On 9/27/2020 at 7:08 AM, Tagged said:

the hotel is quite a good one

opinion  only

15 hours ago, Don Mega said:

several members of TVF have said in this thread they would not stay at this resort based upon these events, so yes the place has suffured a loss.

but that  may be because of the way they thought the resort  handled the situation rather than down to any  comments  made by its patrons whether true  or  false

On 9/27/2020 at 6:27 PM, herwin1234 said:

jailtime is apropiate.

nonsense a  fine  is  appropriate

Story landed in the New York Times today. This hotel might as well close down, who would ever want to stay there now? Word will get around about this place. 

4 minutes ago, LiamB80 said:

Story landed in the New York Times today. This hotel might as well close down, who would ever want to stay there now?

I would. Any hotel that takes a stand against a deranged guy trying to ruin their business because he couldn't drink his own booze in their restaurant is ok by me. 

On 9/27/2020 at 12:45 AM, Yinn said:

This about a immature USA drama queen with frial ego and the angry chekslovakia cry baby with frial ego. 

????

 

Farang hotel owner. Farang make the problem. 

 

Maybe hormone problems.

using  frial thai  laws

The interesting thing here is not the altercation itself, or even the subsequent reviews, but how the hotel responded to the situation in the aftermath (pressing charges, public statement).

There are a few different ways they could have responded to the sitiation, and yet they chose 'maximum damage' option, ignoring the much more serious collateral damage concequences to their business interests and the Thai tourism industry. The boneheadedness of their business decision is mindboggling. Roll some heads, change the management, and change the name of the hotel would be a good start.

 

 

 

 

Just now, aroiaroi said:

 

There are a few different ways they could have responded to the sitiation,

 

 

 

 

Yeah they should have repeatedly attempted contact over the period of a few weeks/month to try and come to an amicable resolution.

 

Ohhh, wait. They did try to do that but this moron ignored their contacts attempts and just kept on posting malicious reviews over varies websites.

 

9 hours ago, NY2Thailand said:

I simply don't understand how anyone can find fault with the resort in this instance. This is a clear case of the law being used exactly how it was intended.

Oh come now........Have you never heard the saying...Sticks & Stones?

 

This is as sick & lame a law as there could be...Whats next? Mommy he is looking at me?

 

This type of Thainess is what is to blame for the whole "face" deal that leads small minded

people to commit crazy life taking crimes when they feel slighted because they believe nothing

is worse than being slighted verbally or otherwise.

 

Through preaching such as this they have been raised to have such a thin fragile ego/skin they

are basically dysfunctional in the real world

 

Thai news is littered with such small mined criminals/people in power etc etc that lay claims such as these

 

Here is three words all Thai's high & low would all do well to learn

"GET OVER IT"

3 hours ago, torturedsole said:

TripAdvisor should have also added the reminder to read up on local laws before you <deleted> off to La La Land for your holidays or teaching exploits.

 

Im not sure about T/A but airbnb remind host and guest to take note of local laws

1 hour ago, LiamB80 said:

Story landed in the New York Times today. This hotel might as well close down, who would ever want to stay there now? Word will get around about this place. 

How many scams in Thailand? jet ski's and tuk tuk's to name a couple but it doesn't stop people coming to Thailand

1 hour ago, Don Mega said:

Yeah they should have repeatedly attempted contact over the period of a few weeks/month to try and come to an amicable resolution.

 

Ohhh, wait. They did try to do that but this moron ignored their contacts attempts and just kept on posting malicious reviews over varies websites.

 

He submitted 4 comments which only 3 were published online. 
 

The story is now in the New York Times. And all the outside world will see is that a tourist was jailed for making 3 negative reviews online. 
 

Bravo, hotel! Way to save face. 

all posts on the internet should be done with cornea and fingerprint scan first.

 

then if you say something bad all your money from bank....gone.   police come.  house gone.  jail, 10-years.   

 

are there places in the world where you can say what you like?????  and why are you not there??   ok, then you want to be the sheep....time to be 100% sheep.  

Well done to the hotel for restoring their, and Thailand's worldwide reputation!

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/28/world/asia/thailand-koh-chang-defamation.html

Having difficult customers is part of doing business. I'll never stay at the Sea View Resort again, and I'm on Koh Chang now, at the Dewa, which is nicer than the Sea View anyway. So, throw me in jail. 

Well, this just made my day. Empty hotels, bankrupt restaurants, millions of people on the road and no relief in site. Unclear, if and when anyone might consider kickstarting the economy and here we have to kiddies fighting in a playpen.

The American bringing his own booze (must be mother's milk) into a place where they clock THB 6'000 for a one night stay and a hotel which devalued its price to almost zero. 

The American will certainly walk, possibly with an apology or a crippled "way" for the cameras and the hotel and its reputation is history. Latter just ensured that, wherever a visitor might want to stay on Koh Chang, it is certainly not at said property. 

