I would say the hotel doesn't need to worry to much about TA my experience it's not one of the best OTA's in Thailand, I've just looked on Agoda and they have 4280 reviews and they give them 8.7 rating which they class as Excellent they have lots of good reviews and not so good reviews and these OTA's are not stupid all the bad reviews go to the bottom of the pile, I did read once on average people only read about 14 reviews but I went to 7 pages in, some of the reviews go back to 2014 which I think should be removed,

Having looked at the photo's on a few sites to me this hotel looks old and worn out lots of the recent reviews on Agoda back that up and lots remark how expensive the drinks are, maybe thats why the American guy brought his own.

One thing I noticed in the rooms only one bed side cabinet and lamp, not normal for a 5 star hotel, around the pool the sandwash looks old and tired and many people complain about the cable car being broken down.

To me that is not a 5 star hotel at best 3 star, it is in need of a major refurbishment.

 

4 hours ago, Speedhump said:

No, it is not doing its job by not mentioning the highly unusual circumstances, as I clearly said. They almost make it sound as though it's a regular occurrence. 

No they don’t: they exactly wrote what the hotel did 

4 hours ago, Miami007 said:

I believe the hotel tried to contact the guest and he refused..

 

The best way to avoid malicious reviews would be to require the real name (and dates of stay) to be posted.  If I had an unpleasant stay at a hotel, I would / should be man enough to give my name and not hide behind an alias.  Negative reviews are good when they address actual shortcomings - not when they address perceived entitlements.  

 

Being in hotels myself, i would have responded and outlined the facts - suing the person in the USA would not get me anywhere.  If he kept posting on many sites, it would just create a nuisance.  It seems the biggest problem is that people have too much time and not enough work.

I sign under my name ( even here ) but that is irrelevant 

the hotel took the decision to have someone arrested and if, because of his comments, the guest had it coming, then because of its actions ( reaction) the hotel had it coming as well 

I think the hotel mishandled it. & yer the guy was a bit of a nut.

 

This is a large resort, they could have got the police to Just approach him, --- They are thinking of bringing charges against you, if the posts are still there tomorrow/Then this will affect your visa statues/they are thinking of approaching your Thai employer......etc etc.

 

There was no need for the actual arrest.

33 minutes ago, alyx said:

No they don’t: they exactly wrote what the hotel did 

WITHOUT CONTEXT 

1 minute ago, Speedhump said:

WITHOUT CONTEXT 

Context ? A guest has been arrested for negative comments about a hotel...that is what happened. The fact that the guest may have lied or posted in numerous sites does not even have to be mentioned  

Doesn’t matter who’s right or wrong. Tourists will now know that they are going to a country that can put you in prison for a bad review.  And many other trivial things 

Most Thais are good people but always BEWARE 

Many hotels get bad reviews occasionally. Regardless if the  guy had a valid complaint or not the hotel should have ignored it assuming the positive reviews out numbered the negative. I'm sure most people ignore negative reviews if the hotel has many more positive, can't please all the people all the time. 

13 hours ago, mark131v said:

 

Blimey hang em high's are out in force!!!

 

Four online reviews one of which was withdrawn do not equal a rampage

 

It was a negative review and I have seen all four of them it's all a storm in a teacup but the hotels reaction was epic in it's mind-numbing stupidity!!

 

Reap the whirlwind bitches!!!

Cheap charlie didn't want to pay corkage fee and went on crying looking for help and support from it's fellow whiners , you must be one of them . 

29 minutes ago, Sakeopete said:

Many hotels get bad reviews occasionally. Regardless if the  guy had a valid complaint or not the hotel should have ignored it assuming the positive reviews out numbered the negative. I'm sure most people ignore negative reviews if the hotel has many more positive, can't please all the people all the time. 

That's where you are wrong , 1 bad review can destroy 100's of good reviews . If people are reading reviews they are looking for the bad ones . 

43 minutes ago, alyx said:

Context ? A guest has been arrested for negative comments about a hotel...that is what happened. The fact that the guest may have lied or posted in numerous sites does not even have to be mentioned  

Doesn't it ?? People like that can destroy businesess . There are people on the internet that have nothing to do whole day and are sorry peaces of ???? that are just there to try to destroy other peoples hard work just to make themselfs feel better . You will be surprised in how many of those there are . Wanting to sit on the first row everywhere for next to nothing but when they need to pay for something or it's not what they expect , they start with bullsheight comments . 

