that Charleville Lodge Hotel page on FB & the epidemic of morons on social media

discus

Just took a read through that facebook page.

From http://www.charlevillelodge.ie/privacypolicy.html

Privacy Policy
Our Privacy Policy at the Charleville Lodge Hotel, the privacy and confidentiality of user information is important. We are committed to maintaining the privacy and security of your user information. We may update this policy from time to time, so please check here frequently. Hotel will not disclose identifiable user information to any third party without consent.

He has broken his own privacy policy, if I'm correct.

I wonder what went wrong in that mans life that made him so horrible. I'd hate to know I have such a negative impact on peoples lives.

Neyite

I've spent many years working in hospitality and I can see his responses as being some ultimate revenge fantasy for some front line staff - we've all dreamt of what we would say on our last day of the job. Ranting and Raving is built on the horrible experiences of front line staff, and our Ranters are far superior to this guy. He takes it too far.

Witty is fine imo, ridiculing a person for how they look or taking aggressive responses to a genuine issue is being a dick. Publishing a persons image or email address is beyond that again, just nasty. He comes across as spiteful, hateful and someone who encourages his staff to make fun of ordinary customers.

MilesMorales1

Well the chap probably thinks he's being 'edgy' and that people like this sort of thing these days. But we'll see, I'm not the guys boss so I won't suggest ways he can change, but ya know.

discus

I feel that someone like Failte Ireland should have a word. Does nothing for our international image. I hope they don't have bord failte approved anywhere on their premises.

ThisRegard

Tarzana2 wrote: »

Incidentally, the FB page is filled with disciples telling him he is a PR and marketing genius, that they are dying to stay there and that his persona will bring people to the hotel.

There's currently a 4 page thread on the main forum on one of Irelands most read websites at the moment, a thread that he couldn't start himself without it being locked.

He's not doing too bad.

SEPT 23 1989

It looks like a halfway house for prisoners released from Mountjoy

DEFTLEFTHAND

He reminds me a little of David Maloney aka 'The Respected Gentleman' from that episode of the Hotel Inspector.

Mesrine65

Just wandered across to the FB page out of curiosity...the man is a bell-end IMHO

Cienciano

Bad idea of posting all those photos up. You can see the place is a hole. Wouldn't let the dog stay there

Oryx

The guy is a fool. Theres a fine line between wit and fcukwit. Hes definitely the latter. Best he can hope for is to quietly go out of business. At worst he'll get sued for defamation.

TerrorFirmer

How anyone could defend that behavior is beyond me. Hopefully he gets in legal trouble over his latest in a long string of nasty, petty posts that are frankly indicative of someone suffering from an illness.

kjl

I know the guy, he is a total nob

He had this other business called SmartCharge where he basically hooked up a USB port to a battery and pretended like he reinvented the wheel. He got a lot negative posts on Facebook which he responded to in an equally moronic way.

The hotel is also rubbish, but I think there are only like €40 per night so you get what you pay for.

Billy86

The interior pictures look like a weird mix between a 70s hotel and a B&B though, and the exterior is pretty drab while the kitchen seems to resemble a staff canteine or "local caff" from the early 90s or earlier. I just don't get it personally, yes of course I don't own/run a hotel but I really couldn't happily keep it looking like that if it were me. It doesn't look like a complete horror show or anything, just extremely underwhelming and very, very 'meh'.

What is amazing is that I saw someone on their FB page having a go at anyone complaining about the decor, furniture, layout, etc because "who cares what the inside of a hotel looks like, seriously!?" Along with service and location, isn't that perhaps the most important part???

kjl

PandaPoo wrote: »

Yer man is a complete ride, sooo my type.

Started following the page yesterday, gives me a laugh!

he is gay

PandaPoo

Cienciano wrote: »

Bad idea of posting all those photos up. You can see the place is a hole. Wouldn't let the dog stay there

The funny thing is they are the only hotel in DCC that allow pets to stay!

kjl wrote: »

he is gay

And I'm married....I wasn't planning on booking in and dragging him up to a bedroom :pac:

bucketybuck

TheChizler wrote: »

Careful now, if he's the guy I'm thinking of he has an account here which was used to respond to previous iterations of this thread.

