HUDSON, NY (PIX11)– A fancy hotel located in upstate New York is charging its guests for bad reviews. 
 
 Union Street Guest House in Hudson is known for its mix of luxury and classic sensibility, but apparently it can’t handle some criticism when it comes to weddings or event bookings at their site. 
 
 The classy inn says on its website, “there will be a $500 dollar fine that will be deducted from your deposit for every negative review of USGH place on any internet site by anyone in your party and/or attending your wedding even if you stay here to attend a wedding anywhere in the area and leave us a negative review on any internet site you agree to a $500 fine for each negative review.” 
 
 Outraged guests certainly didn’t take it lightly. 
 
 “This was worst hotel I have ever encountered,” Michael G from Manhattan said. “Rude customer service, unclean, terrible odor. Then they had the audacity to tell me they would charge me $500 from my deposit if I posted a negative review online…have they heard of the freedom of speech?” 
 
 One customer posted an excerpt of the hotel’s email after being threatened twice. 
 
 “Disgusting!” Rabih Z of Alexandria said. “Instead of taking responsibility and striving to improve customer service, they instead resort for intimidation.” 
 
 Other guests had positive reviews, raving about the place’s vintage amenities. 
 
 “Fabulous place!” fellow New Yorker Elizabeth C. said. “Looking forward to another weekend getaway.” 
 
 However, if the bad review gets taken off, the hotel will refund this fee. ||||| 115 
 
 349 Union St 
 
 Hudson , NY 12534 
 
 
 
 (518) 828-0958 
 
 My wife and I decided to go on a little trip last minute (within 2 hours of the decision, we packed up and went) on New Years Day. We found Union Street Guest House using a combination of Yelp and Google and saw they had a vacancy and we were able to book a room on line. Union Street is located one block away from the shops on Warren Street. It is Hudson's Main street where there are numerous antique and boutique shops. The only suite available was there "Gallery Suite' aka "The Presidential Suite". Chris at the front desk said, "You'll know why when you get up there." The price was fair being $200/night. But this was for three rooms. All other places to stay in Hudson that night were A) more expensive and B) only one room, so we went with it. This place consists of two buildings. The house to the right serves as the check in lobby and above it is a beautifully decorated lounge area. Antique furniture centers the lounge with the far side having a small library along with a ladder. Exposed brick and aged wood decorated the walls and ceilings nicely. The other side had a mini honor bar with various liqours. If you want beer downstairs there is a fridge with beer in it. Just leave some money in a metal box to help restock the bar. Parking is street parking. Make sure you leave your car across the street and not on the side of the guest house cause there is no parking there almost all the way down Union St. The guest house is to the left. As you enter, you will see two doors and you'll follow the one to the left. It is mostly all hardwood floor with the occasional area rug so the place does creek in some areas. We were able to hear walking or closing of doors of other guests in the house. A downside. The Gallery suite was upstairs and the only suite on the second floor. When you step inside you walk into a large living area with two vintage chairs and paintings. To the left is the study that is full of pictures of past presidents along with a library that is mostly about our US presidents. To the right of entering is the kitchen. No stove here, but there's a microwave and large fridge. Coffee maker and water heater for brewing up a cup. The bathroom was beautifully lit with a ivory tub and wrap around curtain. The three rooms weren't as decorated as the rest of the suite. One was pretty small and looked like a walk in closet. There is another small room similar to a doll room. Nice to sit and chat with friends. Overall, beautifully decorated and most important, clean. There is free wifi but doesn't seem fast (used to Verizon Fios) and sometimes had some connection problems Not a bed and breakfast place because there is no breakfast being served. Creeky floors and thin walls may be an issue if you're looking peace and privacy but It definitely gives you a feeling of home. 
 
 Was considering a stay here but now learning about their "$500" bad review policy, im out. Good luck with your establishment from here on out. We can only hope you've learned something from this. 
 
 This is the 7th time I had to write this review on this deplorable company. Stop paying to make your image better, stop charging LOYAL customers $500 for not agreeing with your terrible and unethical business practices. Union House should be renamed "Screw you Because We have Your Credit Card information and we're going to charge you $500 multiple times just to spite you." Horrible company, even worst service, and to top it off ... Extremely bad management. 
 
