UK Hotel Adds Hefty Charge For Bad Reviews Online 307
Bizzeh writes: A British couple has been "fined" £100 by a Blackpool hotel for leaving critical comments on Trip Advisor. The UK's Trading Standards organization is investigating the incident, saying it may breach regulations. The Broadway Hotel's booking policy reads (in small print), "Despite the fact that repeat customers and couples love our hotel, your friends and family may not. "For every bad review left on any website, the group organizer will be charged a maximum £100 per review."
Ask the credit card for a refund (Score:5, Interesting)
The card charges 30 pounds fee to refund it, and the hotel loses the money and the fee.
Do that often enough and the hotel will lose the right to take credit cards, because the card companies don't want scams like this.
A hotel that can't take credit cards will lose most of their business very quickly.
Re:Ask the credit card for a refund (Score:5, Informative)
The couple have sought a refund via their credit card company.
FTA
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With businesses acting like this all over the place, communism ain't lookin' so bad these days.
In Soviet Russia, these days ain't looking at communism!
Re: Ask the credit card for a refund (Score:4, Informative)
Despite what the Republicans are trying to tell you regulating businesses is not the same as communism.
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What have Republicans got to do with it? This is in the UK, they don't have Republicans there.
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Slashdot + american sense of overwhelming self-importance = result you see.
Re: Ask the credit card for a refund (Score:4, Funny)
Re: Ask the credit card for a refund (Score:4, Funny)
Actually they do, but in the UK it's spelled with a small R and they are considered terrorists.
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No worries, since it doesnt happen that way anyway.
Not only is the rate of it lower in the UK, but its also more likely to be committed by a family member already in the house than a stranger kicking in the door.
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This brings up a question. It's well established in the US that the police have no responsibility to protect your life; if you call 911 when the Bad Guys show up and get killed before the police arrive, your next of kin don't get to sue the cops. (Look up Warren v. District of Columbia for an example.) It's not that much of a problem here as you have the right to defe
Re: Ask the credit card for a refund (Score:5, Insightful)
no, regulation is not inherently bad.
without regulation you also wouldnt have clean air, clean water, and safe food.
you wouldnt have a safe workplace.
you wouldnt have a safe car.
your bank accoutnants wouldnt be protected by insurance.
your bank wouldnt be restricted in what it can do with your money.
your grandma out in the country wouldnt have phone or even electricity.
and now, most recently, your insurance cant kick you off your plan when you get sick.
i can go on.
Insensitive clod (Score:2)
What you can eat, or drink, smoke (liberals), who you have sex with (conservatives).
The last lot to increase taxes on my smokes here in Oz were the right wing jesus freaks currently in power, $4/pack = ~20% increase. I'm a left wing smoker (both kinds), have been for ~40yrs, I started back in the 70's when the Marlborough Man was still cool and you could smoke anywhere except places that were likely to explode after striking a match.
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With businesses acting like this all over the place, communism ain't lookin' so bad these days.
Instead of receiving a fine, complainers will be sent to the Gulag.
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Something is fishy here. This exact same thing happened at the union street guest house in NY six months ago, even the wording of the terms and conditions is the same. I smell a hoax.
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More than likely the owners of this place saw it and thought it was a great idea.
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The card charges 30 pounds fee to refund it, and the hotel loses the money and the fee.
Do that often enough and the hotel will lose the right to take credit cards, because the card companies don't want scams like this.
A hotel that can't take credit cards will lose most of their business very quickly.
In the past, I'd have agreed with you, but not any more. Things have really changed in the credit card industry since what we call "the Great Recession" in the USA. In the past, I successfully protested several charges and one time got almost $400 taken off over a dispute with a Hong Kong hotel. Approximately 6 years ago, I bought 2 tickets on a European based airline. I don't want to name them, but let's just say it's not a major carrier and they aren't particularly well known unless you happen to live
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I can do charge backs from within my internet banking. Seems pretty straight forward to me?