Careful? I hope the idiot does come in and try to defend himself, though not as much as I hope he gets sued and loses all his customers. Now, that I would laugh at.

end of the road

DareGod wrote: »

Long story short, there's this hotel in Dublin whose owner publicly publishes witty, quick and cutting responses to customer complaints on its Facebook page.

A few of them have appeared in my news feed over the past year when people I'm linked to on FB have "Liked" or commented on his posts. I think he was on the radio last year for one particular incident, though I can't remember what it was.

Anyway, his page now has almost 37,000 likes, so a relatively large audience.

Whenever I've read his posts, I've sometimes laughed a little, but the more they've happened, the more I'm thinking.... this guy is kind of a horrible person.

He publicly attacks customers who have complained about some negative experience or other they had while staying in his hotel.

I've worked in retail and I've worked in hospitality, and I've experienced my fair share of ridiculous customers, complaining about nonsense. But there are times when these customers' complaints are more than valid. And I would certainly never attack them publicly in front of thousands of people, just because they made a complaint.

How incredibly insecure and irritable does someone have to be to go to such great lengths to defend themselves, the way this guy does? He definitely doesn't appear to have the type of temperament required to work in the hospitality industry.

Anyway, I've just spotted another post, where a customer was kept up all night by building work or drilling that was going on nearby. The customer emailed your man and said that he is awaiting a response to his complaint, and that he won't write a review of the hotel until this issue is sorted.

In response, your man published the customer's name and email address on Facebook, and accused him of threatening the hotel and therefore that his complaint won't be dealt with at all.

I'm sorry, but this guy is an absolute c*nt, for doing that to a customer, even if they were making a complaint. And what he has done here is incredibly c*ntish. But in the 50 minutes since the post was published, it has been liked by over 200 people.

And this is my real issue: people on social media supporting c*nts not matter how big of a c*nt they're being, just because it's funny. It's really starting to piss me off.

And I'd like your opinions on it.

But mainly I'm just saying, what an absolute pr*ck this guy is.


<mod shnip.....FB link removed....../mod shnip>


and yes me talking about it is publicising it even further, and if he saw this post he would most likely have a smart response for it. Good for him.

i agree with you. social media brings out all sorts out of the wood work. this hotel chap's writings are mostly liked by the usual victim hard done by stick it to the man anti (insert wannabe derogatory term such as pc/do gooders here) dimwits. he is no comedian

ygolometsipe wrote: »

you could just ignore the truth, problem solved no?

what truth

Robsweezie wrote: »

I would say he's every long suffering retail worker's wet dream. Saying what they all wish they could say when faced with arsehole members of the public. It's a gimmick people are buying into. The shock value of fighting back against customer complaints in such a way is what's getting him publicity.

It's almost refreshing to see someone say what they REALLY want to say instead of the usual canned, submissive responses from customer service. But you could argue the professionalism of the man in responding how he does.

he might be saying what a bad customer service person might want to say but rightly can't on the job, but a proper customer service person doesn't behave in that way

Tarzana2

ThisRegard wrote: »

There's currently a 4 page thread on the main forum on one of Irelands most read websites at the moment, a thread that he couldn't start himself without it being locked.

He's not doing too bad.

Yeah, yeah, no such thing as bad publicity etc. etc.

denhaagenite

I've stayed there. My sister was home from hospital with her first baby a few years ago (around 5 or so I think), their apartment at the time was very small and Charleville Lodge was a 5 minute walk away so I nipped over for the weekend.

I booked with a credit card but they emailed me a couple of hours later to say that it hadn't gone through. Since it was only a couple of days away I asked would it be ok if I just paid when I got there and they said that was fine. When I got there (exhausted from early flight) they tried to charge me double as the booking was never confirmed. I argued for half an hour with the dopey receptionist, email in hand as proof, and eventually won. She proclaimed to me and all the other guests very loudly that the employee that took the booking would have to cover the difference from their own wages .

