Aussie hotelier calls in the media after "malicious" posts on Agoda and Trip Advisor

[webfact]

Aussie hotelier calls in the media after "malicious" posts on Agoda and Trip Advisor

 

Picture: Manager Online

 

An Australian hotelier in Pattaya consulted police and called in the media after losing business due to what he termed as malicious posts of a guest about his stay.

 

A man had booked to stay at the Pattaya Holiday Lodge on October 27th under a Lebanese name. He left the next day then posted adverse comments on Agoda and Trip Advisor about his stay.

 

This caused a lot of people to cancel their bookings.

 

Manager said that they met Alexander Katz,45, an executive of Eastern Star Company Ltd, and his manageress Suphaporn Sae-ung, 44, at the five story 17 room hotel on Pattaya Third Road.

 

The guest who Mr Katz said was really a Brazilian aged about 35-40 complained about having to wait for hours when in reality it was just minutes.

 

The police advised them to gather evidence and make a report to press charges of malicious posting.

 

The hotel is listed online as offering accommodation in the 500 -1,200 baht range.

 

Source: Manager Online

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2017-11-06

[Enoon]

 

Some very detailed (and amusing) ripostes by the owner to this and other critical reviews of the hotel on Trip Advisor.

 

Will give it consideration for next visit to Pattaya.

 

 

[kg1947]

Part of the “risk” when dealing with Cyber World , you have to deal with

FAKE COMMENTS & REVIEWS , probably under FALSE IDENTITY .

Establishment owner must counter this with FACTS then Legal Action.

Can NOT be avoided , so deal with it .....

[Peterw42]

Interesting to look at trip advisor , a fair share of negative reviews and the manager arguing with (even abusing the reviewers) the reviews. 81 reviews, and 18 say poor or terrible, and the manager arguing the point. Manager is saying the reviews are fake, they are not fake if someone stayed there and its their review.

Basil Fawlty would be proud.

Edited November 6, 2017 by Peterw42

[Get Real]

Somebody can´t deal with a bad comment. Get off the net then. It´s a place for people that can handle their situations.

[Mister Fixit]

1 minute ago, Peterw42 said:

Interesting to look at trip advisor , a fair share of negative reviews and the manager arguing with the reviews. 81 reviews, and 18 say poor or terrible, and the manager arguing the point. Manager is saying the reviews are fake, they are not fake if someone stayed there and its their review.

Basil Fawlty would be proud.

 

 

Sounds like a Basil Fawlty with a very thin skin.  

 

If you enter the world of cyperspace wearing one of those, you won't last long.

[mercman24]

an *EXECUTIVE* staying in a cheap hotel, ? yeah right. peed myself, had my own company. from now on i am a COMPANY DIRECTOR he he

[petermik]

Living close by I pass by often.......not an inviting looking establishment by any stretch of the imagination

[mercman24]

c.mon how many of us checked this place out, i hold my hand up. i stayed in a (HOTEL) joke in soi Diane months ago, first impressions, the bloody lift had not been cleaned for years, i kid you not my feet stuck to the floor, lol

[Orton Rd]

Less than 600 baht a night so you can't expect 5 star, cheap even for Pattaya.

Edited November 6, 2017 by Orton Rd

[DoctorG]

I often do hotel reviews. I try to be honest. Good or bad, I will certainly let them know.

[AlphMichaels]

Clearly a top notch hotelier..., fully adept at managing negative reviews and overall customer satisfaction.   

[tukadadoll]

7 minutes ago, DoctorG said:

I often do hotel reviews. I try to be honest. Good or bad, I will certainly let them know.

Many thanks to the manager for highlighting the complaints, I think I will give this accomodation a miss.

[scorecard]

2 hours ago, kg1947 said:

Part of the “risk” when dealing with Cyber World , you have to deal with

FAKE COMMENTS & REVIEWS , probably under FALSE IDENTITY .

Establishment owner must counter this with FACTS then Legal Action.

Can NOT be avoided , so deal with it .....

 

Not so long back a thread about agencies where you can buy negative or positive reviews, in bulk.

 

And part of that will no doubt be hotel and restaurant owners posting fake reviews to purposely damage competitors. 

 

Therefore seems that the reviews you read can't be taken too seriously. 

[Destiny1990]

How many years the lebanese man should go to jail according to the farang hotel owner?

 

[Xonax]

Unfortunately most hotels are not living up to their promises and tend to forget, that cleanliness and maintenance is important to get positive reviews.  Anyway a 600 THB hotel room on Pattaya Third road, I would not expect to be a newly renovated place, but filthy towels, bed sheets etc. would still piss me off. 

[DurianBreath]

21 minutes ago, scorecard said:

 

Not so long back a thread about agencies where you can buy negative or positive reviews, in bulk.

 

And part of that will no doubt be hotel and restaurant owners posting fake reviews to purposely damage competitors. 

 

Therefore seems that the reviews you read can't be taken too seriously. 

