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# Unethical hotels and their ratings scams
- URL: https://larrysalibra.com/unethical-hotels-and-their-ratings-scams/
- Published: 2026-10-21T15:55:02.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-21T15:55:02.000Z
- Author: Larry Salibra
- Tags: ethics, business, day-104, daily

When I checked in at a hotel in China last night, the employee behind the desk excitedly told me that her hotel was now running a special free breakfast promotion. All I needed to do was to give the hotel a 5 star review on whatever platform I used to book the room. Since I rarely eat hotel breakfasts and am not in the business of giving stellar reviews before I've even used the product, I declined.

When going to bed, I walked over to the theromstat to reduce the temperature to a comfortable sleeping temperature and found that the lowest it would go was 21 c (70 F). I would have preferred 19 c to 20 c, but 21 c seemed close enough. It turns out that my temperature input was not an instruction or order, but a suggestion to the hotels centrally-controlled HVAC system. In the middle of the night, it decided that not only was 21 c too cold but that air conditioning was no longer needed at all. I woke up in the middle of the night, sweating under a heavy duvet in a room that was probably 26 c. I was not a happy camper.

After I checked out, while organizing my stuff in the lobby, the same staff member from the day before walked up behind me and startled me with a loud "checked out already?" I turned around to see her holding a large hotel-branded bag of cookies. She asked me (again) if I wanted to leave a 5 star review...this time in exchange for this bag of cookies. 

Tired and sleep-deprived from their hotels' broken air conditioning system, I snapped at her, "You really don't want me writing a review." I then went on to explain the poor experience I had staying at the hotel. In addition to being woken up because it was too warm, the fitness center was dirty, smelled and had so little equipment as to be basically useless and the bed's mattress had also been worn out and uncomfortable. On top of this all, the hotel staff was being very transactional and pushy about reviews.

She didn't seem very interested in the specifics of my complaints. She quickly told me not to write a review and that she would relay my problems to the relevant departments. And then she ran away.

I understand the importance of positive reviews on booking and rating sites for businesses. While [I don't leave reviews as frequently as I used to](https://larrysalibra.com/why-i-post-reviews-on-centralized-corporate-platforms/), I'm happy to leave a good review about a place I like if I'm asked nicely to. And I'm not above accepting free things in exchange for the good review. What I won't do is leave good reviews about products and services that I've not yet used or that, like this hotel, were not good. What I will do is leave a bad review when pressured by a shady business to leave a good review that is undeserved. And that's exactly what I did!