Dublin Hotel Manager Pens Letter to Guests Who Threaten Hotel With Bad Review Online

A Dublin Hotel Manager has lashed out at two German guests who were staying at the hotel at the weekend, as he claims that they tried to blackmail staff into giving them a discount. Paul Stenson, who is manager of the Charleville Lodge Hotel in Phibsborough, Dublin took to the hotel’s Facebook page the other day to pen an open letter to the guests who were still in residence at the time. He said that the guests had complained of a “small amount of dust on the main lampshade in the room and that the headboard wasn’t entirely horizontal.” According to Stenson, the two guests then “produced photographic evidence of said irritations at the reception desk,” before going on to give a ‘Travel Review Threat (TRT)’ as Mr. Stenson is calling it. In the somewhat sarcastic reply to the customer’s complaints, Mr. Stenson adds: “I told them (the staff) to use a spirit level when carrying out the straightening exercise. Rest assured that they will be disciplined over the lampshade issue, and I am currently looking into buying pocket sized spirit levels for every team member, so no further equilibrium issues take place in relation to head boards (or any fitting for that matter)." The manager then goes on address other issues the pair had adding; “I believe that all of a sudden the door handle to the bathroom became slightly loose and the right door of the wardrobe was approximately 1cm short of closing perfectly. “There appears to be a very dark trend emerging in the wonderful world of hospitality. There is a small cohort of travellers who use travel review sites as a means of ‘travelling economically’.” “They take photos of some minor issue..and use photo editing software (namely the zoom function) to make the issue look ten times worse than it actually is. Mr. Stenson added that the hotel is not afraid of these travellers, though many hotels fall “into the trap”. “We will respond with threats of equal (or usually greater) proportion,” he explained. ”If there is any material posted online by a guest that constitutes slander or could be described as defamatory, we will have no hesitation in taking legal action against this guest.” He then addressed the German guests specifically: “German guests, please don’t get me wrong. I am not saying for one minute that you fall into this category. I am confident that the rationale behind taking the photos was simply a way of showing out team exactly what was wrong in the room, to save us from having to walk up to the first floor to see for ourselves."