Fine print
The New York Post details an unusual policy that a hotel in Hudson supposedly has/had: A $500 fine for negative reviews posted online by any member of a wedding party. (As you can imagine, Yelpers are BIG FANS.) If this policy was actually listed online, we couldn't find it on the hotel's site this afternoon -- but the list of policies is rather detailed and... defensive. The flip side of this situation: The owners of this hotel probably have some crazy stories about hotel guests behaving badly... [NY Post] (Thanks, Tim)
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Comments
The hotel changed their website to remove the wording. There has been a LOT of nationwide press on this.
Here is one article that goes over some of the recent events since the NY Post article:
http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/4/5966715/hotel-fines-newlyweds-500-for-negative-yelp-reviews
... said Dave R. on Aug 4, 2014 at 3:10 PM | link
Apparently it was a joke that bombed pretty hard:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101891812#.
... said DEN on Aug 4, 2014 at 3:17 PM | link
Well, they obviously wised up after news outlets everywhere from Time to Cosmo pick this up and angry people trashed their reviews.
But if you'd like to see the original text... well, the internet is forever and thankfully we have the wayback machine: http://imgur.com/rOkgGUL
... said susie on Aug 4, 2014 at 3:24 PM | link
They are now saying it was a joke, but there are cases of people who were actually contacted by the hotel to pay the $500. Please see the story I posted before for more details.
The hotel still has weird wording on its site in place of the $500 message to the effect that "people might not like them so please discourage your guests from saying bad things about them"
... said Dave R. on Aug 4, 2014 at 4:19 PM | link
Engadget now posted emails from customers that received requests/demands to pay the $500:
http://www.engadget.com/2014/08/04/union-street-guest-house-fail/#continued
... said Dave R. on Aug 4, 2014 at 4:52 PM | link
This sounds like a textbook example of the "Streisand Effect".
... said abc on Aug 5, 2014 at 8:41 AM | link