Pay within 5 days or else

“ Threat of Bad Review Extortion ”

TA Extorsion

Mar 10, 2011, 10:34 AM
I have two Guests (a couple) who manufactured issues (filthy interior, ants, dirty furniture, gross misrepresentations etc) as a means of attempting to avoid paying for their reserved Villa. They paid their deposit with a credit card that expired just before their arrival and we now have no way of recouping our two week rental loss during peak season on Sanibel Island, FL. To add insult to injury, they threatened me (the Owner) with a lawsuit and bad reviews on every site they could locate if, I did not refund all of their deposit. Within 5 days! Below is the actual text from one of their extortive emails to me:

“We are requesting immediate refund of the money we have spent and, if it is received in the next five days, we will consider this just a horrible experience. If not, we will take all steps possible to ensure that no one else is subjected to this including, but not limited to, writing about this on our travel blog, posting reviews on all applicable travel sites, a lawsuit seeking not only the refund, but all damages including, but not limited to, monies spent for allergy problems incurred by the dust in your unit, travel expenses, expenses for hotel, and any other deemed recovered. Because you chose to do business over the Internet, we will initiate any legal action in Pennsylvania and require you to come to Pennsylvania to defend said litigation.”
How can I defend myself from dishonest Guests reviews?
Doesn’t TA have policies against this sort of scam behavior?
Can I request TA not publish this bad review given the clear extortive nature of it?
HELP!!!

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g1-i14281-k4309361-Threat_of_Bad_Review_Extortion-Owners.html

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We are a small group of 9 people that are tired of the way TripAdvisor chooses to conduct their business, mainly because of the total lack of consideration towards “owners” in the hospitality world. We are based in the USA, Europe and New Zealand.