A group of ten friends, led by a young tourist, found themselves out $10,000 upon their arrival in Australia, as the accommodation they had reserved turned out to be a scam.

Georgia Pemberton, from New Zealand, along with her friends, had planned a getaway to the Gold Coast in Queensland to enjoy a vacation and usher in the New Year.

Ms. Pemberton had secured a house for the entire group through Bookabach, a well-known New Zealand-based online booking service, now part of the Expedia Group, specializing in vacation rentals.

According to the New Zealand traveler, the listing showcased a stunning waterfront property, spacious enough to comfortably accommodate all ten friends.

She mentioned that although the rental cost was on the higher side at $10,000 for an eight-day stay, the expense seemed reasonable when shared among the group and considering it was peak travel season.

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.’