Three British tourists were escorted out of a Nashville hotel by an armed guard after they threatened to write a bad review of the hotel on TripAdvisor.
Three guests were not happy when they showed up to the Knights Inn on Spring Street in Nashville. They had pre-paid for two rooms but the receptionist told them that they couldn't have the rooms because a fourth member of their party who paid for the rooms on his credit card wasn't with them, the Daily Mail reports.
The friends were jet-lagged after just landing in America and were angry over the situation so they said they would write a bad review on TripAdvisor. The hotel then had them escorted out with an armed guard.
"He said he would not now rent us any rooms, and we had to leave. At that point he summoned an armed guard who stood with his hand on his gun as we picked up our suitcases and returned to the Ford Escape we had hired," Alan Lloyd, 69, from London said according to the Daily Mail.
The travelers had to drive to drive to four different hotels in the early morning hours before they were able to find an available hotel.
"It was an insane situation," John Howard, 67, from Leigh-on-Sea said. "He had empty rooms, two rooms had been paid for in advance, and yet here we were, completely tired out and road weary, and we could not get in."
The receptionist insisted that the fourth person who paid for the rooms with his credit card needed to be present for them to access the rooms.
Lee Wilkinson, 62, from East London, was actually at the hotel. He arrived a day earlier and was waiting for his friends to arrive but he couldn't reach them because he had no cell phone service.
"I wondered what had happened to the others, whether they had missed their flights or what," Wilkinson said. "I didn't dream they were in the reception area waiting for me. A simple phone call to my room by the desk clerk would have solved the problem, which was completely unnecessary."
Hotel Manahe James Patel apologized for the incident and offered the tourists a hotel stay at a discount.
"I have reprimanded the member of staff involved and explained that although he should follow the rules, he needs to be flexible," Patel said.
Patel takes TripAdvsior reviews very seriously and often comments on them in reply to dissatisfied guests.
"This sort of incident reflects badly not only on Nashville, but the whole US tourist industry," Howard said. "It will make European tourists think twice about visiting America."
"Armed hotel guards are unheard of in Europe, and it is flabbergasting that they could be turned on hotel guests who have pre-paid for their rooms," he continued.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
