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Ever written a bad review about a hotel? Or a tour company?

 
In the last 10 years or so, the number of reviews written on hotels must be in the millions, I suppose.  Most of us rely on these reviews to some extent, although you have to wonder sometimes when one person gives a great review and the other one gives a negative review.  We have seen this in tour company reviews as well.  One says it was the “best ever” and the other one says “never again”.  How do two people on the same tour have such opposite opinions? 

Well, one hotel in England decided to do something about a negative review that will certainly give them a lot of publicity.  They retroactively charged 100 pounds ($156 U.S. dollars) to the credit card of the person who wrote the review!  

Here is the whole bizarre story.  Now I don’t know what they hoped to accomplish by doing so, but I doubt that they wanted this kind of publicity.

The closest thing we have heard was a U.S. Catholic tour company refusing to book someone on a tour after they had posted a negative review on our forum.  But in our opinion, this action is probably justified.  And, as it turned out, someone else had written that review, which we subsequently removed.

It does bring up a point….as Catholic Christians we are called upon to “do unto others”…..etc.  So we urge you to consider the damage that can be caused to someone’s reputation, and their livelihood, if you get a little too critical of the service you receive.  The internet has provided us with sources of information, but with that comes a responsibility.  After all, there is a sin called “calumny” that can apply to businesses as well as individuals we suppose.

Certainly if a business fails to provide anything near the service the promise, it is fair to let others know.  On the other hand, just because your mattress was too soft or you did not like your tour guide is no reason to trash the entire operation.