A New Zealand dad and his three daughters were looking forward to attending a big concert – until they checked into their $NZD600-a-night ($AUD 550) accommodation.
What they found horrified the Invercargill family: damp sheets, pubic hair in a ball pressed into a wall, broken beds, a bathroom heater hanging by a wire and then the final insult: poo in the corner.
Abbie Low, 21, said her dad and her two teenage sisters, 18 and 15, were looking forward to attending the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert in Dunedin on Thursday night.
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While they booked their concert tickets early in a pre-sale, they were late booking accommodation, and were dismayed to find few options left.
On Agoda, an accommodation booking site, they found a room at Stafford Gables in the central city that could accommodate them all for $NZD600 ($AUD 550) a night.
"This was the only place we could get."
Low said it was on the three-hour trip to Dunedin when she read a Stuff story about Stafford Gables rooms being listed on some booking sites for up to $NZD1000 ($AUD900) a night.
"We were saying 'we are staying at a dump, but we will be fine'."
However, when they checked in they were shocked at the state of the backpackers. "It was very messy."
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A man in reception showed them to their room, which had a shared bathroom with no toilet paper and a heater hanging off the wall by an electrical wire.
The room also had damp sheets, a ball of hair stuck on the wall, broken beds, and dirty floors and walls, but the poo in the corner was the final straw.
"It was just disgusting," Low said.
"I was expecting bad, but not expecting that kind of bad."
Her dad, who had driven to Dunedin after a night shift, said they should leave and just drive home after the concert.
Low "stormed on down" to reception, and "got my Karen voice on".
"I didn't want to be a Karen, but I was."
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She waited 10 minutes to talk to a staff member, who declined to give them a refund as they had booked through a third party website and instead offered them another room.
Stafford Gables, which does not have its own website, previously told Stuff that people should book through Agoda. The booking website described the backpackers as a "3-star property ... packed with in-house facilities to improve the quality and joy of your stay".
The family loved the concert, and it was about midnight by the time they began the three-hour journey home to Invercargill.
"It seems a lot of people didn't have accommodation as there was a lot of people leaving Dunedin," Low said.
"Spending $600 for a shitty room that is not even clean, is just not worth it, and I'd rather sleep on the street."
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After repeated calls to Stafford Gables to make a complaint, she received a call back, she said.
"The woman on the other end of the phone said 'the connection is so bad I can't hear you'."
On Friday morning, the same staff member told Stuff the family had been offered another room.
She said staff "may have missed a spot" when they did the cleaning, but denied a poo was left in the corner or that beds were broken.
The woman, who did not give her name, said the accommodation was acceptable, even at $NZD600 ($AUD550) a night.
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"In terms of the price, every other accommodation has raised their price when town is booked up.
"The price fluctuates because of the market."
The woman said they had a contract with a booking website, but she couldn't control what they listed the property for.
On Thursday, Stuff reported that while third-party booking sites made it look like the city was full, that wasn't the case, according to Dunedin i-Site visitor centre manager Louise van de Vlierd.
There was some accommodation, including rooms from one of the city's largest hotels made available on the morning of the concert.
This story has been repoduced with permission from Stuff.co.nz.