Not quite true (Score:4, Informative)
The chargeback processing fee is charged regardless. I use to be on the receiving end of chargebacks and my credit card processor would charge this no matter what. The hotel can challenge it, but the money remains frozen until resolved.
What the hotel is trying to do here is create a 100 pound fee that can get around the UK Chargeback rule, that limited the automatic right to a chargeback to items costing less than 100 pounds.
However the automatic right within law isn't why you get a chargeback, its the credit card company discretion that gives you it. The law was an extra protection added, but chargebacks were prior to it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chargeback
So ask, the credit card company will refund, this is clearly an unsustainable charge, and they should also raise it with the major hotel booking companies, because their review system is being attacked here, and their conditions of inclusion for the hotel are being broken.
Get the hotel kicked from Booking.com Apodo and the rest and it will be gone from memory quick enough.
Re:Not quite true (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm guessing from your comments on the £100 figure that you're referring to the protections under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act (the one making your credit card company liable along with the retailer under certain conditions, if you buy something using your card). That's a useful law to know, but in this case it doesn't seem necessary.
The small print supposedly enabling the "fine" here is almost certainly a straight-up unfair term in a consumer contract, and as such it would not be binding on the consumer according to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999.
In practice the quickest way to get the matter resolved might be to ask the card company to charge the "fine" back, and given that the chargeback system is heavily loaded against merchants this seems likely to succeed.
If that doesn't work, a small claims court action might be entertaining, but as with any low value legal action there is unfortunately a high probability that the time and hassle of finding your way around that system and going to court if necessary would far outweigh any financial benefit you might gain by the end of it, unless you've done this sort of thing before and so already know how it works.
(I'm not a lawyer, so obviously check that the above is still correct if this affects you, but this situation is so clear-cut...)
Re: Not quite true (Score:2)
They may have a harder time than we think. If the hotel can offer their terms and conditions, with disclosure of the potential fine, and prove this was known by the cardholder, these patrons may be denied their claim. Indeed, add on any statements by the cardholders they they knew and made the complaint anyways, and the merchant should press this vigorously.
Mind you, this is sharp practice by the hotel, but that's their business.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U... [wikipedia.org]
'The Act renders terms excluding or limiting liability ineffective or subject to reasonableness, depending on the nature of the obligation purported to be excluded and whether the party purporting to exclude or limit business liability, acting against a consumer.'
In short - any provision trying to do this is probably not legal.
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No, YOUR statement is simply not true. Chargeback can be a pain but if you have a case it is accepted the majority of the time. And in THIS case (when it's literally used as a "fine" for restricting free speech) it's almost a no-brainer it will go through.
For a GOOD credit card customer they make more money on the customer than some single shady hotel transaction in the long run. And when it's dozens of customer (who will probably have legal standing if they care to take it beyond simple chargebacks) it'
Re:Ask the credit card for a refund (Score:5, Interesting)
For my software, I've had chargebacks from people just saying they didn't want the software anymore, without any further explanation (after they had already received their registration code and could use the software with no restrictions). I was told there was nothing I could do. Instead of a $15 sale, I had to pay a $15 chargeback fee. All I could do was disable that registration code in future updates. Fortunately it was a relatively rare occurrence.
Re:Ask the credit card for a refund (Score:5, Informative)
I was told there was nothing I could do.
It looks like you need to use a better card payment service. Although the chargeback system is certainly horribly biased against honest merchants and vulnerable to abuse, you can still dispute any chargeback, and any serious card payment service will surely provide for this.
Also worth knowing:
1. Some payment services these days will waive the chargeback fee if you successfully defend the charge.
2. If you use 3-D Secure to authenticate the buyer, then chargeback liability shifts to the financial companies rather than you as the merchant under most circumstances.
So the situation here is at least a bit better for honest merchants than it used to be.
