Union Street Guest House, a boutique hotel in Hudson, New York has recently been on the rise to infamy, as they attempted to fine a wedding couple $500 for each negative review posted online by its guests. The hotel also claims to fine you if you’re staying with them to attend a wedding at another venue in the area, but leave a negative review.
The terribly inhospitable policy on their website stated:
“Please know that despite the fact that wedding couples love Hudson and our Inn, your friends and family may not . . . If you have booked the inn for a wedding or other type of event anywhere in the region and given us a deposit of any kind for guests to stay at USGH there will be a $500 dollar fine that will be deducted from your deposit for every negative review of USGH placed on any internet site by anyone in your party and/or attending your wedding or event. If you stay here to attend a wedding anywhere in the area and leave us a negative review on any internet site you agree to a $500 fine for each negative review.”
Furthermore, the hotel agrees to give your money back once the negative review has been removed from the website. Instead of the USGH generating less negative feedback, they have caused an uproar with the public for threatening guests instead of attempting to solve their own customer service issues.
The policy statement on the Union Street Guest House website has since been removed and the hotel has declined to comment on the subject.
The USGH Yelp page is now riddled in negative 1-star rating reviews. The public is now taking dramatic efforts to come up with very creative bad reviews to combat the illogical and counterproductive policy of the company.
This is an important event to learn from because it shows how badly a business plan can backfire when the blame is put on the consumer, instead of inwards on the company. Instead of resolving inner problems within the hotel, the company blasted those who shared any negative opinion of the establishment, which then resulted in more negative feedback.
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