• Trip Advisor couple 'fined' £100 by hotel for bad review
    17 replies, posted
[QUOTE] A couple say they have been "fined" £100 by a Blackpool hotel for leaving critical comments on travel review website Trip Advisor. Tony and Jan Jenkinson posted the negative comment after being unimpressed with the one night they spent at the Broadway Hotel. The couple, from Whitehaven, later found £100 charged to their credit card. The hotel said its policy was to charge for "bad" reviews. Trading Standards are investigating. Officials believe the hotel may have breached unfair trading practice regulations. The manager of the hotel, on Burlington Road West, was unavailable when contacted by the BBC. 'Freedom of speech?' The hotel policy, contained in a booking document, reads: "Despite the fact that repeat customers and couples love our hotel, your friends and family may not. "For every bad review left on any website, the group organiser will be charged a maximum £100 per review." [/QUOTE] [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30100973[/url] Freedom of Speech m8
[url]http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g186332-d554701-Reviews-Broadway_Hotel-Blackpool_Lancashire_England.html[/url] Place is so horrid, they use the fines to make cash since so many people would never come back or visit. 244 reviews and almost 200 of them are sub 3 stars.
Something about shit tier hotels or restaurants that still expect shit out of you really grinds my gears. I'm not paying to get hepatitis. You should be accommodating me.
There was another case of this posted in SH a while back. Shit can't be lawful, surely?
[QUOTE=ferrus;46526646]There was another case of this posted in SH a while back. Shit can't be lawful, surely?[/QUOTE] Yeah and that hotel is no longer in business I believe, doing shit like this is basically PR suicide.
While it is absoloutely scummy behaviour, Freedom of Speech doesn't apply here since it's a private company and not the government.
[QUOTE=RayvenQ;46526920]While it is absoloutely scummy behaviour, Freedom of Speech doesn't apply here since it's a private company and not the government.[/QUOTE] Regardless, it's still not possible that the fine would ever hold up in court. You could just not pay it. Doesn't matter anyways, it's not like you'd be going back.
Just chargeback.
[QUOTE=CubeManv2;46526495][url]http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g186332-d554701-Reviews-Broadway_Hotel-Blackpool_Lancashire_England.html[/url] Place is so horrid, they use the fines to make cash since so many people would never come back or visit. 244 reviews and almost 200 of them are sub 3 stars.[/QUOTE] Goodness me, just look at those guest photos.
[QUOTE=RayvenQ;46526920]While it is absoloutely scummy behaviour, Freedom of Speech doesn't apply here since it's a private company and not the government.[/QUOTE] You still can't charge someone for something like that, even in the case it's in a contract, unless you have directly and repeatedly told the person that this is in the contract.
[QUOTE=Snowmew;46527302]Regardless, it's still not possible that the fine would ever hold up in court. You could just not pay it. Doesn't matter anyways, it's not like you'd be going back.[/QUOTE] AFAIK, aren't private organisations not allowed to impose their own fines? Charging the credit card of the owner for a service he didn't apply for and did not give consent is corporate suicide. It basically comes down to the fact that the company abuses the trust and highly sensible information's of the customer for their own gains and to cause major harm to the customer.
[QUOTE=Sanjuaro;46527404]Goodness me, just look at those guest photos.[/QUOTE] Looks like a crack house, I don't get why they can't just run a real hotel instead of trying to cover up the shit they have now.
What a fucking shit hole, just looked through the pictures. I don't understand how anybody could spend a night there, even after paying.
You know when people say " Any publicity is GOOD publicity"? Yeah not in this case.
[QUOTE=counterpo0;46527965]You know when people say " Any publicity is GOOD publicity"? Yeah not in this case.[/QUOTE] I thought only idiots said that anyway?
[QUOTE=kaukassus;46527504]AFAIK, aren't private organisations not allowed to impose their own fines? Charging the credit card of the owner for a service he didn't apply for and did not give consent is corporate suicide. It basically comes down to the fact that the company abuses the trust and highly sensible information's of the customer for their own gains and to cause major harm to the customer.[/QUOTE] In a bare-bones sense, the customer agreed to the service agreement from the hotel saying that they would be charged for a bad review. You certainly cannot argue against housekeeping fees if you totally trash your room, for example, but this is because the hotel can provide a court an itemized, justifiable reasoning for charging the fee (you'd have to pay X employees $Y to cover the cost of cleaning the room, $Z for replacing carpets/sheets, etc.) It is extremely unlikely that a bad review fee could be justified in this case. They could argue damages from lost sales, but such things are not easily quantifiable, and would be applicable only in a libel suit.
[QUOTE=ultra_bright;46527510]Looks like a crack house, I don't get why they can't just run a real hotel instead of trying to cover up the shit they have now.[/QUOTE] Because that would involve work and money?
[QUOTE=RayvenQ;46526920]While it is absoloutely scummy behaviour, Freedom of Speech doesn't apply here since it's a private company and not the government.[/QUOTE] Really facepunch? Disagreeing and dumbing this post? It is absolutely correct. You have freedom to speak out against the government, private businesses are another matter. Still illegal for a variety of reasons, but not on the grounds of freedom of speech.
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