Hotel threatening to sue us for bad review

[Itsalongwayto]

Unashamedly posting in AIBU for traffic. We stayed in a truly dreadful place over the August BH weekend. I wrote to the owner afterwards expressing our displeasure and with a long list of complaints including unsecure blind pulls, a trampoline with no safety net, water features with no warning, general filth and 1980s decor (I expect more at £300/night). Additionally one of the curtain poles fell down on my head. He wrote back ignoring most of my points but stating that he was disappointed that I hadn’t said thank you to them for fixing the curtain pole so quickly . I submitted a review on reevoo and Tripadvisor, neither of which have been published yet......but he has emailed threatening to sue us if we don’t take our review down (I’m assuming he has been sent a preview). We have photographs of everything except the awful smell.
I’m assuming it’s safe to just ignore and block? I’m not taking my review down.

@Extracurricularfatigue

. I wondered about that! The law of libel is complex. Even being truthful may not help!

I recognised it too 😆

Maybe get this thread removed @Itsalongwayto in case he does throw something your way but know you have every right to say it in a review and you pictures support it

Nobody has mentioned the name of the hotel though.

I've just googled the guy and he's certainly a bit of a character.

Yeah but it’s not hard to figure it out. It’s mostly my fault though!

He won't sue, he's a bully.

Make sure every one of those pics go on TripAdvisor..... it's one of the few pages I take (fairly) seriously and I read reviews regularly.

As long as you post is factually correct with corresponding pics you're safe.

I would email him back and say: not only will I not be removing my review but you're lucky I don't sue you for injury. Now sod off before I change my mind and contact Environmental Health.

It is not difficult to find the hotel, thanks to the posts from others. I would suggest to take the OP down. In regards to review, post it on TA including the pictures. I am not a lawyer but a mum and I would like to know the ,features' that could cause an injury to my child to avoid the place.

Some of your complaints seem a little petty though, if the pictures are a true reflection of the place then why on earth would you stay rather than ask for your money back?

Still can’t bloody find it

Please don’t listen to @ShebaShimmyShake you will certainly not be qualified privilege. Where they got that from I can’t imagine. However, you have evidence so if in the super unlikely event they did sue you For defamation, your defence would be ‘truth’.

*covered by qualified privilege.

@PineappleTart , we stayed because we had things planned for the weekend and there was literally nowhere else to go.
Whilst some of my complaints may seem minor, had they been lone issues I wouldn’t have bothered mentioning them, but all of them together just made for an unpleasant stay.

Wow! I had to laugh when someone referred to the place as Fawlty Towers II. Oh, my dear gawd, the owner's, overlong essays are cringetastic! His rebuttals repeatedly accuse reviewers of trying to extort money and other outrageous claims. To the repeated complaints of damp, mouldy furnishings, he waffles on about them being custodians of a centuries' old building as if this excuses the lack of upkeep or maintenance and absence of adequate cleaning for decades. And then, there is the review about the rats and the owner responds that there are usually 1.4 rats per person. Unfeckingbelievable! You'd think this was a satire...

PS: Why should the thread be taken down! The photos back up the complaint.

Burgh Island, by any chance?

would someone be as kind to pm the hotel name ? i feel completely left out on here

@LouiseNW, Burgh island Isn’t north devon

*itsalongeayto

*I thought it was? We went there and left, sharpish, years ago. Imagine it’s much worse now.

Beg pardon, itsalongwaytoo, see its South Devon. Forgive me, in a Cornish foreigner. It all looks the same to me

He really is a piece of work isn't he? His responses are so gobsmackingly rude.

Dirty and falling apart. How hard can it be to wash a fountain/replace a bit of fallen down ceiling/clear the moss off a tennis court. Saying political correctness when complaints are made re no net on the trampoline? He’d rather someone bounced off onto their head? He’s bonkers (in my opinion and without prejudice! 😂)

A review from October 2017 rated the hotel as terrible i.e. a score of 1/5...
I like how, in his reply, the owner felt the need to include all of his accreditation (ie letters after his name!) as if all of those qualifications would make him seem more important than the lowly visitor who dared to be dissatisfied with his hotel!

“He’s certainly got a chip on his shoulder”

More like a field of potatoes I don’t know about a chip.