Thai Hotel That Put American in Jail Gets New Label on Tripadvisor

Who I really feel for in this case are all the hotel operators in Thailand who are perfectly reasonable people but now have been painted with headlines like the tmz one: “American Could be Jailed FOR BAD REVIEWS OF THAI RESORT!!!” That just hurt the industry as a whole. If the other hotels were smart they would come out against this specific one and in support of civil reforms as a way to assure guests that they won’t do the same thing.

I also really want to commend TripAdvisor for sticking up to their corporate ideals and policies. They got their user out safely, and decided to avoid this issue in future by labeling the hotel as a possible threat. I think the hotel got exactly what they deserve in this case. If you want to risk your good name by jailing someone for bad review you kinda deserve to be run out of the hospitality business, and TripAdvisor should rightfully help people avoid your hotel.

> Tripadvisor’s business model is based on the idea that everyone has “the right to write,” said Bradford Young, vice president and associate general counsel.

I avoid Tripadvisor because it has so many fake reviews and listings that have lead me astray e.g. claiming a place is in the centre of town but when I get there, already having paid and with no options left, it is not what Tripadvisor said it was.

I also avoid Tripadvisor because it is a spam magnet. When I used it in the past I got a lot of advertising I didn't want.

Previous discussion:

Hotel guest in Thailand jailed for defamation after posting bad online reviews https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24608925

American sued in Thailand over negative Tripadvisor review https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24605386

I’m ok with this. The alternative solution would be to kick the hotel off of TripAdvisor.

As a business (TA) I wouldn’t want to have to deal with troublesome properties, honestly. This action would be a good enough deterrent from others to follow the lead of the resort.

On one hand, if users aren’t comfortable leaving bad reviews, the site will only show high scores.

On the other hand, if you want to be the review platform, people can’t think you can’t handle negative reviews.

Should they mark every Thai business with a warning to only review them when out of the country? That seems like the only safe option if every business can do what this one did over a bad review.