precinct, attraction, event venue or accommodation hub.
A food or beverage experience that is unique, destination-worthy or relevant to visitors.
A venue that offers a notable dining, group, event or visitor experience.
A business that contributes to the region’s food story, local produce offering or visitor appeal.
Businesses that are primarily standard fast-food outlets, national or international chains, convenience takeaways, food courts, supermarkets, service station food outlets, or bakeries/takeaways with limited visitor appeal may not be approved.
Public access
Your venue must be open to the public or available to visitors through bookings, events, experiences, scheduled service or confirmed opening hours.
Private venues, member-only facilities, or businesses that are not generally accessible to visitors may not be eligible unless they provide a clearly defined visitor-facing experience.
Legal and operational requirements
Your business must operate legally and comply with all relevant New Zealand laws, regulations and obligations.
This includes, where applicable:
Food safety requirements
Alcohol licensing requirements
Health and safety obligations
Local authority requirements
Employment, privacy and consumer law obligations
Any other relevant regulatory or operational requirements
Businesses are responsible for ensuring they hold the appropriate licences, permissions and approvals required to operate.
Accurate information
All information submitted must be accurate, current and provided by someone authorised to represent the business.
Submitted information must not be false, misleading, outdated, defamatory, offensive, or likely to damage the reputation of Hamilton & Waikato Tourism, waikatonz.com, the region, or the wider tourism and hospitality industry.
Quality and suitability
Listings must meet Hamilton & Waikato Tourism’s content, image and quality standards and be suitable for inclusion on an official regional visitor website.
Hamilton & Waikato Tourism may consider whether a business presents a professional, reputable and visitor-ready experience.
A listing may be declined, edited, unpublished or removed if the business, listing content or supplied imagery is considered unsuitable, inconsistent with the purpose of waikatonz.com, or not aligned with the visitor experience the website is intended to promote.
Businesses that may not qualify
A listing may not be approved if the business:
Is located outside the Hamilton & Waikato Tourism RTO boundary.
Is not visitor facing.
Is not generally open to the public or available to visitors.
Does not provide a hospitality, food, beverage experience.
Does not provide enough information for a useful listing.
Provides inaccurate, incomplete, outdated or misleading information.
Does not meet content, image or quality requirements.
Does not align with the purpose of waikatonz.com.
Is considered unsuitable at the discretion of Hamilton & Waikato Tourism.
Terms
Listing approval
All submissions are reviewed by Hamilton & Waikato Tourism.
Please allow 2–5 business days for your submission to be reviewed. Review timeframes may vary depending on the completeness of the information provided and the volume of submissions received.
Submission of a listing does not guarantee publication on waikatonz.com.
Hamilton & Waikato Tourism reserves the right to approve, decline, edit, remove, unpublish or update listings at its discretion.
A submitted listing may be edited for:
Clarity
Grammar and spelling
Consistency with website tone and style
Search visibility
Visitor relevance
Formatting
Accuracy
Suitability for the website
Hamilton & Waikato Tourism may also choose which category, page or section a listing appears in.
Content requirements
To support your listing, you may be asked to provide:
A clear and concise business description
Accurate business name
Physical address
Contact details
Website, menu or booking links
Opening hours
High-quality images
Accessibility information, where available
Dietary, group, event or booking information, where relevant
Any other information that may help visitors make an informed decision
Hamilton & Waikato Tourism may choose not to publish listings that are incomplete or do not meet website standards.
Image requirements
Images must be high-quality, current, landscape orientation, and relevant to your business.
Images should accurately represent the visitor experience and may include food, beverages, venue interiors, outdoor spaces, people enjoying the experience, or other relevant hospitality imagery.
Submitted images must:
Be in landscape orientation.
Be between 1MB and 10MB in file size.
Be high-resolution and suitable for website use.
Be clear, well-lit and not blurry or pixelated.
Not include overlay text, logos, graphics, borders or promotional messaging.
Accurately represent the business, venue or visitor experience.
By submitting images, you confirm that:
You have permission to supply the images.
The images may be used on waikatonz.com.
The images may be cropped, resized or reformatted for website use.
Any required image credits have been supplied.
The images do not infringe copyright, privacy, trademark or third-party rights.
Any people shown in the images have provided the necessary permissions for promotional use.
Hamilton & Waikato Tourism reserves the right to choose which images are used and may decline images that do not meet website, brand, technical or quality standards.
Accuracy and updates
You are responsible for ensuring your listing information is accurate and up to date.
If your business details change, including opening hours, contact details, website links or operating status, please contact us so your listing can be reviewed or updated.
Removal of listings
Hamilton & Waikato Tourism may remove a listing at any time if:
The information is no longer accurate.
The business no longer meets the criteria.
The business has closed.
The listing is no longer suitable for the website.
The business requests removal.
The listing conflicts with website, brand or organisational requirements.
Hamilton & Waikato Tourism receives information or feedback that raises concerns about the business, listing content or visitor experience.
No guarantee of promotion
An approved listing may appear on waikatonz.com, but inclusion does not guarantee:
Placement on specific pages
Priority ranking in search results or category pages
Inclusion in campaigns
Social media promotion
Media coverage
Referrals, bookings or enquiries
Ongoing publication
Participation in paid or unpaid promotional activity
Additional promotional opportunities may be considered separately where relevant and at the discretion of Hamilton & Waikato Tourism.
Liability
Hamilton & Waikato Tourism is not responsible for any loss, damage, claim, complaint, booking issue, visitor experience issue or other matter arising from inaccurate information supplied by the business or from a user’s interaction with a listed business.
Businesses are responsible for meeting their own legal, operational, health and safety, food safety, licensing, insurance and regulatory obligations.
Hamilton & Waikato Tourism does not guarantee the accuracy of information supplied by third parties and does not endorse or accept responsibility for the products, services or experiences provided by listed businesses.
Agreement
By submitting information about your business, you confirm that you have read and agree to these listing criteria and terms.
Hamilton & Waikato Tourism may update these criteria from time to time. Continued inclusion on waikatonz.com may be subject to meeting the current listing criteria.