Accommodation claim by film crew disputed

Press, 2 August 1985, Page 2

Accommodation claim by film crew disputed

An assertion that members of a Japanese film crew were each charged $96 a night to stay on a farm near Methven has been disputed by the Christ-church-based company which arranged the accommodation. In a report from Tokyo printed in “The Press” yesterday, a television ■ producer said he was surprised that it cost more to stay on a New Zealand farm than in a tourist-class hotel. He also said that the television crew, from Japan’s State-run channel NHK, were charged $45 for telephone and telex use, even though they had made no calls nor sent any telex messages. The television crew was in New Zealand to make a documentary film. The director of Rural Holidays New Zealand, Ltd, Mr Lindsay Pearce, has rejected the assertions made in the report. He said that the film crew was quoted $4B a person a night to stay on

the farm, the same price as in the company’s brochure. The crew then booked accommodation on the farm for five persons, not three as stated in the report, for two nights. Mr Pearce said that the crew left the farm after staying there for l¥z days because their filming was finished earlier than expected. The bill had been made up and sent on to Christchurch before the crew left the farm because they were in New Zealand for only a short time. It had been worked out on the assumption that they had stayed at the farm for two nights and this came to $96 a person. Mr Pearce said that this was reduced to $75 a person when it was learned that the crew had not stayed as long as planned. The $45 charge for telephone and telex use was unusual and made because a number of calls were needed to arrange the visit at short notice, he said.