Negative reviews vs censorship

[surfgatinho]

I run a local info site that has a review section on various things such as restaurants, hotels etc.
Anyway, I have had a large number of negative reviews about one hotel, which I am certain are all boanafide. The place sounds like a complete house of horrors with an over-enthusiastically religous owner.

It's quite a big hotel and the owner is pretty wealthy, but I have my principles and don't want to start removing what are perfectly valid reviews.
Oh yeah, and we do pretty well in Google for his hotel name!

So, today I have just received an email from this guy asking me to contact him. Any suggestions, precedents etc on how to deal with this

[piatkow]

Difficult. I would suggest:
1. Be sure that all reviews are from different individuals and do not represent a coordinated attack on his reputation.
2. Make sure that your site has a disclaimer stating that reviews are the personal opinions of the reviewers and do not represent your views
3. Make a policy decision. Either offer a right to reply or publish a firm disclaimer saying that you will not enter into any correspondence about the content of reviews.

[surfgatinho]

Thanks for your sagely words - I may look into a right of reply.