Many companies still don't understand social media and the viral nature of the Internet. The latest corporate social media failure appears to have been brought to you by the hotel Union Street Guest House in Hudson, New York.
According to the New York Post, the Union Street Guest House allegedly inserts into its wedding agreements the phrase: “If you have booked the inn for a wedding or other type of event . . .
and given us a deposit of any kind . . . there will be a $500 fine that
will be deducted from your deposit for every negative review . . .
placed on any internet site by anyone in your party.”
This is an outrageous clause for any hotel or business to put into their agreements. How is this clause being enforced? How does Union Street Guest House know if a negative poster is from your wedding/event party? What if an imposter makes multiple fake posts to cause the person who booked the party to incur multiple $500 fines? Does Union Street Guest House troll Yelp, Facebook, Twitter and try to match up their hotel guests with their social media accounts?
This situation reminds me of the Kleargear.com matter. Kleargear.com fined a customer $3,500 for a what appears to be a clearly deserved negative review. The company claimed that its terms of service allowed it to fine customers under its disparagement clause section. The customer sued and won $306,000.
The bottom line is that companies should not be in the business of trying to silence their customers via required non-disparagement clauses in their agreements. This is a very troubling trend that I believe will increase in the near future. Within minutes of the New York Post publishing its article about this matter, the Internet made an example out of Union Street Guest House. In less than 24 hours, the hotel received hundreds of negative reviews and then changed its policy.
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