Was a Blackpool hotel wrong to fine a couple £100 after they left a negative review about their stay?
Though TripAdvisor is an online review site that allows customers to vent their fury at genuinely bad service, it is also a place where rival establishments and bitter trolls are shamefully able to wreck the reputations of perfectly good businesses. The story of Tony and Jan Jenkinson, a couple fined £100 for writing a negative review of a hotel they stayed at on the site, highlights another point.
Mr and Mrs Jenkinson from Whitehaven, Cumbria paid £36 for a room at the Broadway Hotel in Blackpool, Lancashire but later found that their credit card had been charged £100 extra as a fine after writing it was “a rotten stinking hovel” on TripAdvisor.
When the couple spoke to the hotel’s owner to question the charge, he pointed out that the booking form they signed states:
“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”.
Undoubtedly this policy is unfair and given 171 reviews out of the 256 TripAdvisor reviews of the Broadway Hotel mark it “terrible” or “poor”, it seems likely that Mr and Mrs Jenkinson’s experiences were not uncommon and that their reaction was perfectly justifiable. Here, for once, is a rare thing: A business that actually deserves the wrath of the ‘Trippies’.
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I am seriously amazed that this is legal. I’d be inclined to go to Trading Standards because I imagine that this would come under “unfair clauses”
How appalling. The hotel looks revolting but mind you for £36 per night, what do you expect?
On what planet does Helen live? £36 is a lot of money in any currency, we can at least expect minimum standards to apply. They claim to be a Hotel not a Borstal……….
The Hotel is probably owned by the”family”” Trading Standards lack the teeth to deal with these kind of situations.
Look at some of the comments on Tripadvisor…they can’t all be malicious….I note the Blackpool Tourist Board gives the hotel quite a cosy review..they should be hammered
At least we now know the the Jenkinson’s were telling the truth about this hotel.
Ee bah’ goom; there’s now’t as queer as folk……..oops, bugger me; we are talking Blackpool ‘ere?
Am running the gauntlet of Matthew here, as he hails from oop north; with all the inferred northern add ons
This surely is a storm in a tea bag, and it’s a win win situation for everyone involved
Mark my word it will be the talk of the Tower Ballroom ……so what’s that worth
Gladstone claimed to back the masses against the classes ( spoken in flat northern vowels )
Can you imagine how they will ‘ Revell ‘ ( sic ) in it
Martin
252 pounds a week is enough money for good hygiene & a nicely cooked breakfast if nothing else?!
Maybe these hotel’s are not able to get good hard working staff. I mean who wants to clean up shit & vomit all and every day?!
Lovelace Watkins “stormy nights before me, I am a mean old man, Heaven help me, for the way, I am” had a gig in Blackpool all those years ago, he proclaimed himself the Mohammed Ali of pop. Blackpool once had its moments, but it is a far gone memory. That was probably once a great Hotel too, standards have slipped, so have people…..
It’s probably a lesson to be learnt that when booking any hotel anywhere in the world it is always advisable to ask for its booking terms and cancellation policy as they can always come back and ‘bite you on the leg’? I have found this out sadly but have learnt from my mistakes. “Experience is a very good teacher but beware her fees are high”. However in this particular case I fear this charge is likely to be illegal and anyway if they paid by credit card, let that company do the haggling whilst they suspend the fine. I always think it best to complain at check-out if there are problems and have your bill reduced, as I just did in Florida a couple of weeks ago by $250, because I got bitten by insects, citing that they have failed to spray the accommodation = ‘bite you on the leg’!!