In the US, they sued the hotel, which removed $ 350 from its guests for a negative review in Yelp

The Attorney General of Indiana (USA) demands to punish the hotel, which "fined" its guests for $ 350 for a negative review. This unfortunate review was left in the social service Yelp.

According to the documents that were filed with the court, we are talking about a confrontation between the Abbey Inn hotel and a woman named Katrina Arthur, who stayed in one of the hotel rooms in March 2016. One night here cost Arthur $ 230. She turned out to be dissatisfied with the services provided by writing to Yelp after departure that the hotel room was “stink like a cesspool”.

Already on April 2, 2016, Arthur received a letter from a representative of the company that owns the hotel. The letter stated that she violated the rules of the hotel, and therefore, she would be fined $ 350. Allegedly, all this is specified in the contract signed by Arthur. She, in turn, claims that she did not sign anything like that.
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Nevertheless, the network has a copy of the contract, in one of the provisions of which the following is stated: “Guests of the hotel agree that if the guest experiences any problems with accommodation and does not tell us about these problems, we’ll leave the right to withdraw funds from the user's card in the amount of $ 350 for losses after a negative feedback on the social network. ”

Recently, ArsTechnica reporters decided to investigate this incident. First of all, they called the phone number, which is registered as the contact number of the hotel’s administrator. The company's employees answered the journalists, stating, however, that the callers had outdated information, and the hotel with the same name no longer exists, without specifying what it all means.

The administrator record itself indicates the domain owner, Nancy Jacqualee, of the Log Cabin Vacation Company. Nancy is also the owner of Log Cabin Web Design. One of her clients is a certain Andy Jacalie, who acted as a hotel representative on the side of the hotel in conflict with a guest.

According to information that the Associated Press news agency was able to receive, this man declared himself as "the president and the main shareholder of Abbey Management Inc." Namely, a representative of state authorities is suing this company. However, the owner of the hotel is already different, the “change of government” was relatively recent, in January 2017.

According to the previous owners of the hotel, a systematic attack is conducted against their business, which is known as “blackmail in social networks”. Guests stay at the hotel, pay for their stay and do not complain about anything during the entire stay. But after they leave the Abbey Inn, the owners have problems. Former guests require a refund for a variety of reasons, or simply leave a negative review on social networks. It was in order to protect themselves from such behavior that the owners wrote down a penalty clause in the rules if the guest didn’t complain about anything and then suddenly leaves a negative review. In addition, the hotel does not do anything in secret - visitors are introduced to the rules before settling. Upon arrival, the guest is also asked if he agrees with this hotel policy.

Now the hotel is owned by a daughter Jacali - Amanda. She claims that she knew nothing about the hotel’s previous policy regarding online reviews. And now she and her husband have huge problems with all the previous events. In particular, the first day after the release of the hotel news at the Associated Press became a real “horror”.

“We dedicated ourselves to the renovation of the hotel in order to bring life back to this beautiful building. This is our life and I don’t want to leave here, ”says Amanda. She claims that after the news came, she even began to receive death threats. Perhaps in order to get rid of the problems, the hotel will be closed and reopened under a new name.

Indiana Attorney, Kartis Hill, argues that “people should be able to provide feedback on poor service. Absolutely they should not be afraid of fines for the realization of this right. If you are at risk of receiving such a fine, contact us and we will investigate your complaint. ”

Abbey Inn is not the first hotel that decided to penalize guests for negative reviews. Previously, similar actions have been taken by other hotels (for example, Union Street Guest House in the New York Hudson district or a residential complex in Florida ) or restaurants . And these are only the cases of which it becomes known. Probably, other hotels, restaurants, casinos, etc. act in a similar way, but they act more carefully.