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Yep. One of the few times I issued a chargeback (HP laptop repair by manufacturer due to a non-functional video card; the service request explicitly did not include the hard drive but they took it out, (supposedly) destroyed it, and replaced it with an OEM imaged one; fortunately it was a dual-drive laptop and all my data was on the second drive which I'd removed prior to sending it in) the vendor (HP) tried to contest it. After an annoying phone call with my CC company (Visa through Wells Fargo, which I do
Re: Ask the credit card for a refund (Score:2)
This isn't a fraud case. There isn't any reason to shift liability to the processor or acquirer. This is a pure dispute.
Assuming the cardholder isn't trying to claim a deceptive practice. Which doesn't seem sustainable.
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WTF?! Change bank now!
Refusing payments is one of the most basic interactions you have to be able to do with your bank.
You have money, they are a bank. It's you two against "the evil criminal merchant subclass".
If I didn't have absolute confidence in that my bank will always be on my side when we're talking about my money, I'd never buy anything online.
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a) you can get chargebacks
and b) deducting the fine from the card without notifying/permission from the card holder(or perhaps even just because the card wasn't present at the transaction) is probably against the rules of the said credit card provider and the provider of the charging services to the said hotel.
the cc processors should just drop the stupid hotel - it's giving a bad vibe to using credit cards, they're not supposed to be some magic "we'll charge whatever we want from the card when we feel like
Re: Ask the credit card for a refund (Score:2)
FTFA:
"The Broadway Hotel's booking policy reads (in small print), "Despite the fact that repeat customers and couples love our hotel, your friends and family may not. "For every bad review left on any website, the group organizer will be charged a maximum £100 per review."
I'm betting these nice patrons read that as carefully as you did. The first time.
They may not be able to claim ignorance.
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FTFA:
"The Broadway Hotel's booking policy reads (in small print), ...."
I'm betting these nice patrons read that as carefully as you did. The first time.
TFA says they booked through Booking.com -- on their page for the hotel I don't see any fine print with those words. They may have changed it today. They have a note about disabled access.
It's clearly an unfair contract term anyway. Would you agree to it if it was explicit? No -- it's intentionally hidden away in the small print.
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This is simply not true. The charge-back answer is a myth. The hassle you have to go through makes it a almost impossible to achieve.
It depends. If they paid online, a charge-back is easy. For "card not present" transactions, charge-backs are almost automatic, and the merchant has little recourse. If the physical card was used at the hotel, then it will be much harder.
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It depends. If they paid online, a charge-back is easy. For "card not present" transactions, charge-backs are almost automatic, and the merchant has little recourse. If the physical card was used at the hotel, then it will be much harder.
Since it's a British card, so has a chip, even if the owner authorised (using his PIN) the cost of the room at the hotel using the card, they won't have authorised the subsequent £100 charge.
Broadway Hotel, 2-4 Burlington Road West Blackpool (Score:5, Informative)
BROADWAY HOTEL SUCKS
Come and take your 100 pounds for this.
Streisand Effect anyone?
Last review from tripadvisor:
"I spent two nights for my son's 18th birthday at this hotel, but had I read the reviews 1st I wouldn't of stayed at this hotel. The breakfast was disgusting, the tables and cutlery were filthy and the dining room looked as it hadn't seen a hoover in months. In our bedroom the shower head was useless cause you had to hold it yourself as the holder on the wall was broken also I don't think they clean the showers regular cause it was filthy, we couldn't turn the TV on, the floor was dirty. In my son's room he couldn't turn the heating off so had to be too hot all night "
Re:Broadway Hotel, 2-4 Burlington Road West Blackp (Score:5, Funny)
BROADWAY HOTEL SUCKS
You were lucky! Instead of breakfast they gave me a green paste of dubious origin. The room had no shower, if you wanted to get clean you had to stand under the rain. On the bright side, the holes in the roof helped do that while staying in. On the other hand, there were no windows, just holes in the wall (on one of the three standing walls, the fourth one was just a hole into the abyss.
