A backpacker has been left feeling itchy and irate after staying at an inner-city Auckland hostel later found to have bedbugs.
Alexandra, a tourist from the Czech Republic, checked into the Surf ‘N’ Snow Hostel on Auckland’s Albert St for two nights on June 15.
She’d booked the stay via hostel-focused online booking platform HostelWorld, a website she has used many times before without incident.
She made the booking quickly and admits, “I didn’t check the Google reviews, which was my mistake”.
The backpackers has an average star rating of 2.2 from 659 reviews on Google, 58 of which mention bedbugs. One posted a month ago reads: “Highly recommend if you wanna sleep with tons of bedbugs in a dirty room.”
Alexandra was lured by a low price, paying $18 for each night of her stay, and said she had realistic expectations around the accommodation, expecting it to be “messy” but not anticipating the 10-bed dorm with pests such as bedbugs.
“When I came to check in, I literally asked the receptionist about the bedbugs,” she said.
“They said, they [do] have them, only in summer, but during the winter, they don’t really have them.
“It sounded weird, but like, I landed at 4.30am... and then [with the] airport and stuff... I was really, really tired.”
Alexandra said she saw a bug in her hostel room the next morning and took a picture of it but didn’t have any bites at the time so dismissed it.
“The second day, when I woke up, I was covered with bites.”
Due to check out and keen to get on her way, Alexandra departed the hostel without raising the issue, returning two days later, on June 19, to complain after her physical symptoms showed no sign of abating.
“I noticed that like those bites... they’re like more and more. It was like really itchy and bad.
“I decided to go and talk to them because, first of all, I spent like almost $40 on laundry to wash everything after I left the hostel... I had to dry my shoes, my backpack, like literally everything. I felt like they should have refunded me for this.”
Returning to request a refund for her stay and the money spent on laundering her possessions, the tourist said the manager’s response was “disturbingly casual”.
“He handed me $40 for laundry, told me that ‘the council already knows’ and ‘they won’t do anything about it’.
“He made it sound like this was a normal and accepted situation, which is deeply concerning.”
The backpacker was issued a refund but said she was told by the hostel it would need to investigate afterwards to see if there were any bedbugs.
When called on June 20 by the Herald and asked whether the hostel had bedbugs, a worker said they would “have to check with the manager” and asked why Surf ‘N’ Snow specifically was being asked about bedbugs when many accommodation providers could be in the same position.
Auckland Council’s manager of licensing and environmental health Meryvn Chetty said the council receives fewer than five complaints about bedbugs per year, which he said suggests the problem is not widespread.
“However, there are no requirements for places such as hostels to be registered with the council under any current legislation.
“This means we do not carry out proactive inspections of such businesses. However, we do respond to complaints from the public.”
Alan Ahmu, team leader environmental health response at Auckland Council, verified “an enforcement officer has visited the premises and confirmed the presence of bedbugs”.
The hostel was subsequently issued a “cleansing order” under section 41 of the Health Act, requiring the owner to engage a professional pest control contractor to ensure the infestation is eradicated.
The council will revisit the premises to confirm this has been carried out.
In an email to the Herald, Surf ‘N’ Snow Backpackers confirmed “that as per the council’s cleansing order, we have fully cleaned the areas of concern”.
“In addition to this, we have just completed... a full inspection of all the rooms of the hostel by a professional pest controller.”
Jos Vogels of First Choice Pest Management confirmed to the Herald he carried out pest management services twice in the past week and did not find evidence of bedbugs at the property.
Asked if it had taken the backpacker’s complaint seriously and acted quickly enough to address concerns, the hostel said any suggestion they hadn’t “would be ridiculous”.
“We completed the required cleaning order within the span of a week, which was as quickly as possible,” it said in an email.
“The guest in question from my understanding did not mention a single thing about bedbugs during nor at the end of the stay.
“Rather, the guest came back one to two days later to complain about the bugs to which we can not [sic] know if the guest was bitten while residing at a different accommodation.
“If we had been advised during or when the guest checked out, we could have made a faster action to the issue.”
Chetty said if accommodation providers are alerted to a bedbug infestation they should engage a professional pest control contractor and take appropriate measures to ensure the eradication of the pests.
“This might include vacating rooms identified with bedbug infestation, spraying and treating rooms, and disposing of bedding and mattresses.”
Anita Collins-Preiss, business manager at Auckland cleaning company A-Jet Services, said bedbugs are “far more common than most people realise”.
“They’re widespread across the city and don’t discriminate, affecting people from all walks of life regardless of income or location.”
Collins-Preiss said if you notice the tell-tale signs of bedbugs – such as clusters of bites on exposed skin, dark or rust-coloured spots on bedding or mattresses or even seeing the insects themselves – contact a professional pest control provider registered with the Pest Management Association of New Zealand.