Hotel charges female guest $350 after giving a negative review

Katrina Arthur described hotel stay as 'nightmare'

(Google Street View)

A woman in the US state of Indiana was shocked to discover that she was fined $350 dollars by a hotel after posting a negative review.

Katrina Arthur and her husband stayed at the Abbey Inn & Suites in Brown County, just over an hour south of state capital Indianapolis, in March 2016, reports WRTV.

She claimed the stay had been “a nightmare”.

“The room was unkempt and it looked like it hadn’t been cleaned since the last people stayed there,” she said. ”We checked the sheets and I found hairs and dirt.” Arthur added that there was a strong smell of sewage, weak water pressure and broken air conditioning.

After being unable to find a hotel employee, Arthur said she ultimately “had to clean the room myself.”

Following her stay at the hotel, now permanently closed, Arthur said she felt the need to post an honest review.

“I was honest. I wanted people to know not to waste their money because I know people save their money for special occasions.”

She deleted her review after being threatened with legal action and charged the extra $350. She contacted the Indiana attorney general’s office, which filed a lawsuit against the hotel company on December 15.

Indiana’s state legislature alleges Abbey Inn’s policy of charging for negative reviews is in direct contravention of the state’s Deceptive Consumer Sales act, which aims to protect customers and clarify regulations.

The lawsuit claimed the policy read: “Guests agree that if guests find any problems with our accommodations, and fail to provide us the opportunity to address those problems while the guest is with us, and/or refuses our exclusive remedy, but then disparages us in any public manner, we will be entitled to charge their credit card an additional $350 damage. Should the guest refuse to retract any such public statements legal action may be pursued.”

President and sole shareholder of the Abbey Inn corporation told Fox News the policy existed between autumn 2015 and summer 2016. It could be found on the hotel’s website but wasn’t provided to guests when they stayed.

The lawsuit has caused problems for Amanda Sweet and her husband, the hotel’s new owners.

“It’s been a horrible 24 hours for us,” she said. “We’ve been pouring ourselves into making positive renovations, bringing this beautiful building back to life. This is our livelihood and we don’t want it to go away.”

Speaking to The Independent, a spokeswoman from the British Hospitality Association said it could not comment on the legality of charges for negative hotel reviews in the UK, but did provide a recently published report concerning fake negative reviews. The report found that 85 per cent of hospitality businesses had been victim to fake online reviews intended to harm, while half said the threat of a bad online review had been used to blackmail them into giving customers a refund.