
Some hotels have charged visitors for bad reviews - hvo
https://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2018/01/pay-pooh-poohing
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monksy
Shouldn't this be an easy way to break the hotel? A hotel implements this
policy, the person trapped in that contract reveals the terms neutrally. Third
party concerned citizens overwhelm them with bad reviews? (They're not bound
by the terms of the contracts)

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DoofusOfDeath
Another viable strategy might be to countersue the hotel for all of the things
that were wrong, especially if any of them had health/safety implications,
violations of hotel-related regulations, or constituted fraud of any form.

I.e., if the hotel comes after you with the torte-law equivalent of a
flyswatter, return the favor with a torte-law sledgehammer.

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Y_Y
A torte is a kind of cake.

I think you may mean "tort".

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goialoq
Revenge is sweet, though.

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gk1
Title is clickbait. This practice was banned in 2016 so should no longer be an
issue, at least in the US.

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zython
Why was it allowed in the first place especially with free speech being so
important and constitutionally protected in the US ?

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cimmanom
In the US, speech cannot be punished by the government. The constitution says
nothing about private entities or contracts that limit speech.

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Retric
There are limits on what contracts can and can't cover in terms of free
speech. Requiring silence is a common item, so zero reviews may been an
option. However, requiring a specific type of review aka only positive ones is
a tricky subject that was unlikely to be legal.

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marcoperaza
You can contract for people to tell lies even. That's what celebrity
endorsement contracts essentially are, for example.

I don't think this has anything to do with free speech, but more about fair
business practices.

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emodendroket
> You can contract for people to tell lies even. That's what celebrity
> endorsement contracts essentially are, for example.

I think there are problems with casting it this way. You can get in trouble
for making false claims in ads.

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marcoperaza
Hence the tiny text on the bottom of the screen about "paid actors" or
similar. But again, that's about prohibiting unfair business practices,
misleading advertising in this case. It has nothing to do with the legal
capability of the actors to contract to tell lies, and nothing to do with free
speech (except that it's a limit on the free speech of the actors and the
company).

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kzrdude
It's entirely bullshit that they keep your credit card info and can charge you
at their whim. It's another reason that payment type needs to be abandoned.

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emodendroket
What happens if you check out and then someone finds you've trashed the room?

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justinjlynn
This is what insurance, credit and contract law are designed to handle.

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emodendroket
Like the contract you presumably signed that says in the event that your room
was damaged they can charge your credit card?

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alkonaut
In US law iirc libel requires something to be factually false, correct?

So you can only be sued for libel against the hotel if you leave a false bad
review with the intent to damage the business? I don’t have a big problem with
that.

The idea that I couldn’t review them badly before letting them address the
problem, due to some fine print _that’s_ unacceptable.

Even having to tell hotel management about some problem _is already a bad
experience_. You don’t get two chances.

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TylerE
Facts are tricky.

Was the construction going on next door really intolerably, or just a bit
noisy?

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emodendroket
Nobody is going to win a libel case on grounds like that.

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TylerE
Winning a case isn't free. Even if you don't hire a lawyer, there is still
missed time from work, stress, etc.

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emodendroket
I completely agree, but your comment had nothing to do with that. As the
saying goes, you can sue a ham sandwich for being too delicious.

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goialoq
The saying goes, "a prosecutor could _indict_ a ham sandwich"

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emodendroket
I've heard both but that particular one doesn't seem to fit the current
context at all.

To take the folksiness out of it, anyone can sue anyone at any time for
essentially any reason, whether or not the suit has merit.

