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"UPDATE: Aug. 5: The Union Street Guest House issued a letter on its Facebook wall Tuesday.\n\"Yesterday Union Street Guest House went viral for all the wrong reasons,\" Chris Wagoner, the owner wrote. \"Quite frankly, I\u2019m embarrassed. This indeed was a policy of the Union Street Guest House. It was originally intended as a joke and never something I told employees to enforce. However, since it was listed on our website it did represent an official policy.\"\nRead the full letter:\n\nPost by Union Street Guest House.\nUPDATE: 3 p.m. ET: The hotel has now removed the Facebook post saying the policy was a joke. A screenshot of the post, which received many negative comments, is included below.\nUPDATE: 12:30 p.m. ET:  The Union Street Guest House posted to its Facebook wall on Monday, saying that the $500 fine for negative reviews was a joke.\n\nThe Union Street Guest House posted this message on its Facebook wall after criticism of a policy for charging for negative online reviews.Image:  FacebookSeveral commenters pointed to a Yelp review left in November 2013 from a guest who said the hotel emailed him trying to collect. The Yelp reviewer wrote:\n\nThe management of this hotel had the gall to email us twice to threaten us financially about the negative review! Here is an excerpt from their first email:\n\"please note that your recent on-line review of our Inn will cost the wedding party that left us a deposit $500.  This money be charged via  the deposit they have left us unless/until it is removed.  Any other or future reviews will also be charged to the wedding party (bride &amp; groom) from the guarantee they have provided us. \"\nDisgusting! Instead of taking responsibility and striving to improve their customer service, they instead resort to intimidation!\n\nMashable will update this post with comment from the hotel if they respond to the request for comment. Our original story appears below.\n\nA hotel in Hudson, New York, is going to new lengths to avoid bad online reviews: It's fining guests who leave them.\nThe Union Street Guest House, which hosts weddings and events, has a clause in its reservation policy stating that $500 of a couple's deposit would be held for every bad review from their event's attendees.\nSee also: 10 Best Hotels in the U.S. for Foodies\nOnline review sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor are important to service providers, as more and more potential guests check reviews before booking a location.\nThe clause in the Union Street Guest House policy reads:\nIf you have booked the Inn for a wedding or other type of event anywhere in the region and given us a deposit of any kind for guests to stay at USGH there will be a $500 fine that will be deducted from your deposit for every negative review of USGH placed on any internet site by anyone in your party and/or attending your wedding or event.\nBut if the review is taken down, all is forgiven. \nThe hotel's website also states that the charge also applies to any guests: \"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.\"\nHowever, there is no clear way for the hotel to enforce this.\n\"Please note we will not charge this fee and/or will refund this fee once the review is taken down,\" the policy continues.\nThe strategy isn't helping the hotel's Yelp score, which is currently at 1.5 stars, in part because of one-star reviews in response to the policy.\nThe hotel says that its vintage look and \"hip\" decor are sometimes unpopular with guests.\n\"If your guests are looking for a Marriott type hotel, they may not like it here,\" the hotel's website reads.\nHave something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.\n      window._msla=window.loadScriptAsync||function(src,id){if(document.getElementById(id))return;var js=document.createElement('script');js.id=id;js.src=src;document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0].parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);};\n_msla(\"//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#appId=116628718381794&amp;xfbml=1&amp;status=1&amp;cookie=1\",\"facebook_jssdk\");"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2014/08/04/hotel-fines-bad-reviews/>