 I knew that this place has a reputation for poor service when I booked a stay here for a wedding, and like some of the five star reviews below say, that is exactly what I was looking for. So i couldn't have been more pleased when I called to change my reservation, and was promptly berated over the phone for asking to checkout a day earlier. The management, to my delight, even charged me a bonus fee for the inconvenience. I should mention that I am REALLY into hospitality masochism, and found out about USGH on a site for people like me called sadisticservice.com. Unikn Street has become known as a mecca for self-abusive people like me seeking a perfect place to get away, pay a fortune, and suffer abuse both verbally and physically. I knew I was in for a (mis)treat(ment) when I first arrived. Instead of finding convenient parking, i circled the potholed and poorly lit lot until settling for a spot on the street a few blocks away. First impressions can be deceiving, so I didn't let this get my hopes up. But prospects only got better (worse) after i shlepped my luggage back over to the lobby. I was greeted at the door by the the foulest smelling dog turd I have had the pleasure to step in since my stay at the El Paso Motel 6 (which I also highly recommend). One of the owner's adorably odious dogs had deposited the feces ON the threshold, in an ingenious location, so that the action of the door smeared the dog's noxious refuse across the taupe doormat, making an unavoidable obstacle of odor. At the front desk, the manager demonstrated that he was no less skilled than the dog in the art of misanthropy. He was engaged in a heated argument with a guest about the bill, so he waved me off, giving me the opportunity to admire the lobby's decor. Taxidermy animal heads, abstract art with thick paint brush smears (all for sale!), big vases filled with dessicated reeds, and small, wobbly tables to sit and sip burnt coffee. Once the fracas with the other guest reached its bitter conclusion, I introduced myself to the manager: a short, monobrowed, igor of a man with a stained butler vest and permanent scowl. He promptly informed me that Union House had no record of my reservation. I showed him the email confirmation, which elicited an indignant huff of consternation. He grudgingly inspected his ledger again and found my room had been rented to another couple. He informed me, with a note of feindish delight, that there was NO room for me, and that I would have to leave or else be defenestrated manually. Naturally I chose the latter option. I give the USGH a one star review because, after roiling me up in sick anticipation of a grueling three night confinement in service hell, I was sent away and forced to endure cloying hospitality at the insufferably pleasant Croff House a few blocks away. Fortunately, USGH did keep all my money, as a consolation for failing to provide the gulagesque internment I had been guaranteed. And of course I was still able to take advantage of their offer to charge me $500 to review them poorly on Yelp. 
 
 This is not about the $500 fee for a negative review. I got to Hudson a little late, traffic can get prickly. I was exhausted and wanted to just hit the hay. The kind woman at the front gave me my room, no problem. I got to my room, and someone had defecated next to the toilet. Not on, not in - next to. My fiancé thought this was done by a horse, but a horse could not fit in the small room to begin with. Upon further examination, the feces were left by a human. I inquired the manager, if this is normal. He did not believe me and said that "I was responsible for this" and that "I was the "poopertrator". I am incredibly frustrated and angry at this establishment. That do not take their guests seriously or even seem to care. I would give this place 2 stars because I wanted to give it a chance, thinking some circle jerk redditors sunk the review base here. But for once they are right. This is just a bad business. 
 
 This "business" is ridiculous. You have to book two nights if you go to ANYONE wedding in the area?!? What the heck kind of rule is that? These owners should not be in this hospitality business as they haven't been educated on how hospitality works. It's dirty and ill taken care of. The "honor" bar has OPEN bottles of booze where anyone could contaminate or drug because there's nobody safeguarding the bottles. What would happen if a freaking roofie was put into the whiskey??? Don't go here. Go anywhere else. These guys think they are too legit to quit. They are fools and don't deserve a dime of your hard earned money. And then threatening guests for negative reviews?? How is that not sleazy and or ineffective? Perhaps one should question why they want to run a hotel if they are misanthropists?!?! My IDEA would be that they run some kind of illegal business. Of course that's just a guess on my part due to their actions and I have zero proof. It's just a feeling not a statement and not slander. This place is like those restaurants where the staff is "mean" to you but you know ahead of time and it's more of a performance. This place is full of wannabe thugs with no self respect. Having a wedding here in my opinion would be just asking for bad luck. I'm sure that some sorcery has cursed this place! 
 
 We come to Hudson quite frequently to escape the city and always have a great time up here. We decided to stay at The Union Street Guest House for our last weekend getaway and was not thrilled with this hotel. The place is definitely unique, but not the type of unique that they seem to pride themselves on. Antique furniture is "cool" and "hip" in theory but when you neglect the dust build up long enough for "Jaden" to write their name in a few times then the charm wears off pretty quick. My biggest problem, our bill was $468.95, which is a reasonable rate for the weekend except the charge appeared as $4,689.50 on my Amex. Assuming this was just a simple human error, we called the front desk and they agreed and said that they would revert the charges and adjust accordingly. We waited a week, and still the error had not been corrected, so we emailed multiple times with no response. Calls to the front desk always were met with the same line, that they were going to adjust the rate accordingly. After three weeks of attempts to revert the accidental premium we were charged I finally called Amex and they happily removed the charges and are taking care of the Union Street Guest House. 5-Stars goes out to Amex for fixing a sub 1-Star experiment in mediocracy, my next trip to Hudson will include an event celebrating the closure of the Union Street Guest House, with accommodation elsewhere. 
 