Thailand made itself the laughing stock of planet Earth again; the only reaction hereto would be to scrap that particular medieval law. 

Unbelievable, simply hilarious! 

On 9/27/2020 at 5:18 PM, bronzedude said:

This is one hotel I'll be avoiding.

Response of a primate....

The news is spreading.

https://news.yahoo.com/american-faces-two-years-prison-131402126.html?ncid=facebook_yahoomainf_js3jgx0vd5k

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/american-faces-prison-bad-tripadvisor-review-thailand/

 

Quote

"We chose to file a complaint to serve as a deterrent, as we understood he may continue to write negative reviews week after week for the foreseeable future," the hotel said.

^ Obviously a dumb idea that has backfired. 
 

 

 

 

11 hours ago, JensenZ said:

I have experienced a toxic reaction to shiitake mushrooms in under 30 minutes and had to rush home... on 2 occasions.

Did you have the "Barry Whites". Sorry I couldn't resist but I know them mushrooms can go through you like a dose of salts. ????

15 hours ago, NY2Thailand said:

It amazes me that some would like to equate the law as being bad because it can be used by the authorities, and others, to intimidate or surpress freedom of speech. The issue isn't the law itself, so stop with all that. Any law can be mis-applied (or even disregarded altogether, given the country, and circumstances in question). I simply don't understand how anyone can find fault with the resort in this instance. This is a clear case of the law being used exactly how it was intended. Had the guest simply left a review about his experience (the corkage fee) and not set out on a campaign to harm the business in question, he would not be in prison today. The resort has received bad reveiws in the past and accepted them - as they accurately point out. But we can not have a world where anyone and everyone is entitled to say (or post) whatever they want - wherever they want and whenever they want - even if the information being presented is false. And if you read the entirety of this guest's reviews, he clearly crosses the line more than once. No one should not be able to defame or slander a person, or business, and exepct to get away with it. And those terms aren't open to interpetation to the degree some would like to imply. Using that logic everything is open to interpretaion, a nice viewpoint if you want to abuse the law, or others. I have seen many other instances where someone was clearly on a vendetta against some entity or another in a public forum, and wondered why action wasn't being taken. I'm very happy to see it was in this case.

Unfortunately, you are making the same mistake that many other businesses make every day, around the world. It doesn't matter who is "right" and who is "wrong." It doesn't matter what the "law" says. I've worked with Fortune 100 companies that lost 5 billion dollars in market share in one day because they confused courts of law with the court of public opinion. This resort made a grievous and costly error long before the customer left the restaurant. They should have waived the corkage fee, given him a free dessert, shook his hand and said, "hope to see you again soon." They will suffer irreparable loss for not having done so. And the rude customer - you think he's going to do "hard time?" If he's not out already, he will be soon (as well he should be) and, now driven by revenge as well as indignation, will no doubt continue to do more damage once he's left Thailand far behind. Everybody was wrong in this silly episode, but no one more so that the owner of the hotel, who ignored the Prime Directive of crisis communication in the modern world: LET THE STORY DIE.

23 hours ago, sncoem said:

Hotel owner and managers are liar and cheaters. They push google and tripadvisor to delete all reviews.

Sue me if you want, and if you can find me ????

Maybe, but Google and TripAdvisor don't do that. They only remove the reviews that breach their terms of service.

 

This is clearly seen from the fact that one of the negative reviews from the guy in question is still there on the TripAdvisor website. Only the one talking about "modern slavery" was removed. (Apparently some others that were evidently not based on personal experience were also removed).

 

Also, as others have mentioned, almost every hotel has at least some 1-star reviews. How could that be if the review sites were deleting them all?

39 minutes ago, Alex25 said:

Unfortunately, you are making the same mistake that many other businesses make every day, around the world. It doesn't matter who is "right" and who is "wrong." It doesn't matter what the "law" says. I've worked with Fortune 100 companies that lost 5 billion dollars in market share in one day because they confused courts of law with the court of public opinion. This resort made a grievous and costly error long before the customer left the restaurant. They should have waived the corkage fee, given him a free dessert, shook his hand and said, "hope to see you again soon." They will suffer irreparable loss for not having done so. And the rude customer - you think he's going to do "hard time?" If he's not out already, he will be soon (as well he should be) and, now driven by revenge as well as indignation, will no doubt continue to do more damage once he's left Thailand far behind. Everybody was wrong in this silly episode, but no one more so that the owner of the hotel, who ignored the Prime Directive of crisis communication in the modern world: LET THE STORY DIE.

Good post. In a few weeks the comments will be on page 10 of their reviews and who looks back that far. Just request Trip Advisor to remove it as well. The fact that he mentioned someone by nationality could be grounds for that. 

9 hours ago, torturedsole said:

Defamation isn't a capital offence.

 

7/11 alcohol was perfectly permissible but corkage was required to be settled for the agency.  

Except that it wasn't actually required in the end. The guest was informed about the corkage fee (a standard, if not universal) practice and after he complained the resort waived the fee. 

