Thai hotel threatens customer with ฿3m lawsuit over bad review

[webfact]

 

A Thai customer has been threatened with a costly lawsuit by a hotel in Khao Yai, in Thailand’s northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima, after she complained about the hotel on a travel agency website and gave it a low rating following her stay there last year.

 

Secretary-general of the Lawyers for the People Foundation, Sittra Biabangkerd, wrote on Facebook on Thursday that he had been contacted by the customer about the lawsuit.

 

On December 19th last year, she rated the hotel as 6/10 and wrote about her poor experience there.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/thai-hotel-threatens-customer-with-฿3m-lawsuit-over-bad-review/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2022-01-07

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow ASEAN NOW on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

[86Tiger]

Come to Thailand.  

 

You will love it or else.....

[LennyW]

Whats the point of having a review facility on booking platforms if you are not allowed to point out the failings, the hotels should learn from it and improve?

[Geoffggi]

Change this stupid law it obviously is out of place in the modern world

[poskat]

Due to the feudal culture n thailand, the problem isnt the problem. the problem is the person talking about the problem.

[steven100]

so no hotel in Thailand can ever have a bad review  ?

only good one's are allowed or we'll sue you ....     Lol   

 

 

[RandiRona]

Thai Hotels Rights

You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will used against you. You have a right to an attorney, if you cant afford one ,you are screwed. Please sign here and state that you understand our rights!!

Edited January 7, 2022 by RandiRona

[kingkenny]

Thankfully not all hotels follow this immature practice.

[rbkk]

The last time it was Agoda and the hotel in Koh Chang ( Farang manager!). The news was internationally reported at the time. The name and location of the hotel was soon uncovered. Just waiting for the same to happen here so we all know where to avoid. Any more clues anyone?

 

Edited January 7, 2022 by rbkk

[Nickelbeer]

I simply do not give them repeat business. No need to risk running afoul of the archaic defamation laws.

[mtls2005]

This is why you can trust the public polls on issues, people, topics, etc. here.

 

People know they'll get in trouble if they are honest.

 

Hence you end up with the fake smiles. And results like, 112% of the people love prayut.

 

You'd think thai people know this but maybe the offenders in this case are hiso, or foreign edumacated.

 

 

[thaitom]

what's the name of the hotel ? I now want to write something......

[SAFETY FIRST]

22 minutes ago, webfact said:

December 19th last year, she rated the hotel as 6/10 and wrote about her poor experience there.

6/10......

Geeze, I'd hate to see what threats she would have received if the rating was 1 or 2 out 10

 

[darksidedog]

6 out of 10 says not awful, but needs improvements. A good manager would apologise, rectify the problem and possibly offer a free or reduced stay in future.

Threatening unhappy customers is a sure fire way to generate a really bad reputation for yourself, and cost yourself way more customers in the long run, than one bad review could ever cause.

Face it seems is more important than logic and common sense, aided and abetted by the ludicrous defamation laws.

[thaibeachlovers]

28 minutes ago, LennyW said:

Whats the point of having a review facility on booking platforms if you are not allowed to point out the failings, the hotels should learn from it and improve?

Only good reviews are allowed. I doubt they have any intention of using criticism to improve their service.

[ezzra]

Business in that hotel must be that bad that they are trying to make money out of suing people now it seems...

[Denim]

I just want to state for the record , Prayuth is a great guy and military coups are awesome and perfectly acceptable.

 

[Bluespunk]

“The customer then received a notice instructing her to remove the review from the website, pay compensation of ฿3 million and publish a public apology in five Thai-language newspapers for seven days. The hotel also threatened to charge her ฿50,000 a day if she fails to comply.

 

She sought advice from the lawyer, on a pro bono basis, about whether a lawsuit is possible when she had only written an honest review of the service and questioned whether her identity had been revealed to the hotel by the travel agency.”

 

Now there is a hotel that really doesn’t want negative publicity…the linked article also suggests that they had the review removed by the website it was posted on when the writer of it did not do so. 
 

I suspect their strategy of avoiding negative publicity is about to backfire spectacularly. 

[Bruno123]

Sittra Biabangkerd is the go-to guy ????

 

Big Joke and the biometric system.

 

Joe Ferrari

 

and now this ???? 

[ikke1959]

This kind of response says enough.. 

[richard_smith237]

31 minutes ago, rbkk said:

The last time it was Agoda and the hotel in Koh Chang ( Farang manager!). The news was internationally reported at the time. The name and location of the hotel was soon uncovered. Just waiting for the same to happen here so we all know where to avoid. Any more clues anyone?

 

Trip Advisor... 

 

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g580110-d594766-Reviews-Sea_View_Resort_Spa_Koh_Chang-Ko_Chang_Trat_Province.html

 

 

One hotel I will never ever visit on our trips to Koh Chang !!!.... 

 

 

[trainman34014]

47 minutes ago, Geoffggi said:

Change this stupid law it obviously is out of place in the modern world

As is the whole country !

[richard_smith237]

1 minute ago, Mavideol said:

similar to the law about the one we can not name, for God's sake, we are on the 21st century

Agreed,..... 

