Hostelworld does not support the use of the threat of a bad review to gain a discount or no-show or late cancellation penalty waiver.
If you are unsure of what to do if you or your employees find yourself in this situation with a guest, our advise is to deescalate the situation and to inform the guest that they may review as they see fit; that you do not engage in such activity. Then, please report this to your Hostelworld Support Team.
Here is the recommended best practice for reporting a potential blackmail to Hostelworld before customer writes the review:- Instruct your employees to share any guest blackmail threats immediately
- Submit a report on the potential blackmail threat as soon as possible to support@hostelworld.com including booking reference number and brief summary of the incident.
- Retain the communication history relating to the report : including e-mails, voicemails.
You may be contacted for additional information that proves blackmail was involved.
- If the review was already posted and you believe is blackmail-related, you can also report the review to our team.
Please note, we cannot guarantee that the review in question will be removed. We handle each blackmail report on a case-by-case basis, and review history and evidence that was made available to us before making a decision.
While the review is being investigated, we recommend that you post a Reply so that other travellers can read your response. Please check this article to see how to respond to customer reviews on-line