17 hours ago, KhunFred said:

Does ANYBODY in Thai government have a degree in Economics?? You would think that those who make these decisions would be required to estimate the impact that such decisions will have on tourism. Very strange way to manage an economy.

dont really need a degree to understand it, im sure a relatively bright 8 yr old could work it out

so hypothetically, if you go to a hotel in thaialnd and lets say the bed is covered in bed bugs, the shower mouldy, the manager is rude to you, you find a fly in your food, you order 4 beers , get charged for 5

take photos,

write a scathing factual review on TA, and 5 other review websites, with photos of evidence (except the manager being rude to you)

can the hotel do what the seaview lodge did?

3 hours ago, Grge Soul said:

I reviewed a boutique hotel in Phnom Phenh  (poor wifi, staff attitude, general crappiness) - later they replied with a full assault of nonsense on TA. 

 

I emailed the hotel manager and he admitted he did it out of face saving, and retracted their complaint on TA.

 

Honesty cannot be beaten.

after all of these years I still dont get this face saving garbage,

"saving face" = pathetic excuse, for people to justify lying/wrong doing/dishonest behavior?

so if you posted the hotels reply of lying to save face, whats their next step? lie again?

6 hours ago, Why Me said:

Barnes was probably unpleasant but service-oriented businesses deal with such customers on a daily basis. The front-office staff are, or should be, trained to diffuse confrontations quickly and quietly. Filing suit should not be an option unless the guest has committed assault or physical damage.

 

As for damaging reviews, those who use sites like TripAdvisor are perfectly capable of sifting rants from the thoughtful write-ups. Barnes's reviews, especially over the top ones along the lines of "modern day slavery", would only have had eyes rolling and caused little damage. Sea View knew all this yet chose to go after Barnes for reasons only they can say. Probably some immature fellow in management who thought it would be fun to teach the farang a lesson.

 

Well, now they are forked and deservedly so. It's their turn to grovel and/or pay up big time to have that "we jail critics" label taken off. 

exactly, being in the service industry, you deal with idiots, you deal with people who say the earth is flat,

a professional is to deal with them, not get into a fight/argument everytime there is a problem,

the only time you dont need to worry about blowback is when your business is that popular that you have a queue of customers out the door regardless (think of venues in touristy areas in top locations, who will always be busy)

4 hours ago, seajae said:

"This notice should warn about possible actions if false and unsubstantiated reviews are posted". The trouble is that they will use the law against someone even when the they are telling the truth as can be seen in Thailand regularly, you cannot simply tell the truth about a business/person in Thailand without facing legal action. This is a hard one as the reviewer did add BS to his review but the hotel went overboard by having him jailed when they could have settled it without all the drama, TA has done the right thing letting people know the hotel will use the law if they dont like a review, maybe they should have added that the reviewer did exagerate some of his review but they should still let people know the hotel will and can do the same thing again if they dont like the review. I have left negative reviews on thai hotels(it was the truth) etc in TA in the past with no come back so far but warnings should be made on all the reviewing sites when a thai business does have people jailed etc for giving negative reviews

I would laugh my head off if any future customers of the hotel who were unhappy decided to wait until the day they left thailand to write scathing reviews

I have read the "tourism is going to be wiped out in thailand" comment for years on here, and although tourism seems to have dropped, they seem to survive, maybe covid + covid implications will be different,

1 hour ago, DavisH said:

Wake up Thailand...noone is coming. 500K sitting in their bank for 6 monts? How many westerners have that kind of money sitting in a bank for long periods, especially diring a pandemic? This is not even about cheap charlies. The average tourist has to save some time to even allow for an international trip. Why would I go through all this nonsense Europeans can travel around their own continent? Not, that even that is viable now, given how covid is spreading. Only business people or those that must return to Thailand will go through all this. They are dreaming if they think tourists will do this. 

