One of the advantages of purchasing a product or service online is that you can view reviews of it from other customers, which gives you a more realistic representation of the product’s quality.
For example, if 80% of the reviews of a certain hotel say there’s a monkey going around at night knocking on doors and flinging poop at guests, you can be assured that you’d get monkey poop on you if you booked that hotel.
Online reviews force business owners to address customers’ concerns or risk losing them altogether, as there’s always a better option elsewhere.
It also allows you to vent your frustrations about a product you felt you’d wasted your money on.
Sounds great, right?
Sure, if you don’t get sued, that is.
Thai Resort Sues Man For ‘1-Star’ Review On TripAdvisor About ‘Unfriendly Staff’
An American man is being sued for defamation by a Thai resort over a negative review posted on the reservation and booking site TripAdvisor.
The man, Wesley Barnes, is a Thai resident who works in the country.
Unsatisfied with his stay at the Sea View Resort on Koh Chang island, Barnes left a scathing review on both TripAdvisor and Google.
The owner of the resort was displeased with the review, to say the least, and lodged a complaint against the American.
The case attracted media attention after Richard Barrow, a British expat travel blogger, shared details of the incident on social media.
According to Barrow, Barnes was arrested soon after the resort owner made a complaint, and was escorted over 250km away to Trat, where he spent a couple of nights in jail before posting a 100,000 Baht (S$4361) bail.
“If he didn’t have that money, he would have to wait months in prison”, Barrow said.
Now, Barnes has a date with a court judge, and if found guilty of defamation, he could face up to two years in prison.
So, what exactly did he say?
Accused Staff of “Modern Day Slavery”
According to the Bangkok Post, Barnes had posted multiple reviews on different site over the past few weeks.
In one TripAdvisor review posted in July, Barnes said he encountered “unfriendly staff” who “act like they don’t want anyone there.”
He was a tad harsher with a review he posted in June to the same site, where he accused the hotel of “modern-day slavery”, which the site removed a week later as it violated its guidelines.
The Sea View Resort owner filed a complaint about Barnes’ “unfair” reviews, and accused the American of causing “damage to the reputation of the hotel”.
But, as Barrow noted, this will only do more damage to the hotel’s repute, as well as that of the country’s.
Owner’s Response
After the story had gained widespread attention, the resort shared a five-page statement on Saturday (26 Sep) with Barrow, explaining why they’d chosen to take legal action against Barnes.
In the statement, the resort clarified that they are not suing Barnes for a single negative review.
They have received positive and negative reviews in the past, and have always taken them constructively.
However, the resort’s owner felt that Barnes had gone overboard with his criticism, and listed three reasons for their lawsuit.
- He left “fabricated stories” on Tripadvisor and Google that included “xenophobic connotations, accusations of slavery, and comments that could “mislead readers to associate the property with the Coronavirus”.
- He posted multiple reviews one to two weeks apart, with “obvious defamatory intentions”.
- He ignored the resort’s multiple attempts to reach out to him, and only replied to their emails and messages after he had been notified of their complaint.
“We chose to file a complaint to serve as a deterrent, as we understood he may continue to write negative reviews week after week for the foreseeable future,” the resort said.
Barnes had also allegedly brought in outside beverages and caused a commotion when he was informed that it was against the resort’s rules.
In the end, the resort allowed him and a friend to have their outside drinks without paying the “corkage fee”.
Problematic Laws
While one could argue that Barnes was not an innocent party, this case once again brings into question the legitimacy of Thailand’s anti-defamation laws.
As The Jakarta Post reported, Thailand’s anti-defamation laws have long been denounced by human rights and press freedom groups, as it’s often used by powerful figures to intimidate critics.
The maximum sentence for those convicted is two years in prison, along with a 200,000-baht fine (S$8722).
Earlier this year, a Thai journalist was sentenced to two years in prison for posting a tweet about a farm where migrant workers were allegedly forced to work excessive hours and were underpaid.
She is currently out on bail and her case is pending an appeal.
It’s unclear when Barnes will return to court, but if he is found guilty, social media will surely revolt.
So the next time you visit Thailand, which might be in 2031 by the looks of things, it’d probably be a good idea to avoid posting negative reviews.
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