Blackpool's Broadway Hotel fines guests £100 for negative review

Probably best to just avoid Blackpool as a whole

Oops. typo

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It could also be argued that ā€œbad reviewā€ is inherently both ambiguous and subjective. Is a bad review one that, fairly, savages the hotel, or is a bad review one that is spelled incorrectly and gets many details wrong? One is bad for the hotel, one is bad for the review. Who decides what qualifies as ā€œbadā€, is it purely on score or would one negative comment in an otherwise glowing review count? Does the contract specify these ambiguous points?

A moot point in this case because they’ve reverse the insane policy, but still…

Yeah, I did see that when I first read about it.

Also, Sky News asked Tripadvisor for a comment, and got it:
ā€œIt is completely against the spirit and policies of our site for any business owner to attempt to bully or intimidate reviewers who have had a negative experience. Where we find evidence of a business doing so, we will take action to protect the integrity of our site.ā€

I’m curious as to what actions Tripadvisor will take in this case.
Personally, I’d blacklist the hotel, and inform anyone trying to review it that the hotel has been breaching site policy.

There was a time (in the nineties I think) that ā€œbadā€ actually meant good! What a time to be alive. Badass still means good, but I think bad has gone back to meaning bad. Imagine being fined Ā£100 for writing a badass review.

A negative review could be white text on a black background rather than black on white, but it could also be the other way round. We can’t win!

For Ā£18pp/night, I’d say anything above ā€˜not currently on fire’ is a bonus for hotel prices, like.

I just LOVE LOVE LOVE the nonfunctional plumbing and filthy linens! Freezing cold drafts through the windows and floorboards added atmosphere! The carpets smelled like sick dogshit, but good!

Here’s the bad part: if they try to update their review, Trip Advisor will refuse to let them. That’s TA’s policy. The reviews there provide a thin veneer of objectivity over what is really just a booking agency. Their income derives from the hotels and they comport themselves accordingly.

yeah, it seems Blackpool can be a pretty flammable place at times:

This is kind of a flaw in tripadvisor(?) then. With expedia, the hotel wouldn’t be able to determine the identity of the bad reviewer.

With 10 reviews in the last 10 weeks, it’s possible they figured it out from details given in the review. On the newest 10 TripAdvisors reviews, there were the party who requested a cot, the one that might have complained to the clerk about a broken bed, or the few that mention booking com and when they made the reservations.

Oh, I know. I’m from a northern seaside town…

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