Warning to all NZ Hosts : British Tourists on a house-trashing tour

[Ben551]

Greetings ~

After today's headlines I feel the need to extend a warning to all AirBnb hosts in New Zealand, Australia and the UK.

A group of ten British tourists have been in the New Zealand news headlines all through January 2018.  They have been not paying for meals, trashing hotel rooms and litering during their stay in Auckland and Hamilton.  Last night, they turned up in my city of Wellington,  and were sighted making trouble a mere 2 minutes drive away from my house. 

The damage toll from the group is estimated to run into the hundreds of thousand as they continue a path of destruction through the country, but the Police and politicians can't move fast enough.  They are likely to remain at large for several days before action is taken to arrest and deport them all (it seems to react to a situation like this is more than our criminal justice system is designed to cope with).  If they leave on their own, they will likely pop up in Australia or the UK.

Here is the series of events as they have unfolded over the past few weeks:

15 January: First they trashed an Auckland beach.

15 January: Then the NZ Police investigated.

15 January: They said they were just here to see the hobbits.

16 January: Then they stole a Christmas tree.

16 January: And pled guilty to two counts of theft.

16 January: So the NZ government issued a deportation notice with 28 days to leave.

17 January: Then the media reported what they are like back in the UK.

17 January: So the NZ Police Minister called for the group to be sent home immediately.

18 January: Then they turned up in MY HOME TOWN!!

Warning: Some of the video footage contained in these news articles could offend.

Here is a map covering the first few days of their damage path:

What AirBnb Hosts Need to know:

The family are known to use information on private accomodation websites (like AirBnb) to make bookings waaay into the future that they never intend to pay for.  They do this to immediately gain access to property addresses and use it to locate vacant rental accomodation (i.e. they choose ones with space in their calendar 'now' then make a booking for the 'future').  They then break in and trash it without the owners knowledge.  this link describes what they do - I do not have the stomach to re-write it.

If they turn up at your property, do not engage with them.  Call the Police immediately (if you are in New Zealand the number is '111').

If they leave New Zealand before the authorities can act, they are likely to turn up in Australia or the UK.

Meanwhile, I'm going to sleep with a crow bar under my pillow until these jerks are out of my country...

~ Ben

[Helen3]

The point @Ben551

Is that badly behaved guests from other communities do not tend to get demonised because of the community they are from i.e. an Irish traveller community and hunted across a country by the media and across social media because of allegations of bad behaviour.

When was the last time you saw that happen?

There are lots of allegations in your opening post but very few concrete facts.

You state "A group of ten British tourists have been in the New Zealand news headlines all through January 2018.  They have been not paying for meals, trashing hotel rooms and litering during their stay in Auckland and Hamilton.  Last night, they turned up in my city of Wellington,  and were sighted making trouble a mere 2 minutes drive away from my house".

All hosts would agree that bad behaviour by guests is never acceptable. But how does any of the above related to their stay as Airbnb guests????

 I can't see what in your opening post that relates to bad behaviour linked to their stay at Airbnb accommodation.

As hosts we are not here to spread rumour and allegations about people who are tourists in our country not related to their stay in Airbnb's.

I am sure you posted with the best of intentions, but knowing the discrimination and abuse the Irish traveller community faces in Ireland and the UK, I feel that this wouldn't have happened if say they had in fact been British as you stated in your opening post.

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/our-casual-racism-against-travellers-is-one-of-irel...

Out of interest @Ben551 do you have a 'travelling or Romany community' in your country and do they face descrimination?

[Gordon0]

Your post, @Ben551, made for an ugly read. It's something the Daily Mail would be proud of. And no, I don't recognise it as a 'warning' for other hosts. As for the 'ghost' booking your imagination would lead you to believe might have been them, I don't buy it. 

Even though the word 'traveller',  inconspicuous by its very absence, hasn't been used, can you imagine the reaction to the story if this were another minority or race?

We're better than this. 

[Susan17]

Even the Daily Mail was better than this, @Gordon0. At least they provided some  semblance of balance to the story. Unusual for the DM, to say the least. 

"Keep a wary eye and make sure they don't shoplift": Town Mayor's desperate warning as "British Gypsy" family arrive - but motel owner says they couldn't be more polite"

The motel owner said the group behaved themselves and had been 'pretty quiet', and did not damage their rooms.

'I didn't see any nastiness but, if you do, you have to meet it with kindness,' he said.

Levin mayor Michael Feyen urged people to be aware of the family as they made their way around the town.

'They're obviously people we don't really want in the country . . . they just sound like a disturbed family and I wonder how all of them got into the country,' he said.

'I just say to people of Levin to keep a wary eye, to look after our own place and make sure they don't shoplift in our shops or chuck their rubbish everywhere around.'

A worker at the motel the family stayed at in Levin told Newshub the family were 'polite and to the point', and would be welcomed back.

The motel worker said the mayor's warning was 'over the top'.

[Sarah977]

@Helen3   It seems to me that @Ben551 started this thread as a heads-up to other Airbnb hosts, in case they got a booking from these people. Which I think is a fair, helpful, and reasonable thing to do. If you knew there was a traveling rapist in your area, would you not appreciate being warned?

Of course the media loves to play up anything that draws in readers, it's their M.O. 

But I don't see that these people have been discriminated against, and I don't see it has anything to do with where they're from. People are identified by their country of origin all the time, there's nothing discriminatory about that, it's just fact. They brought this attention to themselves by their behavior- if it was just a one-off incident, it would be hounding for the press to follow them around, but they've been creating havoc almost daily- leaving mounds of trash on the beach and reacting belligerently to locals asking them to clean it up, racking up hundreds of dollars in restaurant meals which they don't pay for, trashing hotel rooms, crashing and abandoning rental cars, stealing from stores. If a govt. sees fit to issue a deportation order, which I'm sure they don't do lightly, it's obvious that these are not normally-behaving people.