As far as I remember, the room was downstairs at the end of the hall. Their was a load of junk stacked around the place, suggesting they had just emptied my room of it, given it a hoover, and stuck a single bed in there especially for me!! I didn't care because I wasn't going to be there very much but it wasn't clean, the staff were a**holes and when I left a review on TripAdvisor the response was "well we have 77% on TripAdvisor so you're obviously lying". He had responded to ALL of the bad reviews (3+ pages) with exactly the same response.

If the place was at least functioning properly then maybe his responses to customers would be funny but it's not. I'm going to reiterate the fact that he's nothing but a bully, and it's more than obvious what his intelligence level is.

Paul this one's especially for you: You're a ****

discus

seamus wrote: »

They have a specific demographic in mind who are the lowest common denominator and they have no problems pandering to them.

Charleville Lodge are one of these. The kind of place that'll accommodate a Celtic FC-themed stag party.

Succinct as always Seamus. I reckon that very strata of society are already planning their annual piss-ups with this place in mind, judging by the 'eloquence' of his supporters on the fb page.

Tarzana2

LOL at all the people on the FB page saying stuff like "You're some craic, can't wait to stay there for a night" as if he gives a shít. :pac:

bucketybuck

He truly is a fool if he thinks the old "no publicity is bad publicity" works in this case, its no wonder all his other businesses failed.

He gets a few arseholes claiming that they will stay there, and in return he gets terrible reviews all over the internet that I guarantee will drive away far more custom than he might get from the "angles" facebook crowd. You really think any visitors to Dublin are going to stay there because of a wacky facebook page? When they now know about the soiled bedsheets and wanker of a manager? No chance.

The best part is, the type of idiot that claims they want to stay there now are also the type of idiot that will probably wreck the place on him, thats their type of "fun" after all! They are all welcome to each other.

Eutow

Tarzana2 wrote: »

LOL at all the people on the FB page saying stuff like "You're some craic, can't wait to stay there for a night" as if he gives a shít. :pac:

Some of them are even looking for a job, saying rubbish like "it would be great craic to work there". Earning just above minimum wage and cleaning up sick is great craic altogether...:pac:

BMJD

This guy deserves a few slaps I reckon

MilesMorales1

Eutow wrote: »

Some of them are even looking for a job, saying rubbish like "it would be great craic to work there". Earning just above minimum wage and cleaning up sick is great craic altogether...:pac:

I actually know the girl that made that comment on one of those posts

denhaagenite

bucketybuck wrote: »

The best part is, the type of idiot that claims they want to stay there now are also the type of idiot that will probably wreck the place on him, thats their type of "fun" after all! They are all welcome to each other.

There's nothing to wreck

Azalea

quadrifoglio verde wrote: »

He has a point though, the customer gets a taxi faster and pays less.
Maybe I just come from the generation that has the ability to go outside and hold out my hand, or use an app like uber.

The two apply to the same generation?

It's standard for hotels to call taxis - and it's easier for people who have a lot of luggage.

Azalea

DareGod wrote: »

How does a a photo of the customer eating the food prove that the food wasn't bad? Of course she ate the food, how else would she know it was bad?!

Good point actually. Initially I agreed with him on it being nonsensical of her to give the food a bad review when she had eaten it. But a still of her eating it doesn't mean she didn't leave a load of it behind. I would agree she should have said it there and then - it's not difficult; once you're pleasant and polite when delivering the feedback you have nothing to feel bad about. So I think it's no harm to have made that point to her, but the CCTV stunt was way out of line.

Collie D

idunno78 wrote: »

Just had a look at that post there! The funny thing is, no where did the man say he was going to give a negative review! Just said he would wait until his query was dealt with! He could have just given a review and not emailed them about it at all!! The manager/owner is being a bit dramatic I reckon!! He seems like a gobsh!te to me!!

I am amazed by the amount of people who don't get this. Doesn't read like a threat at all. In fact it reads to me like the customer was giving the hotel the right to reply and make amends before giving a review...a favour that wasn't returned.

Tarzana2

Collie D wrote: »

I am amazed by the amount of people who don't get this. Doesn't read like a threat at all. In fact it reads to me like the customer was giving the hotel the right to reply and make amends before giving a review...a favour that wasn't returned.

Well, Mr. Stenson and his followers don't seem to be the brightest of folk. Which makes their misplaced hauteur all the more amusing. :pac: