S8 under Fair Trading Investigation

A report in Brisbane’s Courier Mail this morning says that Australia’s largest tourism, Gold Coast-based S8 Limited, is under investigation by the Office of Fair Trading in Queensland for what the Courier Mail describes as “allegedly ripping off ‘potentially millions of dollars’ from holiday unit owners”.

The Courier Mail’s report says that Queensland Fair Trading investigators have seized about 10,000 documents as part of what their sources say is a “major investigation” into S8’s holiday letting practices and the probe coincides with legal action by disgruntled Gold Coast unit owners who hired a private investigator to book a unit in their S8-managed complex in a bid to expose allegedly inflated commissions.

The publicly listed S8 manages about 5000 apartments in almost 50 holiday resorts on the Gold and Sunshine coasts and in north Queensland, it also owns Harvey World Travel and other travel companies and recently announced a joint-venture travel company with Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin group.

The report says that the Queensland Office of Fair Trading is investigating claims by holiday unit owners, including those in The Phoenecian complex at Broadbeach which is managed by S8 subsidiary Driftcove Pty Ltd, of commission “double-dipping”, with the up-market building’s body corporate alleging S8 has been reaping holiday letting commissions as high as 42 per cent by directing reservations through a separate booking agency it also owns.

A statement by The Phoenecian Body Corporate Chairman Wayne Stevens alleges S8 has “failed to act honestly, fairly and professionally (and) failed to act in the interests of the Body Corporate and the (unit) owners”.  Mr Stevens told the Courier Mail yesterday one owner had received rental of $90 a night in the peak Christmas holiday season for a unit that was rented out by S8 for $242 a night.  He said the losses to owners amounted to “potentially millions of dollars”.

Fair Trading Minister Margaret Keech said the allegations of “excessive commissions” were “very serious” and confirmed an investigation was under way, with Mrs Keech defending the progress of the 15-month investigation under Opposition questioning at budget estimates committee hearings last week, saying that investigators were “sorting through thousands of documents” and it was inappropriate to comment or interfere.

S8 Managing Director Chris Scott and Chairwoman Jenny Hutson did not return The Courier-Mail’s calls yesterday.

Report by The Mole