[Helen3]

Sorry I can't agree @Sarah977 the fact that they are Irish travellers is mentioned liberally throughout the media coverage.

And many tourists leave rubbish on the beach and leave messy hotel rooms. Backpackers in New Zealand and Australia do it all the time Do they get pursued by the media and on social media as they travel around? Have you seen the disgusting state that young tourists leave Thailand, Bali and Goa in when they attend moon parties and hang out on the beach.

Have you seen the chaos that young British tourists leave when they visit tourist spots in Cyprus, Greece, Spain etc.

You don't know that they have been creating havoc daily, there are just a few comments from the public. Nothing from officals confirming this. Some of comments are laughable. 'they said there was a twig in my hair' 'they left the motel room smelling of kid's poo'.

Irish travellers do often get targeted for abuse and will likely have reacted to being pursued on social media and the media. I am not excusing their bad behaviour but you in no way can compare this to the behaviour of a rapist.

They haven't been arrested or charged.  And I don't see any quotes from those in authority to confirm these incidents have taken place.

[Ben551]

---

@Helen3 wrote:

They haven't been arrested or charged.

---

Not quite true.  Some were arrested, charged and convicted in the Hamilton court, then issued 4 immediate deportation notices.  One even spent the night in a jail cell.  The Police Minister Stuart Nash then called for them all to be sent home, which I doubt he does based on rumour.

[Susan17]

Almost every media article had some version of the following comment from news.com au buried somewhere within its depths...

"There is little way of verifying whether the family are responsible for all the accusations levelled at them"

**************

As for the one who "even spent a night in a jail cell.. 

“I was in a holding cell with a woman who got 13 years for armed robbery. I told her what I was in for and she burst out laughing,” pregnant Cash said.
Cash was convicted and ordered to pay $55 in reparation, but she told DMA she pleaded guilty only so that she could pay a fine and be freed rather than remain in custody until she was deported.

****************

And more allegations against them debunked.. 

"The court also heard that Cash and the group had arrived in New Zealand on Dec. 29.

This date all but rules out another alleged story about the family – with accusations that the group flew on a Cathay Pacific flight on January 11 to Auckland, harassing other passengers and leaving soiled clothing in their hand luggage.

There are also accusations that the tourists were responsible for stealing a Christmas tree from a petrol station on Dec. 7, weeks before they had supposedly arrived in the country"

So yeah, let's all swallow every little thing the media - mainstream and social - spoonfeeds us. Because the media never lies, does it? 

[Helen3]

@Ben551 the one thing I don't understand in terms of your originally posting the story is, why post on an Airbnb community forum, when there is no evidence this family have stayed in an Airbnb during their trip or were ever likely to.

As @Susan17 has pointed out many of the allegations have now shown to be lies and that they weren't even in NZ when some of the alledged incidents took place.

It shows how people can be tried by media, social media and in forums like this on the basis of rumour and gossip, rather than fact.

It's sad to see some hosts joining in the hate on this forum.

No-one is saying that it is acceptable for tourists to come to a country (in this case your beautiful adopted country) and behave badly and  in some cases break the law.

It happens all to often that tourists exhibit appalling behaviour when abroad.

The reality is that if all tourists were deported for appalling behaviour there would be thousands being deported all over the world every day.

[Helen3]

Yes @Ben551 a pregnant woman was kept in a cell overnight for stealing - is that how people are normally treated in NZ for minor theft?

And yes politicans do often take knee jerk reactions to media storms so they are seen to be doing something in response to a given situtation. 

[Patricia55]

I'm seeing a difference in perspective here, between big city dwellers and small towners, ie the perceived threat from a group of (let's just call them) unrulies (for want of a better term) is going to seem more significant to people living in a small population area...  If I'd heard that such a group – of whatever race, creed, whatever – was approaching my small suburb, I'd probably be slightly freaked. If I lived in a vast metropolis, I'm sure I'd be more blasé.

[Helen3]

Good point.

Bet you have some tales to tell about nightlife in 'the Toon'. 🙂  @Patricia55

[Ben551]

It's true @Patricia55 and on some level NZ is just one big town. It's only 5 million people for the whole country, spread over a land mass bigger than the UK combined.

[Sarah977]

@Patricia55  That's true and pertains to a lot of things. If some guy's walking down the street in his underwear, talking agitatedly to someone visible only to himself, people in New York might not give him a second glance, just another schizophrenic. But if he showed up in some small rural farming community, it would be the talk of the town for weeks.

[Susan17]

@Patricia0. I understand what you're saying, but geographical location and small town mentality doesn't give people carte blanche to act in a prejudiced, biased and/or discriminatory manner, based solely on a few sensationalist, overblown and inaccurate media stories. 

[Fran2]

In Australia and New Zealand we don’t use the word “Traveller” in the same sense as it appears to be used in Europe. If I drive anywhere I am “travelling”, not necessarily a “tourist”, therefore I am a “traveller” I suppose!

We dion’t have gypsies/travellers as such, and I’m unsure of what the term is for people who do “travel” around other than “grey nomads” (retirees who live permanently or temporarily in caravans (big population here in Australia), fruit pickers ( a huge group of people who “travel” following fruit and veggie crops).

If I “travel” I am a traveller or a tourist, depending on whether I’m seeing the sites or family!