PHOTO: Michelle Hicks wants property owners to learn from her mistakes. Source: 1 NEWS
A landlord stung by an experience with a short-term rental wants others to learn from her mistakes.
Families who booked and paid to stay at Michelle Hicks’ holiday home, on Northland’s Karikari Peninsula, have had their plans ruined by a tenant who refuses to move out.
The holiday home – which sleeps 13 and is a short stroll to the beach – has been fully booked out, but they’ve since had to be cancelled.
“What guts me the most [and] really, really upsets me and also the hardest thing to do is to ring these families to say that the Christmas booking they’ve had booked since July cannot proceed because people won’t move out of my house,” Hicks, the homeowner, said.
Hicks lists her short-term rentals on Holiday Houses. In February, she was asked if she would be interested in letting out her holiday home for several more months.
She said she had received a message from a man who explained that he had recently sold their home but wanted to know if she would be interested in a short-term rental, adding that they “wanted to stay in the area from about the end of February for three to four months”.
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