 If I could rate this place less than 1 star, I would. It isn't because the accommodations were bad...it is because they owe me $952.00. Here is the story: I stayed here for my good friend's wedding in May 2014. Due to a room change at the last minute (not Union's fault- my friend the bride, had to rearrange rooms to better accommodate her guests), I was told by Union that I needed to pay for the second room in full and then I would be refunded for the first room. I paid $952.00 for the first room and $728.00 for the second room so I should have been refunded for the $952.00 for the first room (my other friends ended up staying in the first room and I know for a fact that they paid the full amount for their stay up front). Long story short, I have yet to see the $952.00 in my bank account. Yep, they never refunded me. The last communication of any kind from them is an email reply dated 7/16/14 after I asked them to please confirm that I was credited because I didn't see it on my cc statement. The reply states: "Yes, you were credited." After that, I emailed again asking for the date of the refund and last four digits of the credit card they supposedly refunded (because, again, I couldn't find the refund on my statement). The reply? RADIO SILENCE. Since that time I have written 5 POLITE emails (I would copy and paste them all here, but trust me they were very polite- I assume the best of people) and left numerous polite voicemails (including one where I pleaded with them to find it within themselves not to take my hard earned money.) The reply? RADIO SILENCE. I am still in disbelief that I was taken advantage of in this way. Though, I have come to understand through my friend (the bride)'s experience (they owe her $2500 from her deposit), as well as others on here (and the whole "joke" about their policy of keeping $500 if you write a bad review- google it if you haven't yet and see how shady/not funny it is)- that these people are shady and this is a shady business. My next step is reporting them to the better business bureau and then letting go of hopes that I will ever get my refund. Please stay elsewhere (there are a bunch of great places in the town where other people stayed) and don't support this dishonesty. Thank you for reading! 
 
 We stayed three nights in the Union Street Guest House's Bainbridge Suite, after pre-paying for four. Due to a medical emergency we had to leave before the last night. We released the room at 9:30am. Leaving aside the owner's refusal to refund any portion of the final night's $250 charge due to our forced departure, here is what we found during our three days: -- Two dogs, belonging to either the owner or the owner's renter in an apartment next door, barked and woke us up and kept us awake. -- Clearly heard the owner or his tenant, yelling and yawning, through the wall. Owner later told us: "Some of the guests came into the back kitchen & laundry area to watch a game." -- -- A neighbor in an adjoining apartment speaking loudly or shouting. -- Doors slamming. -- A tenant having very loud phone conversations, (punctuated with lots of loud, "No, he didn't!"s) on the other side of a thin wall. -- A rumbling washing machine on the other side of said wall, in adjoining apartment. Upon arrival on a Thursday afternoon, we found: -- A McDonald's sack, a Kraft Cream Cheese carton and other trash lining the walk, from Union Street to the Bainbridge Suite entrance. -- Peeling paint on the master bedroom's radiator. -- Poor quality pillows. -- One-ply toilet paper. -- Heat cycling off during the night, leaving the rooms cold. -- A view of a half dozen dog feces on the grass behind each bedroom window. -- One of four lamps not working. -- One of four venetian blinds missing equipment. -- Our "light snack en suite," consisting of a bag of mini-Oreo's, a bag of Goldfish and four Keebler crackers. Do yourself a favor, and look elsewhere for accommodation in the Hudson area. If you expect a quiet, problem-free stay, our warning is: Don't. The owner believes peace and quiet are guaranteed only at higher price points i.e. a more expensive suite. Regarding our discomfort, he said: "Please remember that even though we do work hard to create complete privacy for our guests, we are pretty much full all the time and this is a public place...If you ever decide to stay with us again, I highly recommend the Gallery Suite. It is a little bit more but for that many nights, especially with children, you have much more space and you are above the fray as it were." For $150-$250 a night, we don't expect to find ourselves in the midst of any "fray." Nor do we expect guests coming over to "watch a game" next to a room that is far from soundproofed. The duplicitous, dishonest, disingenuous owner told the world after our stay: "We are so sorry these guests did not like our cancellation policy. if there's any way to make it up we would have but it wasn't to be...." "We would have"? They could have made a $250 refund or they could have offered another night's stay. No offer of any kind was ever made. Although the property is "pretty much full all the time," the owner feels no compunction charging you for a room you have released to him at 9:30 a.m., and charging someone else the same rate for the same evening, grossing $500. Avoid this establishment with every fiber in your body. 
 
 I've never had a more pitiful staff. Never touch this place it is so dirty. Why do they have to be so unprofessional. It is more like an untrained staff that is completely rude. Never again. 
 