 

So he didn't even have to pay the corkage fee which was the whole basis for his complaint in the first place.

This resort is dead, and this is just what it deserves !

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/28/world/asia/thailand-koh-chang-defamation.html
https://www.tmz.com/2020/09/28/american-sued-arrested-bad-tripadvistor-review-thailand-resort/
https://www.leparisien.fr/societe/thailande-un-americain-poursuivi-pour-un-commentaire-negatif-sur-tripadvisor-26-09-2020-8392122.php
https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2020/09/27/american-wesley-barnes-arrested-defamation-campaign-against-ko-chang-hotel/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8781885/An-American-voices-fears-facing-two-years-prison-criticising-Thailand-hotel.html
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/26/american-faces-two-years-prison-posting-unflattering-tripadvisor/
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/american-in-thailand-faces-possibility-of-jail-time-for-negative-resort-reviews/ar-BB19vTUJ
 

 

 

1 minute ago, scoupeo said:

This resort is dead, and this is just what it deserves !

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/28/world/asia/thailand-koh-chang-defamation.html
https://www.tmz.com/2020/09/28/american-sued-arrested-bad-tripadvistor-review-thailand-resort/
https://www.leparisien.fr/societe/thailande-un-americain-poursuivi-pour-un-commentaire-negatif-sur-tripadvisor-26-09-2020-8392122.php
https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2020/09/27/american-wesley-barnes-arrested-defamation-campaign-against-ko-chang-hotel/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8781885/An-American-voices-fears-facing-two-years-prison-criticising-Thailand-hotel.html
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/26/american-faces-two-years-prison-posting-unflattering-tripadvisor/
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/american-in-thailand-faces-possibility-of-jail-time-for-negative-resort-reviews/ar-BB19vTUJ
 

Well that escalated quickly.

8 minutes ago, scoupeo said:

 

 

BS ! you're talking about what you know nothing !

 

 

So why does this particular resort still have 30 negative, 1-star reviews on TripAdvisor, if they're all being deleted?

1 hour ago, Alex25 said:

They should have waived the corkage fee, given him a free dessert, shook his hand and said, "hope to see you again soon." They will suffer irreparable loss for not having done so.

They did waive the corkage fee, but by then he was an alcohol fueled fool on a mission. You should have read all the facts before making such a comment 

Should have stayed in a cheaper hotel; the cheaper ones on Koh Chang, are, unfortunately for them, accustomed to tolerating rude, aggressive, entitled cheapskates, that think they are significantly superior to the poorly paid Thai staff.

The person in question had apparently been drinking before entering the restaurant, and failed to comply with the restaurant rules.
Wonder what he would do in Manhattan when being presented with 10, or 25 or even 100 $ corking charge. (if they would let him into the Restaurant at all.)
He would pay, or be arrested.

The Thai resort asked him to pay a relatively small amount of money, he did not want to, and instead of throwing him out of the restaurant, to keep the situation quiet, the resort waived the corking charge.

Then, our fine American Guest starts sending bad reviews repeatedly, refuses to answer messages from the Resort, and instead of communicating sends more bad reviews.

The person in question is well familiar with local rules, habits and regulations, as he is apparently working in the country, and he is the one who created a problem that the resort amicably solved, and now does not want to admit he caused the problem and even aggravated it.

In my humble opinion, this is a fine example of Western Superiority complex:
Shout and if you are in the wrong Shout louder
and then expect "Locals" to bend over backwards.

No sympathy here.
He brought it upon himself.

https://nyti.ms/3jhIYuI#permid=109356192

1 hour ago, scoupeo said:

This resort is dead, and this is just what it deserves !

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/28/world/asia/thailand-koh-chang-defamation.html
https://www.tmz.com/2020/09/28/american-sued-arrested-bad-tripadvistor-review-thailand-resort/
https://www.leparisien.fr/societe/thailande-un-americain-poursuivi-pour-un-commentaire-negatif-sur-tripadvisor-26-09-2020-8392122.php
https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2020/09/27/american-wesley-barnes-arrested-defamation-campaign-against-ko-chang-hotel/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8781885/An-American-voices-fears-facing-two-years-prison-criticising-Thailand-hotel.html
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/26/american-faces-two-years-prison-posting-unflattering-tripadvisor/
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/american-in-thailand-faces-possibility-of-jail-time-for-negative-resort-reviews/ar-BB19vTUJ
 

 

 

Completely disagree if the hotel can guarantee that your stay will be free from loudmouth obnoxious americans ( Ugly American)

"Ugly American" is a stereotype depicting American citizens as exhibiting loud, arrogant, demeaning, thoughtless, ignorant, and ethnocentric behavior mainly abroad, but also at home.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugly_American_(pejorative)

 

I am sure that people will be going there in their droves to book an "Ugly American" Free vacation

 

Not all Americans come under the "Ugly American" group but at the same time there are many that do