The Icelandic Consumer Agency has slapped a hotel in the town of Keflavík, on the Reykjanes peninsula in South West Iceland, with a fine of 250,000 ISK (2,000 USD/1,800 EUR) for unfair business practices. The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service reports that an employee of the hotel had left a series of scathing reviews of a competitor on the booking website expedia.com, using an assumed name.
Read more: Icelanders are the sixth best hosts worldwide, according to Airbnb users
Last summer the hotel, Flughótel Keflavík, discovered that an employee of one of their primary competitors in town, Hótel Keflavík, had booked rooms at the hotel through expedia.com. The employees of Flughótel Keflavík assumed the bookings were most likely due to overbooking at Hótel Keflavík, which is not in and of itself unusual or strange. However, shortly thereafter the management of Flughótel Keflavík started noticing a number of unusually negative reviews. These reviews seemed connected to the bookings made by their overbooked competitor.
After Flughótel Keflavík contacted expedia.com they discovered that the eight extremely negative reviews had all been left by people using an email account from Hótel Keflavík. The Consumer Agency investigated the matter, and found that the fraudulent reviews were clearly part of a determined campaign to undermine a competitor, using unfair business practices. At the same time the Agency was satisfied with the action taken by Hótel Keflavík to ensure something like this would not happen again.
The Icelandic Consumer Agency has slapped a hotel in the town of Keflavík, on the Reykjanes peninsula in South West Iceland, with a fine of 250,000 ISK (2,000 USD/1,800 EUR) for unfair business practices. The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service reports that an employee of the hotel had left a series of scathing reviews of a competitor on the booking website expedia.com, using an assumed name.
Read more: Icelanders are the sixth best hosts worldwide, according to Airbnb users
Last summer the hotel, Flughótel Keflavík, discovered that an employee of one of their primary competitors in town, Hótel Keflavík, had booked rooms at the hotel through expedia.com. The employees of Flughótel Keflavík assumed the bookings were most likely due to overbooking at Hótel Keflavík, which is not in and of itself unusual or strange. However, shortly thereafter the management of Flughótel Keflavík started noticing a number of unusually negative reviews. These reviews seemed connected to the bookings made by their overbooked competitor.
After Flughótel Keflavík contacted expedia.com they discovered that the eight extremely negative reviews had all been left by people using an email account from Hótel Keflavík. The Consumer Agency investigated the matter, and found that the fraudulent reviews were clearly part of a determined campaign to undermine a competitor, using unfair business practices. At the same time the Agency was satisfied with the action taken by Hótel Keflavík to ensure something like this would not happen again.
