Two reports were made to police last week, which brings the total two four in the last month.
Sergeant Blair Wilkinson, of Oamaru, said Airbnb and Bookabach providers in Oamaru had been targeted by people from the area booking accommodation with no intention of paying.
Arrangements had been made with the property owners to pay cash, which was never handed over.
He said ‘‘evidence of drug use’’ and damage to property had been found, in addition to household items and appliances allegedly being stolen.
‘‘There’s quite a few that have ended up in these situations where people are organising to stay, then the owner has arrived to clean it, finding it in a state and then being unable to get the cash out of these people.’’
While there was nothing stopping a property owner from accepting a cash payment from a criminal perspective, police would investigate if any crime was reported and potentially lay charges.
‘‘In many cases it’s civil. There is no element of criminality in terms of their agreement with the person renting the property out, but it’s causing distress to people given a lot of them have lost overseas tourist bookings and stuff like that.’’
The motivation behind the alleged offending was often born from necessity or other personal circumstances, he said.
‘‘I think it’s often out of desperation of not having somewhere to stay and in many cases, burning bridges with their family.’’
Sgt Wilkinson advised operators to be wary of any suspicious behaviour.
‘‘Our advice would be to anyone who is operating and bed and breakfast or Bookabach ... to do some due diligence around bookings and particularly for local people, to make sure they are people that are going to treat their property with respect and make payment as agreed.’’
He said he type of offending was relatively new to Oamaru, but had the potential to become more common.
It was likely other similar cases had not been reported to police.
‘‘It seems to be a little bit more frequent now,’’ he said.
