[Westside]

A woman in Indiana said she was stunned after she posted a negative review about her bad experience at a hotel — and promptly got an extra $350 charge and a threat of legal action.

Katrina Arthur told WRTV she and her husband stayed at the Abbey Inn & Suites in Brown County — about an hour south of Indianapolis — in March 2016, but claimed that their stay at the 40-year-old hotel “was a nightmare.”


“The room was unkempt, and it looked like it hadn’t been cleaned since the last people stayed there. We checked the sheets and I found hairs and dirt,” Arthur said. She added that it reeked of sewage and had weak water pressure and broken air conditioning.

When Arthur tried to find hotel employees, she said she came up short and “had to clean the room myself.”

So, when the hotel asked Arthur to review her stay at the Abbey Inn, she made sure her experience was heard.

“I was honest,” Arthur told WRTV. “I wanted people to know not to waste their money because I know people save their money for special occasions."

Once Arthur posted her review, she said the hotel charged her $350 and threatened her with legal action. So, she deleted her review.

Arthur said it felt like the hotel was “punishing” her “for being truthful,” and she contacted the Indiana attorney general’s office.

That office filed a lawsuit on Dec. 15 against Abbey Management — which reportedly owned and operated the hotel during Arthur’s 2016 visit, WRTV added.

The lawsuit reportedly states the Abbey Inn had a policy which allowed them to charge customers the fee for poor reviews, which the state of Indiana alleges violated the state’s Deceptive Consumer Sales Act which aims to modify “deceptive and unconscionable consumer sales practices.”

The lawsuit claimed the policy, reportedly in place from Sept. 2015 until Nov. 2016, read: “Guests agree that if guests find any problems with our accommodations, and fail to provide us the opportunity to address those problems while the guest is with us, and/or refuses our exclusive remedy, but then disparages us in any public manner, we will be entitled to charge their credit card an additional $350 damage. Should the guest refuse to retract any such public statements legal action may be pursued.”

The policy could be found briefly on a document on the hotel’s website, but it wasn’t provided to guests or posted anywhere at the inn, according to the lawsuit.

Arthur, who said “there’s nothing wrong with being truthful,” said she wants her $350 back from the hotel.

The Abbey Inn did not immediately comment to Fox News. A call to Abbey LLC, identified as the hotel's owner, was not answered.

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2017/12/19...ssion=true

[Westside]

This is crazy. How could this hotel ever think this could possibly be legal?

[Granny Bear]

It appears that they attempted to cover their butts just enough to intimidate the consumer enough not to follow through. In other words, $350 fee is cheaper that hiring an attorney.

I was upset at a similar situation in Pigeon Forge one time. I wrote a detailed letter of complaint to the management and got a really snooty reply.

So, since I always keep copies of my letters, I re-copied it 250 times. Every Monday for a year, I would send the realty company that letter, a copy of it to the Chamber of Commerce, a copy to the Better Business Bureau (this has been a long time ago), a copy to the Tourism Committee and a copy to the local newspaper.

Did that for a solid year. I only received a partial refund but I felt a lot better.