 

The Defamation laws are wholly damaging to Thailand on multiple levels enabling laziness, poor service, corruption and graft.

 

And of course the other one.... 

 

And there then is the ‘Kraeng Jai’ effect where respect is awarded on expectations, seniority, age etc rather than based on any merit of character and genuine achievement.

[NoshowJones]

48 minutes ago, Geoffggi said:

Change this stupid law it obviously is out of place in the modern world

The Thai Soldiers Government need that defamation law to protect themselves, as did the previous proper governments also.

[shady86]

I guess hotels in Thailand should include a policy not to accept bad reviews by customers prior to check in.

 

Typical Thai mindset, it's good Covid punishes them and let's hope tourism continue to be decimated. 

[Banana7]

I would have given them a 1 out of 10. You can give an honest review, but just be careful how you word it.

 

You can write about how you feel and what you received and what you expected and didn't receive, talk about yourself. You can say things like "the hotel did not meet my expectations", or " I will certainly never return to this hotel". About food say "in my opinion, the food was not delicious" or "the food portion was too small and did not contain enough meat for me". Don't say "there wasn't enough food".

 

You just have to be able to prove, in a court of law, what you have written. Nobody can dispute what you felt.

 

You can't say the staff are "X", or the hotel is "_hit".

Edited January 7, 2022 by Banana7

[richard_smith237]

5 minutes ago, shady86 said:

I guess hotels in Thailand should include a policy not to accept bad reviews by customers prior to check in.

 

Typical Thai mindset, it's good Covid punishes them and let's hope tourism continue to be decimated. 

You think its good for any of us that 20% of Thailands GDP is devastated forcing millions into more severe financial desperation than they ever were ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RafPinto]

Good it's Thai customers.
Imagine it would be a farang couple. They would already have been transferred to Hilton BKK.

[Mavideol]

2 minutes ago, Banana7 said:

I would have given them a 1 out of 10. You can give an honest review, but just be careful how you word it.

 

You can write about how you feel and what you received and what you expected and didn't receive, talk about yourself. You just have to be able to prove, in a court of law, what you have written. Nobody can dispute what you felt.

 

You can't say the staff are "X", or the hotel is "_hit".

are you saying that we can say anything but the truth ... what a way to go

[Bruno123]

Cannot make head not tail of what she was writing anyway ????

 

Quote

6 ราคาแพงไป
ตอนที่ไปพักห้องไม่ดูใหม่เหมือนกับที่องภาพ โทรศัพท์ก็ตัดต่อลงไปไม่ได้ ต้องเต้นลงไป
Deluxe Room
Khao Yai
เอง ไม่สะอาด หนักงานกลางฝันก็ไม่ต่อยช่วยละไร แต่ก็มีหนักงานบางคนที่ต้อนรับคัดอน
เซ็ตอันก่อนเปลี่ยนกะ เพราะไปถึงศึก ทีวีไม่ตัด ห้องไม่เก็บเสียง ดนเต็นานก็ได้ยินแล้ว
ห้องไม่ต้อยเท่าไร ดีที่เห็นเขา ต้นไม่สีเขียวๆ แต่ไม่โปรงเหมือนลาลาบัส หรือ หอสตาน่า
ห้องอาหารเด็กมาก คนไปหลายๆคนเป็ยคกัน ต้องมองหาที่จัแจลง รองนดนว่าง
ถึงได้นัง รสชาติอาหารเช่าพอได้ อาหารมีให้เล็อกน้อย ทาเลโกส์ทางชั้นอุทยานมาก
จริง ๆ แต่ว่าก็อยู่ล็กมาก อยู่ในหมู่บ้านคน ไปถึงตอนมีด หาทางเข้าสาบากมาก ราคาแพงดำ
เห็ยมกับคุณภาพจริง ราคาพอๆ กับหัพักที่มีเช็อแต่เช่าไปแล้วเหมือนอพาร์ตเมนต์มากกว่า
ทุกวันนี้พอจะไปเขาใหญ่ สามีจะแชวเรืองหัพักน็ตลอดเลย อยากไม่ปรับเรืองราคาและ
มาตรฐานให้ดูสมก็บราคาค่ะ มีโอกาสจะกลับไปจักระดะ
รีวิวเมื่อ ธันวาคม 19, 2564

Quote

6 expensive to
When a room does not look like the picture phone was editing down to not have to dance down to
Deluxe Room
Khao Yai
Personally do not clean the hard work the middle of a dream, it does not sting the help and profit, but it has a heavy task, some welcome the screening.
Set before a shift change, because to battle the TV does not cut rooms. full longer heard.
Room no. how good to see him early, not green, but not Pro like Lala bus or tower.
Restaurant very young people, to many people, as we need to look for. Jae down Vice the empty
To bitch the taste food, rent, enough food to our little town, house floor Park a lot
Really, but it is very small in the village, people go to when the knife find the entrance. bak, very expensive black
See with high quality real price as the room stay with a check, but rent the apartment over
Today I'm going to Khao Yai husband is dimmable calendula room hotel Internet all the time. don't adjust price bearing and
Standard view. it is the price. will definitely go back to unknown buyers sellers
Reviews on December 19, 2564