A DESPAIRING hotel owner who is getting awful TripAdvisor reviews claims they are being left by guests who stayed at a different hotel with the SAME NAME.

Adrian Smirthwaite owns the Albany Hotel on Albany Road, Blackpool, and has built up a five out of five rating on the site.

Not faraway is the Albany Hotel on Clifton Drive – a two out of five rated establishment that has been slammed by TripAdvisor reviewers.

On its own page the Clifton Drive hotel was referred to as "Filthy Towers" by one customer, who added that the only thing missing was "John Cleese hitting Manuel over the head with a spoon".

The wave of negativity has allegedly spilled over to Mr Smirthwaite's business, as some guests have accidentally posted scathing reviews under his hotel's page on the site.

The hotelier says each booking he takes is roughly £500 in his pocket, so believes he has missed out on thousands of pounds of income because of the reviews.

He became so stressed about the negative comments that he had to spend time in hospital and go on a relaxing holiday.

The devastated hotelier told The Sun: "The stress gave me really bad chest pains, I was really suffering.

"You put your whole life into a business like a hotel, and for a simple mix up like this happen is heartbreaking.

"I had to go and stay with mum and dad in Spain for a week because it all became too much.

"I was in hospital for 24 hours before that because my chest pains got so bad."

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The bulk of the comments for Mr Smirthwaite's hotel are glowing reviews, with visitors saying the food was "outstanding" and the place was run by a "great couple".

But one message meant for the other Albany Hotel claimed "the guy on the front desk was so rude" and added "the bathroom and curtains was (sic) disgusting".

The same reviewer said the hotelier was rude to his niece and had a loud row with another customer.

TripAdvisor has since moved the comment to the Albany Hotel in Clifton Drive's page.

One reviewer leaving a comment about the Clifton Drive establishment even warned people not to make the mistake of getting the two places confused.

The review was titled: "Do not mistake this excuse for a hotel with The Albany as I did".

It went on to say their room was "dirty" and had a "broken window".

Mr Smirthwaite added: "People are getting mixed-up and they are putting their bad reviews of the other Albany hotel onto my site.

"It happened last year and is happening again this year.

"But when I have raised it with TripAdvisor it can take them five weeks to take the reviews down.

"It affects my business because if people see a bad review they won't book and every booking can be worth £200 or £300.

"We are thinking of changing the name of the hotel but that would cost about £5,000 changing all the signs and our literature."

TripAdvisor has agreed to remove seven disputed reviews from Mr Smirthwaite's Albany Hotel page on its site.

The other Albany Hotel is owned by Dr Adnan Fultan who has said he is surprised reviewers have been getting the two establishments muddled up.

He said: "The hotels are in quite different locations and have different websites.

"TripAdvisor is an unregulated site and anyone can write on it. People who have had a positive experience tend not to comment.

"The people who put reviews on our site reflect the minority. I would say they are less than 0.1 per cent of the people we have accommodated.

"We have a number of hotels in Blackpool, and take 5,000 to 10,000 reservations a year, so we are bringing a lot of footfall to Blackpool."

A spokeswoman for TripAdvisor said: "While such an occurrence is rare, if an owner believes a review posted on their property was intended for a different establishment they can report it to us and our content team will investigate.

"As part of that investigation, we will contact the reviewer in question and ask them to confirm that their review was submitted to the correct property.

"If no confirmation is received from the reviewer, we take action to remove the review.

"This process has led to the removal of a number of reviews from the property page of The Albany."

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