The owners of Trout Point Lodge astride the Tusket River in East Kemptville are challenging the internet travel behemoth TripAdvisor.com by forbidding any customers from posting reviews on the web site or any other media. Citing claims of defamation and manipulation of TripAdvisor from those who wish Trout Point and owners Charles Leary and Vaughn Perret ill will, Leary told the Halifax Herald that the Trip Advisor site contined many inaccuracies and defamatory comments.
One of the comments which has created ire in the owners is one posted by a New York publisher who refused to stay at the lodge when asked to sign the "no-publsh" agreement . EJ Kirk writes that the Trout Point agreeement says they "must approve anything before it is published" and that "failure to do so is actionable in a Nova Scotia Court with a minimum judgement of $3,000 CD." "In exchange for a room," he adds, "which you pay for, they own your intellectual property or you can be sued for $3,000"
Although Trout Point has may favourable reviews, Kirk suggests travelers also read more recent ones, which included a complaint that, in addition to 15% tax, 18% "service fee" was added to every item on the bill. That reviewer said they "nearly died" when presented with the 33% charges on top of published rates.
The Trout Point Lodge page on TripAdvisor now bears this warning: "TripAdvisor has reasonable cause to believe that this property requires guests to agree not to post any opinions or photos of their stay on review sites such as TripAdvisor without the approval of the property. Please take this into consideration when researching your travel plans."
The promotion by Leary and Perret of this questionable method to quell bad reviews is just the most recent episode in a running public battle the pair have been waging to salvage an increasingly damaged reputation for starred property. They have been engaged in very public legal battles against the New Orleans Times Picayune, the blog Slabbed , New Orleans Fox 8 News and SCT blog.
Slabbed is known as a blog which reports on matters surrounding various corrupt practices of politicians and others in the Gulf Coast area and has written extensively about disgraced Jefferson Parish politician Arron Broussard. According to Slabbed, the day after Fox8 reported Brousasard's connection to the Lodge in Nova Scotia, Broussard resigned.