Of my two sons, one disappeared after going to the kitchen for dinner. We had to sell the other to pay the fine for this review.
Re:Broadway Hotel, 2-4 Burlington Road West Blackp (Score:5, Funny)
BROADWAY HOTEL SUCKS
You were lucky! Instead of breakfast they gave me a green paste of dubious origin. The room had no shower, if you wanted to get clean you had to stand under the rain. On the bright side, the holes in the roof helped do that while staying in. On the other hand, there were no windows, just holes in the wall (on one of the three standing walls, the fourth one was just a hole into the abyss.
Of my two sons, one disappeared after going to the kitchen for dinner. We had to sell the other to pay the fine for this review.
"Eh, you were lucky to have a room! We used to have to live in t' corridor!"
"Oh, we used to dream of livin' in a corridor! Would ha' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woke up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! Hotel? Huh."
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Re:Broadway Hotel, 2-4 Burlington Road West Blackp (Score:5, Funny)
And you try and tell the young people today that and they wont believe you!
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The reviews of the hotel are almost certainly being outrage spammed already. What's interesting is the reviews before this.
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One of the reviews starts with "Words fail me", I hope they all started taking photos so that this doesn't all end up in a nasty case of slander/libel.
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There are plenty of photos on Tripadvisor, and they're not nice. (e.g. mouldy socks left in a drawer, chunks of damp plaster falling off walls.)
Re:Broadway Hotel, 2-4 Burlington Road West Blackp (Score:5, Funny)
Meet Streisand (Score:5, Insightful)
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I agree. The other thing, though, is that IT'S A CONTRACT. Read, read read! I don't know why people who don't read the contract try to get out of it later. I know it's not kosher to put things like this in the contact, but contracts are like that. They're usually one sided in favor of one party or another. The question is, whether this was illegal (extorting money for negative reviews). If it wasn't, then I don't see how one should be able to get out of it.
This was a simple retail transaction, not a commercial negotiation.
Luckily, I doubt that this hotel will be seeing many of the latter until they come to talk to their liquidators.
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There are exceptions--contracts can't violate the law, for example. But they can still be written to unreasonably favor one party, and usually are.
That's the point. I don't know British law, but in Spain only public Administrations are allowed to set fines (by application of existing law). I understand a hotel can only charge you for any service thay have provided, mini-bar, etc., which is not the case.
Even if the hotel says you broke something in your room it is quite arguable they could charge it to your credit card. That's what lawyers (and insurances) are intended for.
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Retail or not, contracts are binding.
In the UK, national trading standards laws trump point-of-sale contracts in retail transactions.
...because otherwise you'd need to take a lawyer with you every time you bought groceries.
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In the UK, national trading standards laws trump point-of-sale contracts in retail transactions.
Laws trump contracts pretty much everywhere and in every circumstance.
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take a lawyer with you every time you bought groceries.
But that would make a great Bit of Fry and Laurie sketch.
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Even in the US negotiation must be handled in good faith. If the contract can't be negotiated, it isn't a contract. The "take it or leave it" stance has fallen before when a simple transaction has been involved (no, don't have the cite; too lazy to look it up). There is also a danger in overly strict contracts which attempt to be inforced as the burden of the contractual language is on the writer and the benefit is *always* given to the receiver. If there's a slip anywhere, the contract can be nullified or
Re:Contracts (Score:5, Interesting)
Retail or not, contracts are binding.
Contracts tend to be binding even when both parties don't read--most contracts are not read but are binding
Are you sure about that [wikipedia.org]? Note the following (from the American Law Institute):
Where the other party has reason to believe that the party manifesting such assent would not do so if he knew that the writing contained a particular term, the term is not part of the agreement.
i.e. if you put terms into a contract that you know your customers aren't likely to agree to, then they're not binding, even if the contract is signed.
