Sneaky hotel charges $500 for negative online reviews
Bad reviews online are the bane of businesses - especially in the service industry.
But one hotel went a little too far to combat these pesky reviews.
The Union Street Guest House charged couples, who booked weddings or parties, $500 for every bad review posted online by their guests.
And if you take down that negative review, you will be offered a refund.
Not surprisingly, the internet has reacted to this ridiculous clause by flooding their Facebook and Yelp page with comments and... bad reviews (guess they didn't mind the risk of paying $500).
The hotel's rating on popular review site Yelp plummeted to a measly one and a half stars after word got out about their approach towards bad reviews.
The hotel has since come out to say that it was only joking. "The policy regarding wedding fines was put on our site as a tongue-in-cheek response to a wedding many years ago. It was meant to be taken down long ago and certainly was never enforced," said the hotel in an e-mail to CNBC.
But this review on Yelp posted last year suggests otherwise.
Looks like bad reviews are the least of the Union Street Guest House's problems now.
Sources: Washington Post, Esquire, New York Post
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