Thai hotel seeks deal with guest facing jail over bad reviews

[Baggy]

14 hours ago, YetAnother said:

whole thing is a tempest in a teapot; thailand is what it is, including a sea of foolish, irrational laws; they need settle this with a couple wais; damage already done to thai tourism and that hotel;

he gets jailed then even worse

Very simple solution, when checking in sign declaration that only positive be allowed.

If you must leave a negative review, only do so when back in your home country

If you leave negative review we put you in courtyard and shoot you.

[bstafford214]

Just now, terje johnsen said:

Nobody get jailed for a bad review but this guy had it comming he broken the rules of tripadvisor and get deleted and send bad reviews under fake names over several weeks that is not something NORMAL people do.

You must not see the point I was making. Is it true that there is a Thai law that states you can be imprisoned or fined in Thailand if you give a bad review against a Thai person or business, regardless of whether it was deserved to that Thai person or business?

 

The point was not whether the American was wrong or not.

[CraigInBangkok]

Just now, terje johnsen said:

Nobody get jailed for a bad review but this guy had it comming he broken the rules of tripadvisor and get deleted and send bad reviews under fake names over several weeks that is not something NORMAL people do.

It does'nt matter if he had it coming or not. If you do anything online you need to understand theres a good chance you will get trolled and if you hit out (especially like they did) then its your business that will suffer

[Elkski]

11 hours ago, mark131v said:

You do realise we are talking about 'thai police' not real police, they are without doubt the biggest gang in town and the best money can buy!!

 

Lets get it in context in the Blue corner we have a gobby yank tourist and in the Red corner we have an entitled Hi So hotel owner who is a big man on a small island

 

You wanna bet that the Red corner has all the power and is used to getting whatever he wants with lots of waiing and prostrating, if he want's the Yank nicked at a specific time in order to get maximum revenge he is well able to, again if you believe otherwise I have a bridge for sale... 

<deleted> is a gabby yank tourist?   You mean the Yank, from the country, that freed your a$$?

[hellohello123]

1 hour ago, moe666 said:

The customer is not always right, a friend ran a guest houe in CM. He had a guest complain on trip advisor that he had no parking, which is stated in the guest house advertisement. The kicker was the fact the complainer didn't have a car but was complaining about no parking. They are every where.

you know, its just how the world is and probably has been for thousands of years, now that social media is here, its easier to have a voice, anyone business owner that thinks this wont happen or doesnt know how to handle it is either inexperienced or naive

 

I worked at a fine dining establishment ages ago, and we served a customer oysters kilpatrcik, and he complained and he kept on repeating that he owns restaurants around the world, and that oysters kilpatrick dont have worscestershire sauce in it,

 

rather than take him to court and put him in jail, we took it off the bill, and offered him something else

[hellohello123]

I wonder whether the hotel found out before they filed charges that he was a resident of thailand and not a tourist,

 

I would have thought most people who stay in resorts of a country are tourists who will stay for a week or two in the country and fly out and may only come back once in a lifetime

 

so filing charges against a overseas resident would be pointless

[bstafford214]

3 minutes ago, hellohello123 said:

you know, its just how the world is and probably has been for thousands of years, now that social media is here, its easier to have a voice, anyone business owner that thinks this wont happen or doesnt know how to handle it is either inexperienced or naive

 

I worked at a fine dining establishment ages ago, and we served a customer oysters kilpatrcik, and he complained and he kept on repeating that he owns restaurants around the world, and that oysters kilpatrick dont have worscestershire sauce in it,

 

rather than take him to court and put him in jail, we took it off the bill, and offered him something else

That sounds like a very good and logical course of action for a suffering tourist business right now.

[holy cow cm]

A hand shake and both sides say sorry and they will all work on bettering themselves. As for paying money, no way this should happen.

[Neeranam]

The owner is influential. He could drop charges and have a word with immigration to punish the English teacher. 

[terje johnsen]

5 minutes ago, bstafford214 said:

You must not see the point I was making. Is it true that there is a Thai law that states you can be imprisoned or fined in Thailand if you give a bad review against a Thai person or business, regardless of whether it was deserved to that Thai person or business?

 

The point was not whether the American was wrong or not.

The point is nobody get jaild for bad review in Thailand nobody ever have.

This guy let it go to far.if you did the same in america or Australia or europe you can go to jail to for go to far and atack a business like that end of story.

[ChipButty]

6 minutes ago, hellohello123 said:

I wonder whether the hotel found out before they filed charges that he was a resident of thailand and not a tourist,

 

 

When he checked in dont forget the hotel should do a TM-30 

[Pravda]

Most civilized establishments have learned to deal with multiple 1 star reviews. Ask Hilton and Holiday Inn how would they respond. Actually you can see for yourself. 

 

Even a single 1 star review to Amazon seller whether malicious or not can get a seller booted off the platform and no one is suing anyone. 

 

This is very very bad for this hotel and I see already there have been warnings in Chinese that you can get arrested if you post a bad review. 

[zaZa9]

Where I come from , a Hotel would run a mile to avoid all this negative publicity.

[HampiK]

1 minute ago, Pravda said:

Most civilized establishments have learned to deal with multiple 1 star reviews. Ask Hilton and Holiday Inn how would they respond. Actually you can see for yourself. 

 

Even a single 1 star review to Amazon seller whether malicious or not can get a seller booted off the platform and no one is suing anyone. 

 

This is very very bad for this hotel and I see already there have been warnings in Chinese that you can get arrested if you post a bad review. 

and in 2 months nobody talks about this anymore!
it's not the first time Thailand do someting different than other countries and it will be forgotten again.

