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Trip Advisor bad review 'fine' scrapped by Blackpool hotel Trip Advisor bad review 'fine' scrapped by Blackpool hotel
(about 1 hour later)
A hotel that "fined" a couple £100 for leaving critical comments on a travel review website will stop making the charge, trading standards officers say. A hotel that "fined" a couple £100 who described it as a "rotten, stinking hovel" in a review is to stop making the charge, trading standards say.
Tony and Jan Jenkinson posted the negative comment on Trip Advisor after being unimpressed with the one night they spent at the Broadway Hotel in Blackpool. Tony and Jan Jenkinson posted the comments on the Trip Advisor website after spending a night at the Broadway Hotel, for which they paid £36.
The couple, from Whitehaven, later had £100 charged to their credit card. The couple, from Whitehaven, had the £100 charge levied to their credit card two days later.
The hotel manager has not been available for comment. The Blackpool hotel's manager has not been available for comment.
Blackpool Trading Standards, which has been investigating, said it has now spoken to the hotel's management, who have agreed not to levy these fines in the future. However, Blackpool Trading Standards said its officers had now spoken to the hotel's management team, who have agreed not to levy these fines in the future.
Officials believe the hotel may have breached unfair trading practice regulations.
Mrs Jenkinson said: "We knew it was cheap, but you expect it to be clean and you expect it to be habitable - and it wasn't."
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."
However Simon Calder, travel Editor for The Independent, said the charge was "completely out of order" and undermined people's "right to give their fair comment".
However, it did "highlight the exasperation" many hoteliers have with online review sites, with some customers threatening bad reviews in order to get discounts, he said.
Retired van driver Mr Jenkinson, 63, who paid £36 for a double room, said the details of the charge were in the booking documents, but his wife did not have her glasses on and signed without reading the small print.
Trading standards officers said they were trying to find out whether the hotel was also going to refund the charge to the couple.
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