I read an article the other day about ‘celebrity’ hotel owner Duncan Bannatyne who spoke out against the website. He feels that his business is being damaged because his guests are threatening to write bad reviews about his properties on Tripadvisor in order to get him to reduce their bill. After reading a bit more about Mr Bannatyne, who appeared on the UK TV-show Dragon’s Den, I personally am more inclined to think that those guests are asking for a refund because the service was bad, but let’s be objective here. Anyway, on Tripadvisor the guest is king/queen!
However, now it seems that the tables have turned. A new online database called GuestScan was launched in the UK which allows hotel owners to blacklist guests that have misbehaved during a stay at their hotel or B&B. Sort of like a warning for fellow hotel owners, if you will. It works very much like the blacklisting of naughty Credit Card users. Bad guests can stay on the blacklist for two to four years, but do have the option to appeal if they feel they have been put on it for the wrong reasons. Although I find it hard to imagine how you would justify stolen towels, sheets or anything else that fits in a suitcase, not to mention a TV flying through a window. (The things people do to feel like a rock star….)
GuestScan is an idea of Neil Campbell who came up with the idea after a friend who owns a B&B had to deal with ‘the guest from hell’. This site sounds like a very good tool for hotel owners to scare away satanic guests. I just hope that my name won’t appear on the list for taking all the amenities during my last stay. But that’s still allowed, right?