Row erupts over 'racist' TripAdvisor review of Ealing pub which complained about Polish customers

Ealing pub: The customer complained about 'groups of Polish people'
Chloe Chaplain20 December 2016

A race row has erupted after a TripAdvisor reviewer complained the atmosphere in a London pub was ruined by "Polish people".

The owners of the Star and Anchor pub in Ealing reacted with fury after the review was published by the travel website.

The reviewer complemented the “cosy” pub for its “nice food” and “exceptional choice of drinks”.

But then they added: “When groups of POLISH people arrive… the tranquillity and calmness are gone… then you will feel you are drinking in the toughest pub of Hackney or Brixton.

“Pity but it’s true.”

'Racist' review: The comment left on the website (TA)

After reading the comments, the owner of the pub, Edward Sheldon, along with operations manager Gavin Harrington-Odedra, complained about the review to the website.

But the site responded saying it “complies with submission guidelines”, adding: “User reviews are individual, highly subjective opinions.

“Negative comments may feel insulting but the reviewer is entitled to express their opinion.”

Mr Harrington-Odedra told the Standard: “We were just so shocked – first of all that the review went up and then more shocked when TripAdvisor’s response came back.

“There is no way to dispute their decision so we thought if we tweeted them and sparked a bit of backlash it would help.”

The pair then tweeted from the pub’s account saying: “Are you absolutely sure this doesn’t breach your guidelines.

“Is this your post-Brexit policy? I give up…”

Hundreds of people responded to the posts, condemning the site and the reviewer for the “racist” message.

One person described TripAdvisor as “the cultural wing of UKIP”.

Another responded: “I'm not sure what I'm more annoyed about. Brixton and Hackney are wonderful drinking places. As is Poland, for that matter!”

Eventually the review was removed, with the website responding: “Thanks for bringing to our attention.

“Decision was reviewed and team concluded review did breach guidelines so removed.

“Decisions such as these taken by manual team and they work hard to uphold guidelines as fairly and objectively as possible.

“Inevitably, some reviews require a judgement call. If we make a mistake, we do our best to fix it.”

Mr Harrington-Odedra said he was pleased the review had been taken down as he was concerned it may have made customers feel unwelcome.

“We have an inclusive customer policy and we do not want to discriminate by any means,” he said.

“Most of the angry comments and tweets were local people who come to the pub - they were shocked someone would write something like that.

“It was not a review about the premises it was a review of the people who come here and, at the end of the day, that is just not in keeping with how we want to run our business.”

A TripAdvisor spokesman told the Standard: "We have a dedicated team whose job it is to manually investigate reviews that are reported to us and they work hard to uphold the guidelines we have in place.

"Inevitably, there will be cases in which content is close to the red line we draw, and in those situations we have to make a judgement as fairly and objectively as we can.

"In this case, upon reviewing our initial determination, we concluded that the review did not meet our guidelines and as such it has been removed."

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