[bstafford214]

9 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

The owner is influential. He could drop charges and have a word with immigration to punish the English teacher. 

I wonder if the American English teacher has already been punished?

 

Does he still have his teaching job at the school?

[9653]

14 hours ago, mr mr said:

are any of these people adults ? 

 

to all involved. please let go of your egos. offer the man a free stay. provide a service worth reviewing and everyone is happy. 

 

i am 100 % sure mr barnes is totally without any fault..... right mr barnes ? 

Yes, absolutely faultless, mr. Barnes?

[TSF]

It's a fortunate time for this hotel as there's no international tourism, so they're unlikely to see any or much impact from this whole incident. But if this happened a year ago I'm sure they would see a huge drop off in bookings.  However, by the time international tourism resumes to significant levels all this will long be forgotten. Personally I don't care much for Koh Chang but if I was to go there again I'd avoid this hotel. Who knows, I might do something to pee off the boss and end up in the monkey house facing long term imprisonment or deportation....and that's not my idea of a pleasant tropical island holiday. 

[ChipButty]

We have a few friends who work in the hospitality business in good 5 star hotels in BKK even they get nasty reviews it's all about how you deal with them, is what they say to me not just go off the deep end like this,

They have a list of nationalities who they consider to be the worst when it come to complaining, Im not going to say on here could be classed as racist, Im not racist Im British

[bstafford214]

11 minutes ago, terje johnsen said:

The point is nobody get jaild for bad review in Thailand nobody ever have.

This guy let it go to far.if you did the same in america or Australia or europe you can go to jail to for go to far and atack a business like that end of story.

You may not know much about America or other Democratic countries then in regards to posting a review about a business.

[Moo 2]

This is going World Wide if tourists could end up in jail for complaining about bad services.

If Tourism Thailand thinks this is the way to attract tourists, well, good luck!

 

    "God must like Stupid people, because He sure made a lot them". 

[JusticeGB]

Having read the reviews and the responses I think that Barnes is a plonker for not responding to the hotel's request to deal with his spiteful reviews and then not to respond to the request to go to the police station in accordance with the writ. He then was in the legal process which sadly in Thailand makes Defamation a Criminal Offence and not a Civil Claim.

 

It would appear that TAT, or some other body, has stepped in to prevent further damage to Thailand's reputation and asked both parties to negotiate a settlement. Barnes in my opinion is in the wrong, even in Civil Claims, for a malicious defamation made for malicious reasons. He will probably part with a brown envelope and I expect that any settlement will be called amicable and the details kept secret. However Barnes might have to pay for an advertisement stating that he has withdrawn his reviews.

[terje johnsen]

3 minutes ago, bstafford214 said:

You may not know much about America or other Democratic countries then in regards to posting a review about a business.

As far as i know is norway where i come from is a democratic country but that doesnt mean you can do what you want in other country. When i go to Thailand i fellow thai law and expect that forigners that visit norway folow norwegian law. I know a guy that get expelled from us for swearing in a bank  but i dont tell people to avoid us for that. 

[Mr Meeseeks]

4 hours ago, Captain Monday said:

Sounds like a dangerous and violent lunk who never should have been let in.

I believe in required criminal checks for Americans wishing to enter Thailand. 

By the way I'm a US citizen.

Good luck with that. 

 

Such a corrupt organisation as the Thai Police undoubtably are should never be given free access to that information. 

 

You could be required to present a Police clearance certificate before being granted a required visa to visit but that defeats the purpose and would be counterproductive. 

[2008bangkok]

Whether the customer was right or wrong, its a worry for everyone living in Thailand that you gonna end up in the slammer for freedom of speech.

Now it seems that anybody who leaves a bad review or says something the other party doesn't like its straight to Jail do not pass go.

 

Hotel should of just contacted the review sites and had tried to have them taken down.

[Neeranam]

20 minutes ago, bstafford214 said:

I wonder if the American English teacher has already been punished?

 

Does he still have his teaching job at the school?

Chances are he'll be sacked, Thai schools don't look after their foreign staff. 

[CM Dad]

Barnes needs to be booted and the defamation law needs to be changed.  The law is wrong and so is Barnes.

[Mr Meeseeks]

2 minutes ago, terje johnsen said:

As far as i know is norway where i come from is a democratic country but that doesnt mean you can do what you want in other country. When i go to Thailand i fellow thai law and expect that forigners that visit norway folow norwegian law. I know a guy that get expelled from us for swearing in a bank  but i dont tell people to avoid us for that. 

Do you think the millions of tourists that used to visit Thailand were all aware of the harsh criminal defamation laws and potential jail sentences for posting negative reviews online? 

[Neeranam]

1 minute ago, 2008bangkok said:

Whether the customer was right or wrong, its a worry for everyone living in Thailand that you gonna end up in the slammer for freedom of speech.

Now it seems that anybody who leaves a bad review or says something the other party doesn't like its straight to Jail do not pass go.

 

Hotel should of just contacted the review sites and had tried to have them taken down.

No worry for those of us that don't go on vicious attacks . 

 

Is this the same guy?

https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article179883836.html

[wealthychef]

2 hours ago, ChipButty said:

Im not sure about Tripadvisor knowing the laws but Airbnb and Agoda and Booking.com have offices in Thailand I think they will be well aware of the local laws

 

In that case, I think they should have a warning on their recommendation area that informs users that they are under legal risk if they abuse it.  

 

[terje johnsen]

3 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

No worry for those of us that don't go on vicious attacks . 

 

Is this the same guy?

https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article179883836.html

Yes its the same guy.