Queenstown rental frenzy: Would you take the top bunk or a campervan?

A bunk bed advertised for $160 per week.

The soaring popularity of Queenstown as a working holiday destination and the rise of Airbnb has led to people moving into some unconventional and often very crowded accommodation.

A campervan in a garage and single bunks have been advertised on RentEzi for people in Queenstown.

Property manager Conrad Goodger, who owns 10 Queenstown properties along with several associates, said his flat-shares were full 99 per cent of the time "since the day Airbnb came to town".

The ad for a bunk bed.

He said people who would otherwise rent out their Queenstown residences to itinerant workers were instead turning them to short-term Airbnb accommodation.

Goodger said most of the rooms in his properties were twin-share, some were three to a room and he had two large rooms which slept four.

He also offers accommodation in a campervan inside a garage for $170 a week, although the tenant also has access to the main house.

"I don't really see what the problem is. It's fully legal," he said. "It's not for everyone ... but the guy that's living in there loves it at the moment; he's got his own personal space."

Goodger said that last year he lived in one of his six-bedroom houses with 17 other people.

"Big beautiful house in Queenstown, we had a great time with our flatmates ... we were sharing a great house with two bathrooms and two showers. I never had any problems. Maybe I had to wait ten minutes for a shower once every month or two."

Until the advent of Airbnb, Goodger said he had struggled for 25 years to get enough tenants. Now he couldn't be busier.

He rejected the notion that he was taking advantage of people desperate for somewhere to stay by cramming them into his properties.

"You've got a desperate situation in Queenstown and we supply our tenants with very good electricity, toilet paper, rubbish bags, friends and everything.

"To be honest, when I was living with 17 other flatmates in that same house ... there's no one there half the time. They're all working 40-60 hours a week. I'd get up and there'd be no one home."

Another ad on Rentezi offers for $165 a week "not a single room but kinda like one".

Queenstown Mayor Jim Boult said the council was displeased about the current situation in the city.

"We are not happy with large numbers of people sharing one house. It's just not a good thing and we're worried about sanitary issues."

The council was looking at a number of proposals to address the housing problem, including working with developers with a view to building student hall of residence-style accommodation, possibly on Gorge Rd.

"This is not a new situation. I've lived here for 35 years and rental accommodation for both permanent residents and itinerant workers has always been an issue," Boult said.

"It's become more of an issue in recent times as a result of Airbnb. A lot of the houses that were rented out to itinerant workers are now Airbnb for the obvious fact that the owners get a better rate of return.

"But until more accommodation is built, it's a double-edged sword because if we start trying to restrict the number of people in these houses. Then where are they going to go?"