In August 2014, Tony and Jan Jenkinson, a retired couple from Whitehaven, Cumbria, paid £36 for one night at the Broadway Hotel in Blackpool. Tony, age 63, posted a TripAdvisor review calling it "a filthy, dirty, rotten, stinking hovel" — describing a broken kettle, damaged furniture, stained carpet, and "plastic sausages" at breakfast.
The charge
Later, the couple discovered £100 charged to their credit card. The hotel's booking form contained a clause few guests would have noticed: "For every bad review left on any website, the group organiser will be charged a maximum £100 per review."
"Annoyed isn't strong enough for how I feel about this. What happened to freedom of speech?"
— Tony Jenkinson
Trading Standards intervenes
Blackpool Trading Standards investigated and warned the hotel the charge was potentially illegal. Regional manager John Greenbank told the BBC: "I have worked for trading standards for many years and have never seen anything like this."
TripAdvisor stated: "It is completely against the spirit and policies of our site for any business owner to attempt to bully or intimidate reviewers."
The resolution
The Broadway Hotel backed down, refunded the £100, and scrapped the policy. But the story went viral globally, becoming one of the most-cited examples of the tension between businesses and review platforms.
What this case reveals
The Broadway Hotel's approach was clumsy and arguably illegal — but it was born from the same frustration that drives every business owner in this collection: the feeling of powerlessness against anonymous reviews. The solution isn't to punish reviewers; it's to build a system where only verified guests can review in the first place.