Holidaymaker arrested and jailed after giving hotel a bad review on Tripadvisor

A holidaymaker left a bad review of a hotel on Tripadvisor, leading to his arrest.

US citizen Wesley Barnes left a series of harsh reviews of the Sea View Resort in Thailand via Tripadvisor, but the hotel then pursued legal action against Mr Barnes.

It resulted in him being detained and charged under the country’s strict defamation laws.

He faced a two-year prison sentence and was released only after issuing a public apology.

Mr Barnes accused the resort of ‘modern-day slavery’. The hotel said the harsh criticism was untrue and damaging to its reputation.

The incident occurred at the resort on the island of Koh Chang earlier this year, and was triggered by an argument over Mr Barnes wanting to bring his own bottle into the hotel’s restaurant.

The hotel said he refused to pay a corkage fee and ’caused a commotion’.

After leaving, he left a negative review after which the hotel sued him for defamation. He subsequently was detained and spent two nights in prison before being released on bail.

He was found guilty of breaking the country’s notorious anti-defamation laws. The hotel said the reviews were ‘fabricated, recurrent and malicious’.

Now, Tripadvisor has left a warning on the hotel’s page urging travellers to be mindful of the local laws in the country, the MEN reports. 

The warning reads: “This hotel or individuals associated with this hotel filed criminal charges against a TripAdvisor user in relation to the traveller writing and posting online reviews. The reviewer spent time in jail as a result.

“The hotel may have been exercising its legal rights under local law, however, it is our role to inform you so you may take this into consideration when researching your travel plans.”

Tripadvisor added that they believe in ‘the right of every traveller to write about their first-hand travelling experiences – good or bad’.

The travel site said: “TripAdvisor strongly opposes any action where a business, like the Sea View Hotel & Spa in Koh Chang, uses local law to send someone to jail for expressing their opinion.”

The hotel has hit back at the review site, telling the New York Times they were ‘deeply disappointed’, adding that ‘the warning message from TripAdvisor is extremely misleading and lacks complete information’.

The hotel claims they initially tried to contact Mr Barnes to remove the reviews, but he didn’t respond, and they filed the complaint as the negative comments led to them losing bookings. 

After he was arrested and spent two days in jail the case was eventually dropped, as Mr Barnes admitted the reviews were ‘fabricated, recurrent, and malicious’ and gave a full public apology – as per the terms of the settlement between the two parties.