The Queensland Office of Fair Trading has seized more 10,000 documents from publicly listed company, S8 Limited, following an 18-month investigation into allegations of a rental scam from holiday unit owners worth “millions of dollars”.
The Office of Fair Trading moved in on S8 following allegations made by Wayne Stevens, the body corporate chairman of The Phoenician Resort an apartment complex on the Gold Coast, that S8 is charging double commissions on rental properties.
Holiday unit owners alleged that S8 took undisclosed commissions from holiday bookings through direct reservations and subsequently transferred the bookings to a subsidiary company which charged another commission.
An owner alleged that S8 charged as much as $270 per night for a unit booking only received only $90 per night in the peak Christmas holiday season.
S8 is Australia’s largest tourism property manager and manages over 5000 units in 48 resorts on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts and North Queensland.
The company started trading in December 1998 with the acquisition of The Moroccan management services business and by June 2001, had four properties in its portfolio.
In December 2001, the company listed on the ASX.
Since then, S8 has bought out Harvey World Travel and other travel companies including Travelscene and New Zealand’s Gulliver Travel Group.
By Nelson Yap
