Eggleton, who said he was new to Facebook about six months ago and did not quite understand the repercussions, said he was commenting on a post about a woman with a tā moko and rental bond money.
Eggleton said he made the comment: "Another one with the winns bar code on her chin", off the cuff and it was directed at the woman, not Māori in general.
When he realised his "stupid mistake" he deleted the comment but by then it was too late.
A screenshot of the post was shared hundreds of times. He was wrongly linked by others sharing the comment as the manager or owner of a Rotorua motel, Emerald Spa Resort on Fenton St, which has prompted calls for people to protest outside the motel and boycott it.
Eggleton said he was the manager of the motel more than 10 years ago and he was upset the motel was suffering because of his mistake.
The current owner of the resort, who spoke on condition of anonymity, contacted the Rotorua Daily Post today and said the phone had been ringing hot and they had fielded several emails from people abusing them.
She said they had been busy telling people Eggleton was no longer associated with the motel.
In emails to those who had contacted the motel, she said they reiterated they did not tolerate, condone or support any kind of racism by any of their staff, associates or guests.
The emails said: "We respect your comments and anger about the post made by Gavin Eggleton and would ask that you direct your frustrations at him personally as the Emerald Spa and ... are innocent parties...''
The current owners were "extremely sad and angry" to have been caught up in the controversy.
The resort is currently being run by Tiny Deane from Visions of a Helping Hand Trust to house the homeless in Rotorua.
Deane said it was a shame the motel had been wrongly linked.
"What that man Eggleton said might have been a slip of the tongue and good on him for owning up. I guess that's the important thing."
Eggleton said he had learned a valuable lesson and he did not want to go on social media ever again.
"I'm too scared to tell my wife, but my daughter rang me this morning from Whitianga and said 'Dad, what have you done?'. I just don't know how I can fix it. I'm not a racist and I love Māori people. I have lots of Māori friends, it's just not me."
Eggleton said he had been getting death threats and threatening messages. He's tried to reply to some, explaining how sorry he was and most had accepted his apology.
"I'm just an old fella who shouldn't have said what I said."