Re:Contracts (Score:5, Insightful)
In most of Europe, law specifically requires contracts in common situations like booking a stay with a hotel that have "unusual terms" for the terms to be specifically and carefully explained. The burden of proof that explanation was delivered and appropriate lies with the one inserting these clauses (in this case hotel) and even if this was found to be true, court would still likely strike it down as illegal because of power balance in this case (customer arriving with expectation of a place to stay, hotel in a position of power because it holds the room guest has expected behind unreasonable contractual terms).
Reminder: Most of Europe is far more consumer-centric than wild west capitalism of US.
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The 'charge' for a negative review is a 'minimum of pds 100'? I'd like to see this stand up to legal scrutiny.
Re:Meet Streisand (Score:5, Interesting)
Such "contracts" hold little to no water in the UK, which is why Trading Standards is involved - this hotel is going to get buttfucked from here to Singapore by quite a few government bodies over this, and quite probably lose their merchant status for accepting cards.
Re: Meet Streisand (Score:2)
Re:Meet Streisand (Score:5, Interesting)
Problem is: nobody reads contracts.
The good news is that this works both ways. A number of times I have crossed out bits I don't like, and photocopied the contract before sending it back and nobody said a thing. Only once did I get a letter saying that they would only do business if I accepted all terms.
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Re:Meet Streisand (Score:5, Funny)
I applied this back in the early days of Java development, when the giant list of terms and conditions for the SDK download was displayed in a text field.
An editable text field.
This has two main effects that I can see:
1. I, unlike most people, am allowed to use old versions of Java to run nuclear power stations.
2. Sun owes me $1m for each JDK I downloaded back in the day.
To date I haven't received payment.
Re:Meet Streisand (Score:5, Informative)
In many parts of the world you're not required to read contracts. Items that are not part of a standard contract are not enforceable unless separated and signed on their own.
So: It is expected that a hotel charges me for the minibar and damage to the room. It is unexpected and not even remotely standard practice that they charge me for leaving a bad review. Hence when I sign on the dotted line I agree to standard terms. This is backed by case law in several parts of the world, and I think the UK included.
In Australia it was to do with a postal worker having people sign over the deeds to the house when dropping off a package.
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contracts are only binding for people who cant afford enough lawyers.
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I know it's Blackpool, but still, no one should expect much for 36 pounds.
You say that, but there are plenty of local B&Bs and some of the big national chains like Premier Inn that would charge little more than that for a night off season and still offer decent accommodation and a good breakfast. Short stay accommodation is a fiercely competitive market in Blackpool, and prices really can be much lower than similar places in most of the UK.
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Never Use Your Real Name (Score:4, Insightful)
While crap like this is obviously bogus, one easy way to short-circuit it is to simply never use your real name on any of these review sites.
If they can't identify you, they can't extort you. Especially if you use a pseudonym that is really common like say William Brown or John Williams.
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Smart of him, leave The Doctor out of this.
Already has 147 'Terrible' ratings (Score:2)
So maybe this couple should have checked Trip Advisor before staying there...
Nonetheless, I think this hotel has pretty much fucked itself now. If anybody wanted to stay there before, they surely won't now.
Could be solved be VISA, etc. immediately (Score:2)
I can't imagine a credit card company would approve of their card being used to "fine" customers. Accept an IMMEDIATE chargeback (which I assume they will, as the charge is insane) and tell the company one more violation and their contract is cancelled.
And then, good luck with a hotel accepting payment "cash only"...
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Checks (cheques, this being a British hotel) do still exist, but yeah, that would still be pretty much a death knell. The only time I don't pay for a hotel online (with my credit card) is if I'm in a place so remote I either don't get cell signal or they aren't listed on the online booking sites. Even in most of those places, though, I pay with my card. The only time in the last decade I've paid cash for lodging was a few "tea houses" in the Himalayas, most of which didn't even have electricity (maybe one s
Re:Could be solved be VISA, etc. immediately (Score:4, Informative)
Pretty much no larger business accepts cheques these days in the UK, and hasn't for several years - cheques have essentially been relegated to inter-personal transactions or smaller business (single person style businesses) because of the cost of handling them as a business.
