The internet is a tremendous invention – but its greatest strength to many, can be its biggest weakness to few – the ability to openly offer your opinion on absolute everything.

Given we all love a little break away from Wiltshire, websites like TripAdvisor (http://www.tripadvisor.com) have become incredibly popular. Like other sites, it encourages people to post their own independent reviews of guesthouses and hotels they have visited. You are able to read people’s individual reviews, but the overall score is based on an average – so in theory, a single, unfair review shouldn’t stand out on its own.

But what happens when your establishment is clearly so awful, that even Basil Fawlty would give it a wide berth? A hotel in Blackpool has introduced a ‘negative review levy’ – which saw them charging a couple £100 after they left a frank review, calling The Broadway Hotel a “rotten stinking hovel”.

Given the severity of the comment and its potential impact on a business you can understand the owner’s anger – if it was a one-off among five-star reviews, it may be almost understandable. However the couple who left the review were not alone in their opinion. The seafront hotel was ranked 858 out of 894 properties in Blackpool. Earlier this month another review had described it as a “prison camp”, while a different guest complained of staff drinking cans of strong cider while serving breakfast.

The negative publicity caused by this whole sour event will probably be the death knell of this particular hotel, but the attempt to gerrymander the open feedback of sites like Trip Advisor is beginning to cause some to question the impartiality of reviews on sites like this – while bad reviews are increasingly causing problems for those attempting to run an honest business.

A number of hotels have been caught enticing guests to leave a positive review with discounts or offers of free room service, while in competitive markets, rival establishments have been caught leaving unnecessarily harsh comments on other accommodation in their area. That sort of behaviour is looked on dimly by the sites like TripAdvisor, which investigate all claims.

For me, I use the reviews of others on sites like this to help rubber stamp my decisions. After all, the age-old adage applies: you get what you pay for.