We didn't end up staying here, but there isn't an option to select on this review to tell you that. So here's our spill:
We were looking for last minute homes and this was still on the website; so thinking we struck luck, we went ahead and completed the booking online and payment had gone through. Excited that we had a place to stay, the seven (7)of us set out to then plan the weekend. Before leaving for Tauranga we contacted the host with no reply. As we get to Tauranga, we were contacting the host for information to get into the property. No reply from the host meant we had to contact VRBO directly. We went to check the house out to find there were already people in there. Confused, we tried to contact host - again, no luck with replies.
Well into the evening (hours after our first several attempts to contact the host) we get a reply from the co-host to say that our booking has fallen through and that they were unsure how we were able to book online (it was booked out but not updated online ?). Now stranded without a place to stay, and no vacancies anywhere, the 7 of us were left with fear of being unable to find a safe place to stay for the weekend. We had to look at sleeping in our cars at a park. We did receive our refund.
We just hope a better online booking method is managed for future bookings so that nothing like this happens to another group :) We're sure the place would have been great for us. Another time, maybe.