3 minutes ago, Nanaplaza666 said:

Doesn't it ?? People like that can destroy businesess . There are people on the internet that have nothing to do whole day and are sorry peaces of ???? that are just there to try to destroy other peoples hard work just to make themselfs feel better . You will be surprised in how many of those there are . Wanting to sit on the first row everywhere for next to nothing but when they need to pay for something or it's not what they expect , they start with bullsheight comments . 

Aren’t you overreacting a bit ? In this case, correct me if I am wrong: the hotel has just destroyed its business for a ( limited hopefully for them) period of times. 
every reaction I am getting for my stand is straying away from the point of this thread : the hotel put its full weight on an individual ( right or wrong) and it has backfired. Millions of negative comments are being written every day. Reply and live with it seems to have been the general rule. 

12 hours ago, alyx said:

There are certainly more than 1 bad review on every hotel in the world. Some of them are lies or undeserved but they remain comments and the point of view of the poster. Unfortunately only one hotel took the decision to have one  of its guests arrested for a string of negative comments (justified or not)

The fact of the matter is still that most of the people take more notice of the bad reviews then the good ones . If people want to destroy their own businesess by bad service or whatever that will be their own fold but there are to many of these lying peaces of ... trying to do damage to other peoples hard work . He had to pay corkage fee and didn't want to so it was his own fold and like the businesess that have to pay for their own mistakes so should he . 

9 minutes ago, Nanaplaza666 said:

That's where you are wrong , 1 bad review can destroy 100's of good reviews . If people are reading reviews they are looking for the bad ones . 

Sorry I disagree, it is the same as online shopping for products. It hundreds of people give a product or service 5 stars and a few give it 2 stars would you not purchase that product or service?

3 minutes ago, alyx said:

Aren’t you overreacting a bit ? In this case, correct me if I am wrong: the hotel has just destroyed its business for a ( limited hopefully for them) period of times. 
every reaction I am getting for my stand is straying away from the point of this thread : the hotel put its full weight on an individual ( right or wrong) and it has backfired. Millions of negative comments are being written every day. Reply and live with it seems to have been the general rule. 

I am not saying that you are wrong but this guy should have just payed for the corkage fee and not start a fight and problems . The whole way it was handled wasn't the smartest one but don't give people that write bad reviews that are not treu to much power . 

3 minutes ago, Sakeopete said:

Sorry I disagree, it is the same as online shopping for products. It hundreds of people give a product or service 5 stars and a few give it 2 stars would you not purchase that product or service?

Not when there is another one that has no bad reviews, and like online shops and hotels or resorts there are millions .

The whole of Thailand should have this affixed by Travel Agents round the world. 'Free speech is not allowed in Thailand.'

1 minute ago, Nanaplaza666 said:

The fact of the matter is still that most of the people take more notice of the bad reviews then the good ones . If people want to destroy their own businesess by bad service or whatever that will be their own fold but there are to many of these lying peaces of ... trying to do damage to other peoples hard work . He had to pay corkage fee and didn't want to so it was his own fold and like the businesess that have to pay for their own mistakes so should he . 

I am not considering the content of the comments are it is just a disgruntled (?) customer venting his (justified?) anger at a hotel ( rightly or not ) . I am merely saying that the hotel literally ask for justice and, although the judicial system might (or not) have been in favour of the plaignent... the public decided otherwise.

And the hotel should have taken the same path as every other sensible manager does: exercise their right to respond through the same media  

1 minute ago, Nanaplaza666 said:

Not when there is another one that has no bad reviews, and like online shops and hotels or resorts there are millions .

I have never seen popular hotels with no negative reviews unless they are seldom booked.  

4 minutes ago, Nanaplaza666 said:

I am not saying that you are wrong but this guy should have just payed for the corkage fee and not start a fight and problems . The whole way it was handled wasn't the smartest one but don't give people that write bad reviews that are not treu to much power . 

People who write comments say their truth or deliberately lie to get the message through. The posters are not entitled to reply to an answer given by the hotel on these sites. 
What the guest should or should not have done, paid or not, is not in question. 

1 hour ago, alyx said:

Context ? A guest has been arrested for negative comments about a hotel...that is what happened. The fact that the guest may have lied or posted in numerous sites does not even have to be mentioned  

Yes. It should. No one should mount an acidic campaign over a matter which even had been smoothed over at the time and then be allowed to give the hotel bad publicity by TA themselves. I'm sure he feels he has had the last laugh. 

