PHOTO: Tony and Jan Jenkinson, the couple facing a fine for posting a negative review. (BBC)
If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Remember that old euphemism? It turns out that it could come in handy the next time you're thinking about leaving a bad hotel review.
According to the Telegraph's Keith Perry, a British couple were charged £100 after leaving a negative review about the Broadway Hotel in Blackpool on the popular travel review website TripAdvisor.
Tony and Jan Jenkinson referred to the hotel as a "rotten stinking hovel" and later discovered the charge to their credit card. Naturally, the couple inquired about the payment. According to Perry, when asked, the manager informed them of the hotel's "no bad review policy," which is included under the terms and conditions.
The policy states, per Perry:
"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."
After receiving the maximum penalty, the couple reached out to the Cumbria County Council's Trading Standards.
North Trading Standards area manager John Greenbank is confident that the troublesome practice won't be allowed to continue, per Perry:
"I have worked for Trading Standards for many years and have never seen anything like this. The hotel management clearly thinks that they have come up with a novel way to prevent bad reviews, however we believe this could be deemed an unfair trading practice."
While the couple await a potential refund, the hotel policy has been passed along to Blackpool Trading Standards for further investigation.
This bizarre news comes just three months after a report on New York's Union Street Guest House and its booking policy that fined "wedding couples $500 for every bad review left online by their guests," according to the Telegraph's Scott Campbell.
Although scathing reviews can harm a hotel's reputation and are no doubt bad for business, guests everywhere should be free of the threat of punishment when providing honest accounts of their stay.
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