Tauranga moteliers are hitting back at allegations they are evicting homeless people to make way for a sporting event.

A Newshub story on Sunday focused on a Tauranga woman and her two boys, forced to leave emergency accommodation because of a sporting event.

AIMS gamers are being blamed for housing shortages this week.

The sporting event is the AIMS games, an annual event that soaks up most available holiday accommodation in Tauranga as the city houses more than 9000 participants plus coaches, organisers and supporters.

"The AIMS Games are an annual event that has most of the accommodation in Tauranga, particularly motels, booked out a year in advance. Often it's the same schools coming back year on year to the same motel,” says Hospitality New Zealand general manager communication, Rachael Shadbolt.

While many moteliers in Tauranga are doing what they can to assist with Work and Income New Zealand's emergency housing needs, the WINZ bookings are generally made at short notice and are only for a maximum of 7 days at a time, says Rachael.

'This means that at certain times of the year, when large events are on, motels will not be able to accommodate people looking for short lead, short term accommodation as they have existing business that needs to be looked after.

"To imply that people have been booted out of their accommodation, is inaccurate and unfair to the commercial accommodation operators who are in the difficult position of looking at long term existing bookings as well as trying to balance that with accommodating the short lead WINZ bookings," says Rachael.

'Speaking to of the AccommodationNZ members in Tauranga, they are doing what they can to accommodate everyone but sometimes that's just not possible."

The woman in the Newshub story admitted she knew when she checked in four months ago that she'd have to leave during the AIMS games, but was assured by Housing New Zealand that they would have a house for her by then.