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.

Can't wait to see how many 'Helpfuls' you get 😂

@BuffaloMozzerella 17 so far 😂

On Facebook he has given a 5 star rating in the review section.

Have googled and search trip advisor and cannot find this damned hotel. Any clues for an idiot?

I tried to post a bad review on Tripadvisor. The hotel kept having the review pulled by saying I was referring to services they didn’t have therefore I’d submitted my review to the wrong place. Absolute bollocks. I replied a few times clarifying that I was reviewing the right hotel but eventually couldn’t be bothered anymore.

The latest good reviews say
"Review collected in partnership with this hotel"
Does anyone know what that means?

I think it's Trip Advisor speak for the owner got a guest/pal to write this review.

It's only £87 a night now to stay in this absolute luxury.!
Book early!

I looked for your review and photos, they were up earlier now not there! Also your review was only available when I clicked on the photo, all the others are from 2017 or earlier. I am abroad though, maybe trip advisor hasn’t updated?

I can still see it there. Just scroll down the reviews and it’s the first 1 star

@BuffaloMozzerella

Can't wait to see how many 'Helpfuls' you get 😂

1 more added . . .

I’ve lost about an hour and a half enjoying this and the trip advisor reviews 😂

@rslsys 47 and counting. Go MN

@DirtyDeeds Reading his replies is entertainment all on its own. ReAd the response to the 5th review under poor reviews ‘Ask if the chef in there’. The last line is ‘don’t return or ask any of your friends to return if they are like you as they won’t be welcome, and that’s a shame as we our renowned for our friendly demenour”. Oh the irony.

Makes me think I should start a whole new thread called ‘looking for some 5* free Friday night entertainment....look no further’. It’s so funny.

Brilliant OP, this is gold entertaining 20 mins reading reviews there. And thanks @fleurdeliz for the background info too

If you google the guy's name along with the town name, there's various news articles telling us what else he's been up to in the last few years. He sounds like a very difficult person.

He's also on Facebook and Twitter, and has some fairly strong opinions.

There’s a new totally independent four star review up today which is entertaining:

A family-owned and managed hotel complex of this size and age would require investment on an astronomical scale to be able to meet the exacting standards required by some visitors used to multi-national chains

I've looked everywhere and still can't find what you're on about even with matching the clues

You can't be sued for giving an opinion in a review when asked for one...thE behaviour you described however is intimidation.

Just to clarify, I mean it is intended to intimidate you

@Extracurricularfatigue

Yes that new review is written by 'Croyde Weavers' - Croyde is a village about 4 miles from this hotel. It's clearly written by a friend.

I wonder if Trip Advisor will take it down?