Members of the Fairfax-owned holiday accommodation listing site Stayz have received compensation after the website suffered a technical glitch that stopped them being paid for properties rented out to tenants.
The glitch, which lasted from December 19 to January 4, was extended due to staff going on holiday, a spokesperson has confirmed.
“It was a small number of transactions caused by a simple technical problem. It lasted a little longer than it should have because of the holiday period,” the spokesperson confirmed to SmartCompany this morning.
The spokesperson says the affected members – less than 3% of the total 33,000 property owners – will have their listing on the site free of charge for the next two months.
Stayz general manager Anton Stanish also said in a statement the company “fully understands” the impact the glitch had on its customers.
“We…sincerely apologise to them for the inconveinence caused by the delayed payment. As a gesture of goodwill we have offered to continue their listing on Stayz.com.au for free for two months, and in addition are further assisting any customers that have incurred specific expenses as a result.”
“We cherish our relationships with our property owners, and are reviewing all our payment systems to ensure this does not happen again in the future.”
Notification of the problem was sparked when users said they had not received payments dating back to Christmas, with some bills running into the thousands of dollars.
But the spokesperson says everything is back to normal for the site.
“It was a simple technical problem, the system is now carrying on as it was before and the problem is resolved.”
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
