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Hotel fines $500 for every bad review posted online

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31–40 of 249 posts

Re: Hotel fines $500 for every bad review posted online

#31
post #27
post #6

Makes sense. Asking for a functional ice machine in the middle of the summer at a wedding is a pretty unreasonable expectation. We're talking about Hudson, NY here. It's practically a wilderness... having an appliance repairman come would be impossible!

[deleted]

Touch of sarcasm above, perhaps...

Re: Hotel fines $500 for every bad review posted online

#32
post #27
post #6

Makes sense. Asking for a functional ice machine in the middle of the summer at a wedding is a pretty unreasonable expectation. We're talking about Hudson, NY here. It's practically a wilderness... having an appliance repairman come would be impossible!

[deleted]

Your sarcasm detector is broken. Call the repairman.

Re: Hotel fines $500 for every bad review posted online

#33
After reading this article, I'm surprised to see that the guest house still has a high rating on Yelp and Google+. Our immediate response should be to post negative reviews based on the revelation that none of the other reviews are trustworthy.

EDIT: Yelp rating is no longer high, but there's still TripAdvisor and Google+.

Re: Hotel fines $500 for every bad review posted online

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the article, charges come out of your deposit. So that means it's on you to bring it to civil court after they take your money.

Easy to work around, make your review after the deposit comes back.

Or, if you've not signed anything yet, the better work around is to find another venue (and drop them a letter with proof of the booking for the other venue and an explanation as to why you passed them by and went with a competitor).

Re: Hotel fines $500 for every bad review posted online

#35
post #28
post #16

What a horrible policy, it won't end well for them. http://www.yelp.com/biz/union-street-guest-house-hudson?sort... 10 negative Yelp reviews have been posted today (so far), ouch... http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g47931-d490934-Revie... Their website navigation is a very discrete image map in the middle of the page, http://www.unionstreetguesthouse.com/ obviously this was someone's first website. It's probab…

Nice: If you have booked the Inn for a wedding or other type of event anywhere in the region and given us a deposit of any kind for guests to stay at USGH there will be a $500 fine that will be deducted from your deposit for every negative review of USGH placed on any internet site by anyone in your party and/or attending your wedding or event If you stay here to attend a wedding anywhere in the area and leave us a n…

[deleted]

Re: Hotel fines $500 for every bad review posted online

#36
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice: If you have booked the Inn for a wedding or other type of event anywhere in the region and given us a deposit of any kind for guests to stay at USGH there will be a $500 fine that will be deducted from your deposit for every negative review of USGH placed on any internet site by anyone in your party and/or attending your wedding or event If you stay here to attend a wedding anywhere in the area and leave us a n…

> for the reasons explained above Being lazy and not reading it myself: do they attempt to adequately explain the policy other than "we'd like to be able to be dickish without getting bad reviews" in "the reasons explained above"? (edit for those only reading this far: it appears that they do, see the replies to this post for detail)

"Please know that despite the fact that wedding couples love Hudson and our Inn, your friends and families may not. This is due to the fact that your guests may not understand what we offer - therefore we expect you to explain that to them. USGH & Hudson are historic. The buildings here are old (but restored). Our bathrooms and kitchens are designed to look old in an artistic "vintage" way. Our furniture is mostly hip, period furniture that you would see in many design magazines. (although comfortable and functional - obviously all beds are brand new) If your guests are looking for a Marriott type hotel they may not like it here."

Re: Hotel fines $500 for every bad review posted online

#37

After reading this article, I'm surprised to see that the guest house still has a high rating on Yelp and Google+. Our immediate response should be to post negative reviews based on the revelation that none of the other reviews are trustworthy. EDIT: Yelp rating is no longer high, but there's still TripAdvisor and Google+.

No, posting reviews of a service you've never used because of something you read on the Internet five minutes ago is not OK.

Re: Hotel fines $500 for every bad review posted online

#38

After reading this article, I'm surprised to see that the guest house still has a high rating on Yelp and Google+. Our immediate response should be to post negative reviews based on the revelation that none of the other reviews are trustworthy. EDIT: Yelp rating is no longer high, but there's still TripAdvisor and Google+.

[deleted]

Re: Hotel fines $500 for every bad review posted online

#39
post #10
post #3

If the hotel is clear about these terms, then I don't see much of a problem with this. It makes it really easy to know to pick a different hotel.

I should be stating the obvious here, but the fact that I even have to post this means that obviously, I am not. Just because something is written into the terms of an agreement doesn't make it legal.

I deliberately used the phrase "I don't see much of a problem with this" rather than "this is legal." I have no idea if it's legal, but I know that I don't have a problem with it.

Re: Hotel fines $500 for every bad review posted online

#40
post #3

If the hotel is clear about these terms, then I don't see much of a problem with this. It makes it really easy to know to pick a different hotel.

Because it is extorting guests into not leaving bad reviews online - regardless of service. I'm not really sure how one would think this is okay!
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