Australian hotel chain fined $2.2 million for manipulating TripAdvisor reviews

according to (CNN) — One of Australia's largest hotel chains has been fined $2.2 million ($3 million AUD) for trying to prevent negative reviews on the popular TripAdvisor website. Australia's federal court said that Meriton Property Services violated consumer law by preventing guests who had complained or may have had negative experiences from getting a "Review Express" email inviting them to review the property on TripAdvisor. The court said that between November 2014 and October 2015, hotel workers gave TripAdvisor invalid email addresses for complaining customers so they wouldn't get the emails. If a property had a major disruption, they wouldn't submit any guests' email addresses. The court said Meriton's conduct "was likely to mislead or deceive" because it inflated the number of good reviews in relation to bad reviews and even improved some properties' rank on the TripAdvisor website.

Fired Haitian workers at South Beach hotel SLS get $2.5 million in discrimination suit

Four years ago, something bitter was brewing in the kitchens of the ritzy SLS South Beach hotel. The Haitian workers were also asked to lug heavy items up the hotel's 13 floors by stairs while other workers were spared. On Friday night, the hotel agreed to pay $2.5 million to the 17 people who were fired. These trainings are "designed to prevent what happened to those Haitian workers to happen to anyone else again," Weisberg said. The SLS South Beach will also maintain a compliance monitor to keep track of the names and national origins of all employees hired and fired at the hotel.

South Beach hotel to pay $2.5 million over discrimination claims by Haitian dishwashers

according to A South Beach hotel has agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle a discrimination lawsuit filed on behalf of 17 fired Haitian dishwashers, the federal authorities said Monday. The lawsuit also said the Haitian workers were singled out for difficult tasks from which other employees were exempt. When the dishwashers reported the discrimination to the hotel's human resources department, the entire staff of dishwashers was fired in April 2014, the lawsuit said. The employees worked in the hotel's restaurants: The Bazaar by Jose Andres, Katsuya and the Hyde Beach. Greeley said the company currently employees many people of Haitian descent and urged the laid-off workers to apply to the new staffing company.

collected by :Frank Ithan