NY Hotel Fines $500 for Bad Reviews

The Union Street Guest House in Hudson, NY, wants you to keep your crummy opinions to yourself. So if you post something about the hotel’s "rude customer service, unclean, terrible odor," as NY Pix 11 quotes one reviewer, the hotel will collect a $500 fine. It’s right in their policy, which states that customers who’ve booked weddings or other events at the hotel will have their deposit deducted for every negative review written by their guests. Want your money back? Remove the review(s), the NY Post reports.

But woe to the reviewer who doesn’t remove his complaints—the owners tend to get defensive. When a guest said staff was rude when they asked for ice, the hotel posted a response: "I know you guys wanted to hang out and get drunk for 2 days ... I was so so so sorry that our ice maker and fridge were not working and not accessible." Despite the hotel’s efforts, it still has a poor average rating on Yelp. (More business stories.)