 This was the worst hotel experience of my life. I am not exaggerating and I have never even written a review before.... when I looked up this disgusting place, that's when I saw that this place has other horrible reviews. STAY AWAY! - Dogs and dog crap everywhere. - LOUD drunk guests that are friends of the owners. - toilet paper so cheap we bought our own. - peeling paint and things that don't work. - RUDE STAFF! Honestly the list goes on and on.... Also, everything is cheap.The furniture. Fake plants. Everything....like it's from the 70s. TAKE A CLOSE look at the pictures and you can actually tell....and then remind yourself that these are the BEST pics that this place could muster. STAY AWAY. 
 
 I stayed here for a wedding in May. Let's just say this was the worst experience I've ever had at a "hotel". The whole place smelled old and damp which I later found out was mold. The staff rubbed both myself and my gf the wrong way with their unhelpful, rude and inhospitable manor. The bed felt lumpy and the rooms were way to hipster for my tastes. I ultimately had to sleep in a sleeping bag to avoid the lumps. Heck I would have had a better experience if I just camped out on the lawn outside. The worst part, however, was the "hotel" policy about reviews. So in an effort to ensure that the bride and groom (whom are two of my best friends) don't get charged I felt it best to whip out my rarely used 2nd yelp account. I challenge this place to now figure out which wedding that I attended should receive your policy wrath. HAHAHAHA!!!!!! 
 
 It would be an amazing place to stay if the staff and management wasn't so unhelpful, rude, and apathetic towards the most basic of requests. Save your money and frustration. I'm sure there is somewhere else you'd like to stay. 
 
 I gave this place a neutral (2 star) review after having my wedding here, and they told me that it was negative feedback and that they're going to kept $500 from my deposit after the wedding to cover the damages to their image. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY UNLESS YOU WANT THEM TO STEAL YOUR DEPOSIT. 
 
 Stayed here a few years ago - this place looks like my first apartment, except that I could get a full month for what I paid for two days here. Find yourself a cardboard box and choose the urine-stained street instead! 
 
 The management of this hotel had the gall to email us twice to threaten us financially about the negative review! Here is an excerpt from their first email: "please note that your recent on-line review of our Inn will cost the wedding party that left us a deposit $500. This money be charged via the deposit they have left us unless/until it is removed. Any other or future reviews will also be charged to the wedding party (bride & groom) from the guarantee they have provided us. " Disgusting! Instead of taking responsibility and striving to improve their customer service, they instead resort to intimidation! 
 
 After not using Yelp for over a year, I figured this was worth getting on. This is a horrible establishment. The stay was bad, the food was bad, the service was bad. Was there anything good about the stay? Yeah when I left and got the hell out. Don't support a business like this. Very unprofessional and rude. I will stay at a Motel 6 next time before I Stay here. Or maybe just lay out in the park under a bench. At least a homeless person there might offer me a sheet or towel or something. More then I can say about this place. 
 
 I've never even stayed here, but read about all this on Reddit. Probably like many of you. My rating's the same, though: Don't go here. Don't reward them for trying to keep human beings from voicing their discontent. Pretty disgusting that rather than try and better their service, this place tries to intimidate people to shut their mouths. Like the mob. Congrats on your suicide, Union Street Guest House. 
 
 I have never stayed here and wouldn't want to stay here based on this story alone: http://pagesix.com/2014/08/04/hotel-charges-500-for-every-bad-review-posted-online/?_ga=1.41385890.145819513.1358069560 If this place really stands by their products and offerings, then they shouldn't be charging $500 when they get a negative review. If they screw up, they should fix whatever is wrong. No company in their right mind would charge someone for telling about how bad (or good) their experience was. I wouldn't be surprised if this place went under because of this story alone. By the way, if the owners want this review changed, then respond to the news paper's request for comment, own up to your business decisions. When I see a follow-up story denoting your responses, then I'll update this review.
– The Union Street Guest House in Hudson, NY, wants you to keep your crummy opinions to yourself. So if you post something about the hotel’s "rude customer service, unclean, terrible odor," as NY Pix 11 quotes one reviewer, the hotel will collect a $500 fine. It’s right in their policy, which states that customers who’ve booked weddings or other events at the hotel will have their deposit deducted for every negative review written by their guests. Want your money back? Remove the review(s), the NY Post reports. But woe to the reviewer who doesn’t remove his complaints—the owners tend to get defensive. When a guest said staff was rude when they asked for ice, the hotel posted a response: "I know you guys wanted to hang out and get drunk for 2 days ... I was so so so sorry that our ice maker and fridge were not working and not accessible." Despite the hotel’s efforts, it still has a poor average rating on Yelp.