£100 charge for ‘bad website review’

A couple have claimed they were charged an extra £100 by a hotel after leaving an online review describing it as a “filthy, stinking hovel”.

Tony and Jan Jenkinson said they were hit with the “fine” after leaving highly critical comments about the Broadway Hotel in Blackpool on TripAdvisor.

They stopped at the hotel on their way to Oxford, paying £36 for a night in a double room.

But they said they encountered a string of problems, prompting Mr Jenkinson to post the review on 30 August in which he branded the hotel a “filthy, dirty, rotten, stinking hovel”.

The Jenkinsons said they discovered the £100 charge on their credit card statement a few days later.

When they queried the charge, they were said to have been told it was incurred under a “no bad review policy” included in the terms and conditions.

The policy said: “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.”

The couple complained to Cumbria trading standards officials, who have passed the matter to counterparts in Blackpool.

Blackpool Council said today that they understood that the hotel will reimburse them, as well as scrapping the policy.

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