Expedia allows friends to book holiday at non-existent Tongan resort

It was the biggest eruption in a century in January when an undersea volcano off the coast of Tongatapu blew its stack.

The resulting tsunami laid waste to the coast and the resorts there – but Tonga vowed to rebuild.

And, six months later, when Wendy Smyth was able to book at a beach resort on the mainland, she didn’t give it a second thought.

“It all went through and Expedia sent the confirmation letter to say ‘yes your accommodation has been confirmed’, so we figured that meant our accommodation had been confirmed! We had no reason not to believe.”

Usually Wendy would give the hotel a credit card on arrival, but this time she prepaid – and paying upfront – would prove costly.

Another four months passed and she and a friend flew out, arrived late on a Saturday and took a long taxi ride to the coast. No one had been at the airport to collect them.

The driver stopped just short of the destination and checked with a couple of locals who confirmed that the resort no longer exists.

“It was just like unbelievable,’ says Wendy, still amazed, “I mean what are the odds that your resort’s just not there?”

After a $200 taxi ride, she and her friend found another resort back in Nuku’alofa. Wendy had to get her credit card out and pay more – all up perhaps $2500.

“It tainted the whole rest of the trip. I was just gutted, but I tried to just keep that to myself because I wanted her to just do what she came to do,” says Wendy.

The reason for the journey was to help her friend rediscover her Pasifika roots.

“She said all I want to do really is just stand on the ground, stand on the whenua and just get a sense of what it is to be Tongan in Tonga.”

It had been a difficult and emotional step just coming to Tonga; getting the welcome rug pulled was devastating for her friend.

Worse, there was no refund. After multiple emails, Expedia told Wendy it couldn’t reach the resort to discuss her booking.

This despite Tonga’s Tourism Ministry providing contact details and a letter of assurance that the resort had been destroyed and it was unlikely any funds had made it to Tonga.

Wendy was incredulous.

“I don’t think it was on them, it was on Expedia. You don’t confirm a booking in a resort that doesn’t exist. I can’t say it enough times, its just no-brainer! How do you do that?”

Fair Go sought answers and not just from Expedia. The resort owners were tracked down with no great difficulty and were interviewed in Auckland where they spend some of the year.

“We did not get any money from that and we didn’t have anything to do with that at all,” says co-owner Peseti Ma`afu. He explained that the resort had been reduced to its foundations, scrubbed clean in January.

“The tsunami came with all the force and totally destroyed all the resorts in Tongatapu, the main island.”

But the resort had already been closed at that point for almost two years – wiped almost flat by Cyclone Harold in April 2020.

Husband and wife team Peseti and Tala Ma’afu say they have continued to receive bookings from Expedia since then and have emailed back multiple times to say they can’t accommodate guests because the resort has been wiped out.

Usually they get a booking…