Wrote a bad trip advisor review and the location responded with my full name and called me a liar. WIBU?

What is this Oxfordshire hotel?

I just had a look at the reviews for the hotel someone mentioned upthread and they are awful.

I was so put off by it. The most recent review mentioned having wet dogs, paw prints annd hair everywhere including sitting up at dinner tables sounds like madness.

I just can’t imagine paying £1500 or anywhere close to that for per night for that sort of environment. Yikes!

What "big trouble" have you got companies into, and for what breach?

Aha someone already named it

OP's not been back but this really sounded like an Oxfordshire location which has terrible reviews, if it was, the review is there but they've removed their reply!

Yes agree with this - I once had a hotel reply that I must have stayed months ago as all issues had been resolved. I posted the review two days after I stayed (and obviously you state what month and year you visited the place) but couldn't reply to correct that assumption.

You'd be surprised. The ICO has been very helpful to me. I guess the hotel can find out for themselves.

Exactly, if you’re a business owner or like me - a creative writer - you do hope people won’t make up fake reviews etc and you should flag it with the review company if that’s what you think, but at the same time you’ve got to suck it up when someone expresses their subjective opinion.

I got a one star review because they said my book turned up with a ripped page or it looked second hand or something 😂 I’m assuming it either got damaged in a warehouse or someone returned it in bad condition and amazon resold it.

Personally I really don’t mind not being able to reply . That would just send authors on a bad spiral IMO you can reply on goodreads though but most authors very sensibly don’t.

So yeah anyone who thinks due to me supporting the Op, I don’t know what it feels like to get bad reviews I certainly do! And it’s way more personal when someone drags your creative work.

Before complaining to the ICO, yes. But the ICO wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the post I was commenting on. The poster recognised the GDPR problem and recommended asking TripAdvisor to remove the offending reply, and the rest of the post was purely about the poor experiences during the visit. That was what they said should have been discussed in a written complaint from the OP before the review was posted.

Thanks, whether or not that is the hotel in question here that gave me an enjoyable 20 mins reading all the crap reviews!

How could anyone possibly "evidence" things like unfriendly staff, long waiting times, bland-tasting or cold food, facilities deemed by the consumer unworthy of the high prices charged, etc?

Why should OP have complained in writing to the owner first

because the ICO ask you to go through the companies complaints process first

Why should OP have complained in writing to the owner first, and waited weeks for a response? Surely the whole point of Tripadvisor is to tell other prospective visitors about the author's experience at a place. If the experience was not good, it warns others what might happen to them.

If the complaints made at the time had been dealt with sympathetically and effectively, the OP would not have wanted to write the review as they did. And if it was a one-off problem the review would not harm the establishment as it would be obvious to readers, from all the other reviews, that such a poor experience was highly unusual.

Presumably you don’t object to reviewers writing glowing reviews after just one visit. Do you think only good reviews should be allowed? What would be the point of that?

I quite agree that businesses should have a right of reply. It always aggravates me that Amazon book reviews won't let you go in and point out the total stupidity and point-missing of someone who's left your book a 1 star review because they have misread something!

I agree completely; however the PP I quoted said that businesses shouldn't respond at all.

There's a difference between a respectful reply, which factually explains the situation and goes on to show how it was rectified at the time or what measures are put in place to stop it happening again and the 'well, you were a filthy skank who tried to run off without paying and anyway that window has never closed and anyway...' replies.

This reminds me of this campsite, hilarious replies by the owner to negative reviews, whereby he publishes the campers' full names, addresses and workplaces 🤣

https://www.reddit.com/r/galway/comments/13atcyw/anyone_ever_been_to_clifden_eco_beach_camping_the/

Oh and he apparently emails people's employers to let them know too 🤣🤣🤣

But what if it's a vexatious/CF review? Surely they shouldn't have to either apologise or keep silent when somebody has behaved appallingly towards them and then makes themselves out to be the victim?

I see a reply to a review as a valuable part of the review itself. As long as people stick to the facts and respectfully counter any lies or exaggerations, it speaks volumes - one way or the other, and is very helpful to me in deciding whether to use their business or not.

Some people - whether they have Main Character Syndrome, narcissism or are just generally entitled and arrogant - will claim anything to 'justify' the claim that they're trying to make. Also, some people thrive on complaining about everything: the only thing that would genuinely make them unhappy would be if their experience was perfect and there was nothing whatsoever to complain about!

For example, if they had to wait 20 minutes for their food in a restaurant (as opposed to, say, McDonalds), they might have wanted it instantly but realise that the waiting time was perfectly reasonable and realistic - so instead of just not posting a bad review, they will frame it as "waiting an hour and a half for our meals"; complain about "filthy cutlery" when they themselves knocked a fork on to the floor etc.

Absolutely this. I couldn't help smiling at the posts claiming the hotel will be in "big trouble" and could have to pay a four-figure fine for this.

For everyone saying ''OW MUCH???!!' if it was over Christmas then I'm not surprised at the costs, but I am surprised that Christmas dinner at least wasn't included, especially since 'eating out' around Christmas time is a bit hit and miss with a lot of places being fully booked/closed, so the hotel was definitely pushing its luck there. Did they not give you priority booking for a table? Sounds very shoddy to me.

I'm another who always look at the replies to negative reviews. If they are respectful, whether or not they agree, then it's a huge positive for the place. As soon as they make any problems the customer's fault or start lengthy bullshitting explanations - I am not using them.

Reputation management is important for any discerning, well-run business. You can't just say that, because they elevate themselves and charge high prices, they need special treatment and 'understanding'. If anything - not that I believe they should have to - a lot of higher end businesses that value their 'premium' reputation will err on the side of being taken for advantage by 'difficult' customers in order to protect their good reputation.

As for them thinking they have 'the right' to intimidate OP because of a bad review, that's like me saying I have the right to punch a Tesco cashier if she didn't smile at me and offer to help with packing my bags.

I disagree: you have bad, lying businesses and also bad, lying customers. I think they should have the right to their say - particularly as their business is the publicly known party, whilst the reviewer (should be) a private, anonymous person.

Usually, you can read between the lines and have a pretty good idea whether one side or the other seems to be the one in the wrong, or if it's six of one and half a dozen of the other. Normally, people - businesses or individuals - 'show their hand' and over-egg their 'case' when they're being mendacious and/or have something to hide; but if they don't, it must be devastating for an excellent, caring, attentive 5-star business to get a bad review from somebody seeking attention/wanting a freebie/with narc tendencies. If there are 999 5-star reviews and a single 1-star review, which one will everybody look at first?

OP said it was over Christmas - I suspect a lot of hotels charge MUCH higher rates to stay over those dates than at any other time (I know holiday cottages double or triple their prices for example).

While the OP's details should be removed from the hotels reply, I would really like the rest of their reply to remain for posterity.

It's very useful as a potential customer to see how businesses respond to negative reviews. If they refuse to accept responsibility and blame customers for their own fuck ups, I would always avoid.