I cant think of any country that the general population is wealthy enough or the cost of living is so high that they have 500k baht equivalent for 6 months in an account

3 hours ago, dutchdude said:

the Vietnamees are laughing their asses off, I can see the billboards all over Europe , come to Vietnam its for free and it looks the same as Thailand and we speak better English

 

will farangs be as Hansum in vietnam though?

so im confused, for a country like australia, they have 30 day entry arrangement where they dont need a visa or any requirements,

so this new rule only applies if you want to stay for up to 60days?

if this is the case it wont affect any tourists unless they are intending to stay for 30days plus

Were they expecting to get their superannuation, holiday leave, sick leave, on their bribes?

On 10/9/2020 at 3:27 AM, kingofthemountain said:

 

Can i ask you how old are you? You don't seem to have a lot of experience

of the life or a deep thinking about complex problems

 

OP is 60, and gf is her 40s

52 minutes ago, oldhippy said:

Anutin: Thailand is ready to open up to foreign tourists

 

.....but they have to come in max groups of five or be arrested.

Ready for all foreign tourists except those that write negative reviews on trip advisor on hotels after refusing to pay corkage

5 hours ago, RotBenz8888 said:

Our charm??? 

How else can you say "you HANSUM mannn"?

14 hours ago, CrunchWrapSupreme said:

I haven't been back in my home country of America for awhile, and haven't kept up with all those new govt agent shows like "NCIS".

 

But it was on one of those shows, about two years ago, the plot involved them going to Thailand to rescue someone. They warned the agents, "Be careful what you say. There's no free speech in Thailand". I remember this was in the news and created a row with the Thai govt. They totally denied such things, banned the show, and demanded the producers issue an apology.

 

It's rather funny on two levels. One, they pull their familiar "You must apologize" behaviour. And two, as in this case, what they're demanding the apology for is absolutely true.

 

And to that I'm having another drink this evening. Cheers, Amazing Thailand. ????

was it Madame secretary?

28 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

But, the reality is, we do not have the facts. It could have been a bottle of wine. The patron could have been abused by management and the staff. It is likely the "info" about the corkage being waived is fake news, by management. I am always more inclined to believe a customer, than a hotel. Especially a hotel in this position, that they have put themselves into. There is so little we really know about what went on here.

 

I will double down here. It was a huge error on the part of the hotel, and total corruption on the part of the police, and a huge over reach on the part of the government for having this law in the first place. Alot of foolishness here, and the Sea View Hotel in Koh Chang is paying the price for it. Hooray!

its hard to believe anything from either parties,

i believe its been confirmed its a bottle of gin,

as i previously said, bringing in a bottle of wine is a lot less drama than a bottle of gin

34 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Is that factual information, or something the hotel has said to the media, in a hopeless attempt to get back some of their ruined reputation, and remove some of the dirt from their faces?

 

I understand corkage. I am a wine collector, and attend alot of wine dinners in the US. Usually at very nice restaurants. The corkage is something we work out in advance. It is very rare for us to get charged corkage, however we are a large group, and spend alot on food. I get the need for a corkage fee. I truly wonder that their attitude was. This guy could have been a sourpuss, with a bad attitude, or he could have had a very good reason to be as angry as he was. Will we ever know?

and this is where intelligent discretion comes into play, anyone thats intelligent and a good manager/service provider, its really really common sense to a degree

a bottle of wine only serves 5 people , also depends on the number of people, are you a regular? what are you likely to spend on food, what are the implications if you say no, are you likely to get more return business

in this American guy's case he is bringing a bottle of gin, which is 20+ drinks, chances are he isnt eating anything, hes coming in with only 2-3 people, he didnt have dinner at that establishment, hes behaving like a cheep charlie <deleted>,

charging corkage or outright refusal is the first two sensible choices

17 hours ago, NanLaew said:

A hotel already facing challenges due to the collapse of tourism doesn't need a vindictive twerp repeatedly posting lies though. A hotel already facing challenges due to the collapse of tourism can't count on every travel advisory website surfer being as savvy as you suggest they need to be. The Thai-bash is strangely enough a very rewarding activity for some as the 11 pages (so far) on this thread can attest.