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Ah, I didn't realize. I assume they're still used for major transactions like buying a car or something?
I live in the USA, but aside from rent and occasionally paying a friend for something expensive I haven't used a check since graduation except to pay rent and buy my car.
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Cheques are notoriously bad for guaranteed payment - businesses would only accept a cheque if your bank also issued you with a cheque guarantee card (usually just a different design on your debit card), which means the bank would guarantee to cash the cheque up to a certain amount, taking the matter up with the writer of the cheque if it bounced. If you tried to cash a cheque without a guarantee (or a cheque over the guarantee amount) and it bounces, you are SOL and have to take it up with the writer yours
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Where I used to work we had a cheque underwriter. Basically, when we got a cheque we would need to call up and feed all the details off it into the phone-service, they would give us an auth number to write on it. If the cheque bounces or is otherwise bad, we still got our money and THEY would undertake the hunting of the person.
Downsides:
3% processing fee
Takes about 10 mins
Customers who pay regularly by cheque are usually arseholes and will complain bitterly about the above two downsides, while holding up o
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Is that in the UK? Never heard of that before, and certainly never came across it in the UK - if you don't have a guarantee card, the cheque would be refused, it was that simple.
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Are you trying to compare the two? Like, damaging a rental car is somehow the same as the rental car company jerking you around and you publicly describing your bad experience? NOT THE SAME.
The answer is...virtual credit cards (Score:5, Interesting)
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Did you know that cards can be validated for an amount as well as charged?
When I book a hotel stay for $x and give them a card to hold it the first thing they do is validate with the CC company that the card can be charged $x. When I check out they ask how to settle the bill including charging the amount to a different card.
So if a hotel wants a card to book a room (guaranteeing payment on no-shows) and you provide a dummy card that they could not charge for the amount then over here we call that fraud. But
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They are not idiots for saying "your card was declined". Hotels and car rentals are notorious for blocking amounts on your card, just in case. When they tell you the card was declined what really happened was that at minimum they tried to block whatever amount they felt is justified to rip you off in case your parents would not have shown, more likely they tried to block the whole amount for the stay up front. Car rentals do the same even after you brought the car back, for potential overlooked damage or t
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Hotels typically do a pre-authorisation on your card which essentially checks to see if the card is active and that you have enough balance to cover the amount they are pre-authing. It does this by placing a hold on that amount until the transaction is settled or the authorisation falls off (usually a couple of days, but could be l
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There are a couple of companies that offer virtual credit cards in the UK, but it isn't clear if you get the same level of protection that you would if you used a real credit card.
We have something called Section 75, which basically says if you pay (or part pay) for a product worth over £100 on a credit card the card issuer (bank) is jointly liable with the vendor for any issues. As an example a guy paid a £500 deposit for a £27,000 car on credit card and the rest in cash
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I like the sound of these, but I've never had one, and never felt like I needed one either. I've never been ripped off in any way that I couldn't resolve entirely with one (or at worst, two) phone calls to my bank.
Visa/mastercard/Amex are all ways of reducing my risk, not increasing it. Even if I drop my wallet on the floor outside right now, any money spent on my cards is not my concern - it's the bank's problem, not mine. I guess if the bank could prove I was negligent with my cards, they might not pay up
Related story: (Score:2)
Hotel Charges Guests $500 For Bad Online Reviews [slashdot.org]
So... wait until you get home...? (Score:3)
To avoid this 'charge', would it be enough to just wait until you've checked-out before posting your review? Or would they charge your card even then?
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The card details have been taken so a charge could be applied anywhen. However, as you can't arbitrarily charge a card, they put this clause into the terms to "justify" a possible charge in the future. The trouble is it's bollocks and illegal.
The TripAdvisor URL (Score:5, Informative)
Maybe I just missed it in the comments, but: here [tripadvisor.co.uk] is the TripAdvisor page for the hotel.
