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This simple gesture of giving stars, notes and making a small comment on sites The evaluation of restaurants and hotels can have serious consequences. That’s what an American working in Thailand discovered. Accused the resource of practicing “modern slavery” and was prosecuted for defamation, a crime punishable by up to two years in prison in the country.
The Sea View Resort finds the reviews unfounded and damaging to the hotel’s reputation, reason enough to sue Wesley Barnes. “The owner complains that the defendant published unfair criticism on the TripAdvisor website,” the police source tells AFP.
Defamation for a bottle of wine
Wesly Barnes complaints begin with a dinner at resource from Koh Chang Island earlier this year when he wanted to bring his own bottle of wine to the table and refused to pay the cork fee – that is, the bottle opening service. The discussion with the waiter will only have ended with the intervention of the space manager, details the BBC.
After the incident, Wesley Barnes published several publications with negative reviews, prompting the hotel to sue him for defamation.
According to the hotel, Warren Barnes’s reviews are “false” and defamatory “and” fabricated, recurring and malicious. ” publications, the American states that the hotel practices “modern slavery”, another of the statements that led the hotel to sue the former client, but that Barnes guarantees that it was never published for going against the guidelines of the TripAdvisor platform, as he he told the BBC.
Warren Barnes was arrested by the police (he spent two nights in prison), before being released. He will not be released from trial, facing a prison sentence of up to two years.
The American says the lawsuit led to his dismissal and the publicity around him has only made the case worse. He fears he will never find work again, he said, adding that he was very “scared” by the possibility of being arrested, after experiencing it in the two days he spent in prison. It will be heard in early October, but it is still waiting to reach an agreement with the hotel.
For its part, the resort claims that it unsuccessfully tried to contact Warren Barnes to reach an agreement before suing the customer, but that the customer only responded when notified by authorities. They also say they decided to go ahead as a way to discourage the customer from continuing to post “negative reviews week after week” that led to several booking cancellations.