 

The internet is also no place for idiots. My opinion of Tripadvisor isn't the best since most 'advisors' aren't regular travelers. I take this from a review by some earnest but ultimately clueless western visitors to a US-owned burger and Tex-Mex place in Nha Trang, Vietnam. They slated it for it's limited choice, authenticity and comparative cost but rounded out their review with the admission that they weren't actually looking for a burger or Tex-Mex after all.  They were after some classic Vietnamese Phở but, having risen too late, found it wasn't readily available.... so they slagged off a place that they never intended to eat in anyway.

 

As for jailing as punishment, as totally disproportionate as it is, Thai law allows it.

I agree with what you are say completely

but "A hotel already facing challenges due to the collapse of tourism doesn't need a vindictive manager/owner if they are genuinely trying to keep existing business and bring in new ones"

at the end of the day, the the tourists reputation hurts his feelings and maybe his friends and family, the hotels reputiation can lead to $1000s+ in profits, plus you expect the hotel to act professionally

17 hours ago, kentrot said:

Yes it is a common practice.

But in this case i believe I read that the amount charged was 350 Baht .

Pretty steep "corkage" for washing 2 glasses !

I believe I read that they were drinking from an open bottle of Gin that they started drinking at the beach.

you are completely missing the point,

as a former hospitliaty venue owner (we didnt allow any outside drinks in because it wasnt asked often , plus its not really in our culture to bring)

the corkage doesnt just cover the cost of providing 2 glasses and water and soap, its the opportunity cost of what they would have or could have spent purchasing from your venue,

a fair corkage fee would be for example the $40 bottle of whatever, 23 shots per bottle, thats $2 each, sells for $8 at the venue, is $6 profit, x 23 = $132 per bottle

obviously very few people are going to go for that so the venue could adjust it to suit their goals

17 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Wrong. He is a tourist that will be quickly forgotten. This extremely tone deaf, incompetent and arrogant administration, will have egg on their faces for a long time, over this foolishness and very poorly timed pettiness. And the hotel will lose an enormous amount of business over this lack of goodwill. As far as the local franchisees go (the cops), their reputation could not be any worse, so no real loss there.

 

Horrible judgment all the way around. 

but will the hotel/tourist board ever realise this?

or will they care?

17 hours ago, Johnnyy said:

Sometimes in life when you are not happy you just have to suck it up and move on. You can’t beat the system. I bet he wished he had done that now. 

agree, however if I receive that bad service, I will make sure that I write a review or let others know to the best of my ability,

I would never take a bottle of alcohol to a bar/restaurant who's primary income is alcohol

years ago, me and a mate were checking into a 5 star hotel, we met a third friend already in a different hotel at the lobby,

the hotel started to insinuate the max room capacity was 2 ppl, and that we would be charged extra for him to stay,

luckily a little insistence convinced them he wasnt staying , however if we did get charged, I would have written a bad review

19 hours ago, Silencer said:

I think THAT is the point, in THAILAND, using the term treated like "modern-day slavery", worked like "slaves", IS treated differently from the West. Thousands of business review on a website like Glassdoor that call companies, managers, CEO's "slave master's", "Hitler", and other damaging names but the reviews remain because it is seen as an expression of opinion. In Thailand, opinions can get you sent to jail.

I wonder if any of this would have happened, had his review said something along the lines of "the manager treated their staff like scum", because its an opinion and nothing defamatory, and could be completely true

19 hours ago, poohy said:

Faced with jail, I too would lie through my teeth and apologize

 

Western media will see through this poor PR apology  stunt!

Neither Thailand the hotel or the bloke are winners here 

imagine the difference in outcome had hte guy been living outside of thailand or about to leave

he would never apologise or he would apologise, get it sorted, and then later recant and say he was pressured/threatened,

double whammy for the hotel had this happenned

but im sure the hotel wouldnt have thought that far ahead