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.

It’s a wonder you haven’t been fired already 😂

Time to take your evidence of his threats with you, and there's a TripAdvisor page showing his unpleasant bullying attitude to others who've left negative reviews.

What sort of person believes they can go through life bullying people into silence? A nasty piece of work.

Op have you had further threats from him? How serious are the threats? Is this a police matter?

I'm sure there's a website where you can anonymously send someone a poo in a box and can pick which animal it comes from! it's a wonderful gift.. you know, precious manure for their gardens I'm sure he'd really really appreciate the gesture.

@Itsalongwayto so what's happened with work????

That's horrendous. Threats are a legal matter and I'd be going to the police!

@Marmunia1975

That's horrendous. Threats are a legal matter and I'd be going to the police!

You wouldn't be the first to do so.

I’d consider reporting him to the police now for his malicious behaviour OP.

@ChesterDrawsDoesntExist and @stoppingstones I haven’t had anymore threats and as far as I know he hasn’t contacted work. In his email he said he would contact my place of work and professional body as I was a risk to vulnerable people .....based on a letter of complaint pointing out some H&S issues at his establishment. I think work would laugh, Not sure what the professional body would do.

He’s responded to the one star that is more recent than OP’s. What does this mean?!

@Binkybix interesting. He says they left without paying. In lots of the other reviews he says guests ‘blackmailed’ him. I think what he means is they asked for a refund and didn’t get one.....so they wrote a bad review. Obviously people will be less likely to write a bad review if they are given a refund. Doesn’t mean the place still isn’t awful. We didn’t ask for a refund, and had almost nothing to do with the staff aside from reporting the falling curtain post and asking for a toilet roll as we thought 1 toilet roll for 4 people for 3 nights at £300/night was a bit mean......he complained in his private response to my initial email that this meant I didn’t understand what self catering was.

The reply to that recent review is hilarious and so self important.

Why does the owner always start dropping other customers into his reviews? Eg. 'actually this couple checked out the same day and they said... We had someone in law staying with us...'

Lots of the amazing reviews seem to coincide with a negative one being left and a number of them have a very similar writing style.

Sure this has been mentioned already, but his reply to someone saying ". And of course you chose a dog-friendly room specifically – without having a dog – I mean, are you challenged? You are a nasty piece of work Mattotto"
And saying their marriage won't last

@LolaSmiles it’s all been reported to TA.

Obviously there will be customers who make a fuss purely to be unpleasant. But if you let that get to you so much that you become rude to anyone making a less than complimentary review, then you're in the wrong job.

I used to work as a legal secretary/receptionist in law firms, and had to deal with rude clients who wanted to speak to the 'organ grinder' rather than the 'monkey'. But if I'd responded rudely back to them, I would have been quite rightly in hot water as a result.

I wouldn't be happy with that at all.
Love from
GrapeHyacinth DipFS CFPCM Chartered MCSI FPFS FCIB

Missed where it is. Anyone got a link?

If you google the quote i added at 12.06 it'll come up

And another bad review goes up

Omg the new bad review, the owner has written a lengthy reply.
He describes he wife of a litagation lawyer who is pregnant and stayed in the room on a subsequent night 'rather plump'

This owner is not only Basil Fawlty but also the Major combined.

He's just awful 🤣

Pics look terrible!

Owner's response to the most recent poor review is passive aggressive but much more measured in tone. I wonder who's reading this thread?

I think it was because it was 3 stars rather than 1.

I don't know. There are some pretty full on responses to other 3 star reviews.