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This story is unbelievable, not only in one establishment’s feeble attempt at penalizing a
couple’s freedom of speech, but for their sheer audacity at thinking they can
get away with it. A couple recently stayed in a ‘filthy dirty rotten’ hotel,
their words not mine (mine would’ve been much more scathing) and posted a
negative review of the hotel on Trip Advisor. They were soon to discover that
the hotel fined them for posting negative feedback about their experience
(imagine the precedent that would be set if one was fined merely from
expressing a negative opinion on the Internet, esp as 98% of the Internet is
negative opinions!).
In short, the couple
described their jaunt to a seaside English hotel in Blackpool as essentially vile and
disappointing on all levels (um, for starters, maybe reexamine your need to go to Blackpool!
Just sayin’). Apparently they chose the hotel for its ‘ample’ parking but when
they arrived there, the lot was full and they were forced to park at another
hotel. Not a good start to one’s hotel stay, that’s for sure.
The couple went on to say
that they were revolted by the state of the room. Just to give this some
context, the room cost £36 a night. My first question would be, WHAT ON EARTH do
you think you’re going to get for that amount of money?? [They are lucky they
weren’t asked to pitch a tent in the parking lot and boil their own water to shower]. The drawer fronts fell off the furniture when
they tried to open the drawers, the wallpaper was peeling off, the room was dirty, the sheets and carpet riddled with stains, and the mattress was deemed a health and safety threat…to name a
few of their concerns. I would have run screaming from the room wrapped in a giant Wet Wipe.
Thereafter posting this
review, the couple realised that they were fined £100 pounds on their credit
card for 'negative feedback' in addition to the room charge. Clearly enraged by this farce, the couple complained to the
local trading standards office (who stated they had never seen anything like
this, but were probably in some strange way impressed by this ‘novel’ concept to deter bad reviews) who
spoke to the hotel about this questionable ‘policy’ and they are now carrying out an investigation. The
couple as you can imagine is raving mad, not only because they had to stay in
this sh*thole, but because they are now fighting to have the charge removed
from their credit card for telling the world it was a dump.
In
a statement, Trip Advisor said it deplored the practice of fining its users.
"While thankfully such instances are very rare, it is completely against
the spirit and policies of our site for any business owner to attempt to bully
or intimidate reviewers who have had a negative experience.” You think?? Can
you imagine the volcanic eruption of cr*p consumers would have to deal with if
every time they put a negative review somewhere, they were fined for it?
My husband is a Trip Advisor
addict. He doesn’t book a thing until he’s exhausted every website, read
reviews, and scoured photos – I wouldn’t put it past him to fly to the hotel just
to inspect it before our arrival. The man is meticulous and my OCD tendencies
greatly appreciate his attention to detail. But, I’m also confident
that if he saw a room was going to cost under 40 quid, even in Blackpool, he’d
convince me a weekend at home with the King hollering in our faces about his
latest Lego building project was a far better option. That said, if we
ever do stay in a dump again, I'm bringing my cleaning supplies and someone is going to hear about it.