A holidaymaker who left a negative review for a hotel was sent a text from staff telling her – to go on a DIET.
Emily Chance says she was also accused of ‘hating everyone and everything’ by Nelcon Hotel owner Ken Evans in the 41-word message.
The mother claims to have received the text after leaving a scathing review of the hotel on travel site Booking.com.
Emily says she has been left outraged by the hotel owner’s comments, claiming the response was a ‘little too personal’.
She paid £38 for two people for a two-night stay at the budget hotel in Blackpool, Lancs., with her husband Michael to celebrate their second wedding anniversary in September.
But their romantic getaway quickly turned sour as Emily claimed standards at the Palatine Road hotel were not up to scratch.
In a September 30 post on Booking.com, she complained of a ‘horrendous smell as soon as you walk in, grime in the shower and dirty towels’ – scoring the hotel 3.8 out of 10.
But a Nelcon Hotel spokesman responded publicly to Emily’s Booking.com review, asking her: ‘Can I ask, just what did you expect for what you paid?’
They added that ‘most of what you describe I do not recognise as a matter of interest’ and ‘I think possibly you were expecting a four-star hotel’.
But hotel owner Mr Evans took the defence of his establishment even further – and sent a text message to Emily’s phone.
The message read :
“For someone who as never been away before you do not come across as nervous in fact you come across as a nasty piece of work who probably should be put on a diet as you must hate everything and everyone.”
He later said he had sent the message after reading her review which he labelled ‘a pack of lies’.
“I don’t have a problem with people reviewing us, but what she wrote was a pack of lies,” he said.
“The hotel is not dirty and doesn’t smell. She was looking for problems which weren’t there. I am really pee’d off with it all.
“I don’t regret texting her at all. We have new carpets coming in a couple of weeks and anyone is welcome to take a look.
“The review was disgusting and reduced a female member of staff to tears.
“This is a budget hotel but we are not dirty and don’t deserve to be lied about.”
Speaking about the text message, Emily said: “I left an honest review about how bad Nelcon Hotel is only to have one of the staff make it their business to go into my account and personally text me an offensive text from their personal mobile number to mine telling me I needed to go on a diet.
“This should not be allowed, it was a little too personal and they had no right making personal digs to paying customers. It is an outrage.
“They need exposing and people need to be warned how bad this hotel really is.
“I would never recommend this to anyone it’s not fit for a dog to be staying in.”
