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An American man who was arrested after writing a negative review about a resort in Thailand will avoid legal action after settling with the company.
The Sea View Resort on Koh Chang claimed that American Wesley Barnes launched a series of complaints against them after their stay, forcing them to take legal action in a country known for its strict criminal defamation laws.
Barnes, who works in Thailand, wrote several reviews on different sites, the hotel claimed. In one published in July, he claimed to have encountered “unfriendly staff” who “act like they don’t want anyone here.”
TripAdvisor removed another post, accusing the hotel of “modern slavery,” for violating its guidelines.
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Barnes was charged with causing “damage to the hotel’s reputation.” He was arrested on September 12 and released two days later after posting bail.
AFP reported that Barnes and the complex reached an agreement Thursday after a police-supervised mediation session.
Allison Joyce / Getty Images
A woman appears on a beach in Pattaya, Thailand, in mid-September. Local businesses have been struggling for months with the country’s borders closed to tourism due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Barnes had agreed to comply with the hotel’s proposals, including apologizing to the hotel and its staff, said Colonel Kitti Maleehuan, superintendent of the Koh Chang Police Station.
Barnes must also apologize to the kingdom’s Tourism Authority and provide an explanation to the US embassy.
If it complies with the terms of the agreement, the hotel said it would withdraw the complaint.
Previously, Sea View management said they took legal action to discourage further reviews and that they had tried to contact Barnes beforehand.
“We chose to file a complaint as a deterrent, as we understood that you could continue to write negative reviews week after week for the foreseeable future,” they said.
Gemunu Amarasinghe / AP
Office workers and construction workers with face masks in Bangkok.
The BBC reported that Barnes was claimed to have had an argument with staff because he wanted to bring his own bottle of alcohol to the resort restaurant.
A statement from the hotel said it had “caused a commotion” and refused to pay a corkage fee that was eventually waived when the manager intervened.
The hotel told the BBC that after Barnes’s criticism was published, it had received cancellations and inquiries about the treatment of employees.
The hotel also said that for more than a month efforts were made to contact Barnes in an attempt to resolve the matter amicably, but Barnes only responded when notified by authorities of the resort’s complaint.
Thailand’s notorious anti-defamation laws have faced condemnation from human rights organizations, who say they can be used to stifle free speech.
Violators can face two years in prison and a fine of 200,000 baht (NZ $ 9,652).