27 minutes ago, Sakeopete said:

I have never seen popular hotels with no negative reviews unless they are seldom booked.  

And in which case they are not popular! ????

 

You are right, anyway. 

On 11/12/2020 at 10:23 AM, spidermike007 said:

Fantastic. I liked trip advisor already. Their courage and conviction to post this warning endears me to them even more now! The resort amply deserves that, and I truly hope they succumb to the war of attrition currently devastating the nation. They richly deserve that. It is likely their attitude, and their vindictiveness is not a one off occurrence. 

They would be good if you had to prove you stayed to write a review. Any competing business can go there and trash your business or any customer who has a small issue like not being allowed to take your own alcohol into a restaurant or any other unreasonable request by self indulged individuals!

1 minute ago, Speedhump said:

Yes. It should. No one should mount an acidic campaign over a matter which even had been smoothed over at the time and then be allowed to give the hotel bad publicity by TA themselves. I'm sure he feels he has had the last laugh. 

That is not a campaign: it is a statement by one prominent touristic site that one hotel's guest was arrested for his negative comments. As for the last laugh, I think that this person had a traumatic experience and, although the hotel is now in dire trouble because of its reaction, the hotel is getting the last laugh or at least a "compensation": the guy is certainly blacklisted in Thailand ( if not already, he eventually  will as I guess that the hotel will formally bring charges against him and have the guy condemned: that would be an utter mistake from my point of view). Everyone, under the current situation, gets a glimpse at what it is to be unable to travel to such or such country.

1 minute ago, Sametboy2019 said:

They would be good if you had to prove you stayed to write a review. Any competing business can go there and trash your business or any customer who has a small issue like not being allowed to take your own alcohol into a restaurant or any other unreasonable request by self indulged individuals!

 

There are pitfalls to social media. But, it can keep a business owner on his toes, and it gives us a chance to call out reprobates, and those who fail the test, like the Sea View Hotel, in Ko Chang. 

1 minute ago, Sametboy2019 said:

They would be good if you had to prove you stayed to write a review. Any competing business can go there and trash your business or any customer who has a small issue like not being allowed to take your own alcohol into a restaurant or any other unreasonable request by self indulged individuals!

But...that is and has been the name of the game for centuries. This being said, Trip Advisor is asking the correct questions regarding the stay but ....they are not to investigate it, luckily.... From what I remember the guy stated that he stayed the night at the hotel with his friends anyway

12 hours ago, Autonuaq said:

if this is a fact then why does tripadvisor not remove the hotel? would be a more solution logic.

That would mean that unsuspecting guests would find this hotel on sites like Agoda, Hotel.com Booking. com with the reviews of all the guests ( minus the ones posted by the "culprit") , decide to book it, write negative comments (lies from the point of view of the management) and... get arrested ????????

20 minutes ago, alyx said:

That is not a campaign: it is a statement by one prominent touristic site that one hotel's guest was arrested for his negative comments. As for the last laugh, I think that this person had a traumatic experience and, although the hotel is now in dire trouble because of its reaction, the hotel is getting the last laugh or at least a "compensation": the guy is certainly blacklisted in Thailand ( if not already, he eventually  will as I guess that the hotel will formally bring charges against him and have the guy condemned: that would be an utter mistake from my point of view). Everyone, under the current situation, gets a glimpse at what it is to be unable to travel to such or such country.

The campaign was the guest's; a series of very critical reports on a single stay. This should certainly be against TA policy, if it's not then TA are at fault also. One experience: one report. 

7 minutes ago, Speedhump said:

The campaign was the guest's; a series of very critical reports on a single stay. This should certainly be against TA policy, if it's not then TA are at fault also. One experience: one report. 

That is another matter. No campaign from TA then

1 hour ago, mikebell said:

The whole of Thailand should have this affixed by Travel Agents round the world. 'Free speech is not allowed in Thailand.'

Definitely not. There are laws in every country which, if ignored, can lead to this kind of predicament. Some are obsolete or unfair according to one’s culture but are seldom enforced.

The action taken by one management doesn’t reflect any of the other hotels in Thailand.

By reporting it, it shows that the hotel used excessive réponse to negative comments by using the law in place n’as it is its right, but anyone in their right mind wouldn’t consider that a possibility even after what happened