That may be the case for TripAdvisor, but Agoda only posts reviews from guests who have booked through Agoda...

[Kasset Tak]

The problem with hotels and hotel reviews...
 

A 4,000 Baht/night BKK hotel had mold on the sealing, broken parts/cracks around the walls and a 10 year old humming refrigerator in the room. 

A 2,000 Baht/night BKK hotel charged me 2,000 Baht extra at check-out for a blood stein on the sheets (I have psoriasis and sometimes it's itching...).
A 350 Baht/night BKK hotel let me check-in 3am, didn't count that as my first night and they even included breakfast later that morning.

Which hotel do you think I in the end gave a good review and actually returned to in the future?!

[Docno]

1 hour ago, mercman24 said:

an *EXECUTIVE* staying in a cheap hotel, ? yeah right. peed myself, had my own company. from now on i am a COMPANY DIRECTOR he he

I'm not sure about other places, but 'executive' has a very different meaning in parts of SE Asia than in the West. It actually means is some who executes instructions from managers, what might be called frontline/frontdesk or admin staff in other countries. For example, someone selling products in a showroom will typically be called a sales executive. It's very much an inversion of what we're used to...

[Docno]

If anything, this manager's reactions to feedback would cause me to pass this place by. His basic tactics seem to be: 

1. Disparage the reviewer - suggest they are liars and cheapskates
2. Say that you can't expect a good experience at the prices charged
3. Blame others 

There's enough consistency across the negative reviews to suggest there's more than smoke here.

 

Defensive is one thing, but to go to the police for a negative review is childish and ridiculous.  

 

This guy must be a real delight to have as a boss. 

[manchega]

would avoid any place in which the manager is arguing the toss.  sounds  very much like making excuses, for which there are none.

[shavedPotter]

Interestingly enough there was a court ruling in Italy on a similar case. Someone made a post about a restaurant but as it would be the post was made the day before the restaurant opened for business.  The judge ruled that that the overall trend should be considered one not one single post. So in other words the judge said trolls are people without a life who have nothing better to do than try to make other people miserable so they don’t feel so alone and useless.

Edited November 6, 2017 by shavedPotter
typo

[NextStationBangkok]

This is the rant...

 

[NextStationBangkok]

Even some other customers don't have much good impression about this place.

 

Not sure how police can deal with this. Will they close down Agoda ?

 

Let us see.

[mikebike]

38 minutes ago, Kasset Tak said:

The problem with hotels and hotel reviews...
 

A 4,000 Baht/night BKK hotel had mold on the sealing, broken parts/cracks around the walls and a 10 year old humming refrigerator in the room. 

A 2,000 Baht/night BKK hotel charged me 2,000 Baht extra at check-out for a blood stein on the sheets (I have psoriasis and sometimes it's itching...).
A 350 Baht/night BKK hotel let me check-in 3am, didn't count that as my first night and they even included breakfast later that morning.

Which hotel do you think I in the end gave a good review and actually returned to in the future?!

I have severe psoriasis as well. Are you suggesting the establishment should be responsible for our affliction? After the first time I was charged for bloodying the sheets I just turned the aircon down and went to bed with a long-sleeved t-shirt and sweat pants on. Problem solved.

[Time Traveller]

Need a shoulder to cry on buddy?

Poor Australian, not used to the real world where people sometimes say mean things. That's what happens growing up in a cotton wool nanny society. 

[csabo]

1 hour ago, Destiny1990 said:

How many years the lebanese man should go to jail according to the farang hotel owner?

 

Jail probably has softer mattresses 

[KittenKong]

The reviews and the Aussie manager's responses (does he have a work permit for that?) are well worth reading.

 

This "hotel" (or should it be "hostel"?) has a "penthouse" but no elevator. And it's several floors up. I think that the correct description for such a room should be "attic" or "garret".

 

It has 16 CCTV cameras with microphones. What exactly is he so desperate to record?

 

He claims that Thailand does not have half-Baht coins yet in my wallet I have both half and quarter Baht coins. And he is cheap enough to round up a 2155.60B bill to 2156B, after having already added 5% as a credit card supplement.

 

He has a habit of calling his guests liars.

 

 

For what it's worth I recently spent several days in a very nice Thai hotel. Brand new. Pool. Automatic coffee machine in the lobby (free). Large room. Spotless. Big screen TV. True satellite channels. Kettle. Underground parking. Elevators. Everything working. All other facilities you could possibly imagine. 660B/night.

[lemonjelly]

Advice to the manager: when in deep hole, stop digging


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[theguyfromanotherforum]

His replies to this and some other bad reviews are hysterical.

 

Normally, I would say he is wrong and he should really look at how some other chains deal with the bad reviews. However, this being a cheap hotel I can only imagine what kind of customers he gets. Still, it would be extremely advisable to leave impartial replies without personal insults. Agoda is not Thai Visa forum and they will kick you out without warning.