Hotel starts handing out $500 fines for customers who leave bad Yelp reviews, keyboard warriors raid
25 replies, posted
[url]http://bgr.com/2014/08/04/hotel-bad-yelp-reviews/[/url]
[quote=BGR]Running a business in the age of online reviews is obviously very stressful. Customers who don’t enjoy their time at an establishment could irreparably tarnish its reputation with a Yelp rating and a few short sentences, even if the customers are the ones are causing the problem in the first place. In order to avoid any issues like this, one hotel is going above and beyond the call of duty to keep guests from even considering writing a bad review: $500 fines.
Page Six reports that the Union Street Guest House (USGH) hotel in Hudson, NY is charging couples who book rooms for their weddings $500 for every bad review their guests publish online. The following quote appeared on the Events & Wedding page on the USGH website, but has since been removed:
“Please know that despite the fact that wedding couples love Hudson and our inn, your friends and families may not. If you have booked the inn for a wedding or other type of event [...] and given us a deposit of any kind [...] there will be a $500 fine that will be deducted from your deposit for every negative review [...] placed on any Internet site by anyone in your party.”[/quote]
Talk about PR disaster.
I can't remember reading whether or not this hotel accepted credit cards, but if they do, couldn't you just make a chargeback?
Streisand effect.
Well, guess who's gonna be out of business if they keep this shit up?
:v:
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/AtIeQdd.png[/IMG]
this doesnt seem legal at all
[QUOTE=Ninja Gnome;45593887]this doesnt seem legal at all[/QUOTE]
Even if it's legal it doesn't really matter since the bad publicity they'll attract from such practice will ruin them in short order.
jokes on them I just won't go to there hotel at all instead.
Hah, someone managed to make the place appear as closed on Google Maps:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/UNDoiYd.png[/img]
This sounds like bullshit.. It would be dismissed by anyone who has even a slim understanding of tort law.
That backfired quickly.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/gHQ4H0S.png[/img]
On its Google+ page (which Google throws on Maps cards). It's starting to get hit hard too:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/5LHtfOr.png[/img]
I understand that it's a shitty thing to do, but I mean, won't this affect the regular ordinary people that work there? Who might not even know what these shitbirds are doing?
[QUOTE=Covalent;45594576]I understand that it's a shitty thing to do, but I mean, won't this affect the regular ordinary people that work there? Who might not even know what these shitbirds are doing?[/QUOTE]
Yes but the owners need to feel the repercussions of doing things that are this stupid.
[QUOTE=Covalent;45594576]I understand that it's a shitty thing to do, but I mean, won't this affect the regular ordinary people that work there? Who might not even know what these shitbirds are doing?[/QUOTE]
That doesn't even come close to justifying the company's shitty actions, nor providing a good reason to let them continue unhindered. If an asshole company gets shutdown/goes bankrupt, people who had no hand in the offending action(s) will be shitcanned. That's just the harsh reality of business.
Getting rid of these awful sorts of companies is far more important than worrying about the fates of the hired workers. I mean, don't get me wrong, I feel bad for the innocent and probably-nice people whose jobs might be about to go kaput. However, sacrifices must be made in the name of knocking out terrible corporations, businesses and other groups.
Proving to these sorts of people that the walking wallets they perceive us as won't stand for their bullshit means less businesses and companies pulling this kind of garbage. If it causes this kind of insane backlash, you can bet that no one else will have the nerve to try this kind of money-grubbing. Vote with your wallet, and all that jazz, it's one of the few things that these kinds of idiots can fully perceive.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/N4D5QV0.png[/IMG]
You can always tell the people that understand fuck all about the Internet when they do this kind of thing. They still live in the 80s, thinking this kind of dumb shit move will only be word-of-mouth within a city radius (at most).
it's definitely a problem putting reviewing into the hands of some dumb consumers, just look at amazon for example, "WHYWON'T MY PHONE TURN ON, I TAPPED THE SCREEN TWICE" - Bob, aged 59; but the hotel really did react in the wrong way.
It is ABC all over again
[QUOTE=Ninja Gnome;45593887]this doesnt seem legal at all[/QUOTE]
They wanted to hand out fines to people who would publish negative opionions about the hotel which is practically the prohibition of the right of free expression.
Lost it.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/cWgF8hd.png[/IMG]
Hotel Waiter / part time manager here,
Our equivalent of Yelp! here is TripAdvisor, and despite what you guys have been saying, even some of the stereotypical technologically impaired old people don't leave any sort of silly reviews like that, most don't even leave them, however the ones that do usually have something good to say.
Obviously you get the odd one or two who are pains in the necks for the sake of it, but you get that with EVERYWHERE and the good word of mouth and reviews help to overshadow the customers who cause a scene.
wow these guys suck 1 star
[QUOTE=Instant Mix;45598417]Hotel Waiter / part time manager here,
Our equivalent of Yelp! here is TripAdvisor, and despite what you guys have been saying, even some of the stereotypical technologically impaired old people don't leave any sort of silly reviews like that, most don't even leave them, however the ones that do usually have something good to say.[/QUOTE]
It stands to reason that a technologically impaired old person likely wouldn't know about Yelp or Tripadvisor.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
