Most of us, at one time or another, have received a poor review on Google, Yelp, FB or some other online review site.
When you are in the service business, it happens. It is just a part of doing business. We don’t like bad reviews, but they do provide a great opportunity to fix a system that may be broken that we were not aware of.
Most businesses would take the poor review, investigate what happened, reach out to the client and try to help fix the situation.
Most businesses would make an effort at service recovery.
Most businesses… but not all.
A hotel in New York has a policy charging guests a fine (500 bucks) if they leave a bad review on the hotel. The policy, which has since been removed, stated that:
“There will be a $500 dollar fine that will be deducted from your deposit for every negative review of USGH place on any internet site by anyone in your party and/or attending your wedding even if you stay here to attend a wedding anywhere in the area and leave us a negative review on any internet site you agree to a $500 fine for each negative review.”
If that was not insulting enough, their policy continues to insult the intelligence of their guests:
Apparently guests who don’t like their stays at the guest house just don’t understand the historic buildings or region, according to the hotel website.
“Please know that despite the fact that wedding couples love Hudson and our Inn, your friends and families may not,” the website says. “This is due to the fact that your guests may not understand what we offer — therefore we expect you to explain that to them. USGH & Hudson are historic. The buildings here are old (but restored).
If your guests are looking for a Marriott type hotel they may not like it here.”
Hundreds of people took to Yelp.com to complain about the policy and write mostly fake, eviscerating reviews of the property. 700 at last count.
Yeah… We all saw that coming.
Reviews, good or bad, are a vital part of business.
They help separate the charlatans from the experts.
Smart business owners will use them as training tools for their employees.
Sometimes, service recovery can provide a better experience for the client than if the problem had never arisen, to begin with.
