A group of ten young tourists, led by New Zealander Georgia Pemberton, found themselves victims of a deceitful scam, losing a whopping $10,000 upon their arrival in Australia. Their eagerly anticipated accommodation turned out to be a complete sham.
Georgia and her friends had set their sights on the sunny Gold Coast of Queensland to enjoy a leisurely vacation and ring in the New Year. As part of their travel plans, Ms. Pemberton arranged accommodation for the group through Bookabach, a well-regarded online booking platform originating from New Zealand and now part of the Expedia Group.
According to Ms. Pemberton, the listing featured an idyllic waterfront house, perfectly suited to accommodate all ten friends. Despite the high price tag of $10,000 for an eight-day stay, she considered it a reasonable expense given the peak holiday season and the cost being shared among the group.
Initially, everything seemed legitimate. Ms. Pemberton mentioned that after paying the initial deposit, all interactions with the supposed host were smooth and professional, leaving her with no reason to doubt the authenticity of the booking.
She added the accommodation was a little bit expensive, costing $10,000 for eight days, but she did not think anything of it as the cost was being split among the ten friends and it was during a very busy time of the year.
After paying the first deposit, Ms Pemberton said she didn’t second guess the booking as communication with the host was great and everything appeared to be normal.
The remaining balance was due on December 22, the day the group flew to the Gold Coast.
Ms Pemberton said she was waiting for check-in instructions, but believed the host would be at the house to provide information once they arrived.
New Zealand woman Georgia Pemberton and her nine friends were left stranded on the Gold Coast after they were scammed out of $10,0000 for a holiday rental that did not exist
The group arrived at the accommodation and Ms Pemberton knocked on the door only to be greeted by the homeowner who had never listed her home as a holiday rental.
‘This girl comes out, and she’s like, “Hi, can I help you?” And I said, “Yeah, we’ve booked this place on BookaBach.” She goes, “I don’t do Bookabach”,’ Ms Pemberton said.
‘My heart literally sank. What do you mean you don’t do Bookabach? Who did I just pay $10,000 to?
‘I showed her the photos, and she goes, “Holy s***. That is my house. I live here. This is my family home”.’
The homeowner said she had previously tried to sell her house and that the scammer had taken the photos from realestate.com and used them to create the rental listing.
While this was the first time someone had come to her home from Bookabach, she claimed she had problems in the past and had an idea of who was behind the scam.
‘The girl that came out was the same girl that was the host in the Bookabach pictures. So this scammer has taken photos of the woman from her WhatsApp and has pretended to be her,’ Ms Pemberton said.
‘The girl actually lives here as well. So it’s giving someone was more so scamming her, like it was personal.’
Ms Pemberton booked a house for the group via Bookabach – a popular New Zealand-founded online platform, which is part of Expedia Group and used for booking holiday accomodation (pictured, the Gold Coast)
Ms Pemberton and her friends were then left walking the streets of the Gold Coast with their suitcases with nowhere to go.
‘We are literally in the streets, like rolling around our suitcases. We went to this park, and just sat there and was like, “What are we gonna do?”‘ she said.
‘I started to freak out a little bit because I’m like, firstly, where’s the $10,000, secondly, when I sat down and to think about it, I’m like, Oh my gosh, we actually got scammed.
‘Thirdly, we’re just rolling around our suitcases in a different country, with nowhere to go, nowhere to sleep.’
Ms Pemberton said one of her friends was able to contact Bookabach for support and explained the group had been scammed.
She added the online platform provided a hotel for the group for a couple of nights until they were able to source and organise their own accomodation.
On Saturday, the group secured accomodation through Airbnb for the remainder of their stay.
Ms Pemberton said the experience left her feeling ‘sick to her stomach’ and warned others to be wary of potential scams on holiday rental sites.
‘Moral of the story, be careful because there are genuinely people out there who do this and you never think this would ever happen to you,’ Ms Pemberton said.
‘I genuinely felt sick to my stomach thinking that someone has just taken $10,000. Luckily, I am with an amazing group of people who are very calm and chill.
‘I just feel like something could have gone really bad. It was giving dodge, it was giving run. We’re safe and we’re okay. I’m never using bookabach again. I refuse.’
A spokesperson for Bookabach told Daily Mail the online platform takes fraudulent claims very seriously and sincerely apologised to Ms Pemberton for her experience.
‘We sincerely apologise for Ms. Pemberton’s experience and want to assure you that we take any claims of fraudulent use of our platform very seriously,’ Bookabach said.
‘We are still actively investigating this matter; however, please know that travellers can no longer make bookings for this property, and Ms. Pemberton has been refunded in full.’
