Hotel Fines Brides $500 for Every Negative Online Review Their Wedding Guests Leave (UPDATE: Nope)
CORRECTION: This story from one of our partners turned out to be incorrect. We emailed the hotel for comment, and they responded: “The policy regarding wedding fines was put on our site as a tongue-in-cheek response to a wedding many years ago. It was meant to be taken down long ago and certainly was never enforced.”
Great news for brides with spiteful Yelp reviewing friends!
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Weddings cost a ton of money, and one hotel has found a way to collect even more cash.
The New York Post reports that the Union Street Guest House in Hudson, New York, fines couples $500 for every negative review posted online (on any website) by one of their guests.
But it doesn’t end there. The hotel will also fine you $500 if you’re staying there to attend a wedding at another venue in the area but leave a negative review about your stay.
The hotel, which the Post reports is an estate built by the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers, has this policy on its website:
“Please know that despite the fact that wedding couples love Hudson and our inn, your friends and families may not.
“If you have booked the Inn for a wedding or other type of event anywhere in the region and given us a deposit of any kind for guests to stay at USGH there will be a $500 fine that will be deducted from your deposit for every negative review of USGH placed on any internet site by anyone in your party and/or attending your wedding or event. If you stay here to attend a wedding anywhere in the area and leave us a negative review on any internet site you agree to a $500 fine for each negative review.
“The hotel agrees to give you back your money if the negative review is taken offline.”
The Union Street Guest House’s Yelp page is currently full of one-star reviews, blasting the hotel for “terrible service” and using intimidation instead of correcting their policies to meet their guests’ needs.
This story originally appeared on Business Insider.