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Thanks! Already commented or would mod you up.
Somehow, the place is ranked 858th of 894. Considering that their reviews (going back months) are mostly terrible - it's not just the recent wave of them, and the photos are damning - plus the recent wave of awful reviews in the wake of this news breaking, I have to wonder how there are 36 hotels that are ranked even *worse*...
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147 terrible reviews, I think the £100 charge must be part of their business model.
Re:The TripAdvisor URL (Score:4, Funny)
I am a developer who dabbles in entomology as such I was simply thrilled to walk in and see a roach scurrying across the lobby floor. This set my hopes high for the room and I would not be disappointed! Some people read, watch the telly, play games, etc before bed. I enjoy getting out my equipment and studying insects. What can I say, we all have our hobbies.
While visiting the States for a conference in Chicago last year, I had the pleasure of eating at Ed Debevics. If you have never eaten there, the servers are a bit on the rude side for comedic effect. Based on my conversation with the desk when attempting to get a new light bulb for my room I'm assuming the attendant worked at Ed's while studying abroad in Chicago. "There is a shoppe down the way. Go get one yourself."
As far as the breakfast, it was simply delicious. The powdered eggs were served at a perfect 22C (72F). Not so hot as to burn the tongue but not so cold as to be crispy with a layer of frost. The pastries had a new green flavor enhancer on them. I have forgotten the name but it was excellent. Highly recommend.
Don't believe the negative reviews! I definitely feel I got more than my £36 worth out of my stay at this fine hotel!
money making racket (Score:4, Funny)
They must do it on purpose: set up a crap hotel, put the 100 pound fine in the small print: profit!
At http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/H... [tripadvisor.co.uk] the place has 147 "terrible" ratings and 24 "poor" == 17100 pounds (about $26800) (!)
If they're smart they'll diversify: Bad review on tripadvisor: 100 pounds. Badmouthing tweet to 1000 followers or more: 500 pounds. Negative letter to paper: 500 pounds and 20 lashes. Bad review in paper: you forfeit all your bank accounts.
All hotels should do this. The Great Hotel Vengeance of 2015. In fact all reviews of any book, film, hotel, ebay seller, etc. should be included. Ah well anybody who says anything bad about anything ever. 100 pounds please.
Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations1999 (Score:2)
In UK contract law Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 [wikipedia.org] in conjunction with Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 [wikipedia.org] Which apply to standard consumer contracts regardless of custom and explicit terms Imply this should not be enforceable:
In the UK, these 1999 Regulations work to render ineffective terms that benefit seller or suppliers against the interests of consumers.
This term effectively misleads consumers and is clearly against their interest. Implied law is no sure win, but in my amateur opinion it looks like there is a strong case to contest this. Not that it'd be worth it for £100...
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Hotel already folded and agreed to drop charges for these and all future customers:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-eng... [bbc.com]
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That's not good enough. Not by half. The hotel manager should be charged criminally, found guilty, and sent to prison for flagrant fraud.
I hope all of you.... (Score:2)
Everyone is heading to trip-advisor and posting scathing reviews of this place right?
This is the internet, this hotel should be buried by now.
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UK itself does. In law.
If this goes to court, hotel has snowball chance in hell of winning. The problem is court costs. However now that this made it to top of BBC, consumer protection agency will likely take over and hotel will fold like a pro poker player who drew nothing and sees opponent pop up a maximum bet.
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Which already happened:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-eng... [bbc.com]
As I said, hotel folded instantly.
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For a country "without free speech", we do pretty well and I can get away with ten times more than I could ever do in the US.
The hotel were talked to by Trading Standards, and have immediately revoked the policy (because it was legally dubious right from the outset). They are currently being spoken to also about refunding this "fine" despite the idiots signing a piece of paper that says they agreed with it (which is also legally dubious). And there doesn't need to be any change in the law because already,