Assaulted by Guesthouse Owner - Advice Needed

lpede5 on 17/08/2019 - 02:42
Last edited 17/08/2019 - 12:01

Hi everyone!

I’m in a slightly unusual situation. I was staying at a guesthouse in South Korea (Seoul) and ended up being assaulted by the owner.

Long story short;
- I was partially refunded for my stay here as the room was filthy (the owner tried to fix this but they did not know how to fully clean the room). The toaster had cockroaches in it etc

  • The owner tried to get me to “promise” to not leave a bad review after getting the refund.

  • When the owner thought I was going to leave a negative review (I told him I still had a complaint - when he asked if I had no more complaints) he tried to take my wallet out of my pocket forcefully.

  • I was only hurt in quite a minor way (a mark on my hand, and he drew a little bit of blood from where his nail dug into mine). But I was still a little bit shaken up.

I am planning to contact the police (I went to a tourist police station but it was closed this evening). To lodge a complaint. I will leave a negative review on Agoda, google, TripAdvisor etc. Is there anything else I can do to warn other guests about this place? I can’t find anywhere I can report the guesthouse itself.

The whole incident was recorded (video) by my girlfriend but I am not sure what to do with it apart from show the police. It mainly shows him lunging towards me (and what happened before and after). Any advice would be appreciated!

We have since left the property immediately after this.

Cheers

Travel

Comments

  • newreg1 on 17/08/2019 - 04:48
    +14

    Post on youtube, contact local version of A current affair.

    • lpede5 on 17/08/2019 - 12:16

      Thanks for the advice.

  • elgrande on 17/08/2019 - 06:45
    +24

    Grabs kimchi..

    • jackinyourbox on 17/08/2019 - 10:07

      Yeah. It's a little late now. Should of addressed the situation on the spot

    • nomoneynoproblems on 17/08/2019 - 11:58
      -1

      Found the hotel owner.

  • DiLs on 17/08/2019 - 07:21
    +18

    Complain to North Korea, they will fix them

    • bdl on 17/08/2019 - 12:36
      +3

      Cockroaches will survive nuclear blast :(

  • profar on 17/08/2019 - 07:31
    +13

    Post the video here .

    Plenty of world class experts at this place .

  • Flozza27 on 17/08/2019 - 07:49

    If you bought the room through Agoda or the like you should contact them. Either way the amount of money paid for the room is probably not worth ruining your holiday over (or getting “assaulted”).

  • Eeples on 17/08/2019 - 07:52
    +12

    You just didn’t want to pay. Why was she videoing….. because you decided to have a confrontation
    The old I’ll give a bad review threat. Classy. How many others have you ripped off? Now you are having a cry… because your extortion had consequences.
    No wonder there was agro.
    Stay somewhere decent next time….. you are on holiday!!
    Cheap accommodation is bound to be cheap for a reason.
    .
    I hope you enjoyed your fun holiday.

    • lpede5 on 17/08/2019 - 12:07
      +4

      Hello. She was videoing as the owner promised to refund me for all my nights except for one. When he called Expedia group the staff member on the phone said this wasn’t possible. So since we had been mislead we didn’t want to take any chances. I never threatened to leave a bad review - he was the one that was demanding I not leave one. I never mentioned leaving a review to him. But when I said I had a “complaint” with his customer service, he seemed to think that meant I would leave a bad review.

      • Eeples on 17/08/2019 - 13:09

        How many nights were booked?
        How many nights did you stay?
        How much were you ‘partially refunded’ and what form did that take?
        Refunded for all but one night stayed or for nights booked?

        So many details you have omitted.

        • lpede5 on 19/08/2019 - 14:23

          Hello. Since there are a lot of details involved I didn’t want to write a novel. Happy to elaborate. Initially we booked and paid for a week through Agoda. We stayed 3 nights. We mentioned issues with the rooms during our stay (the bathroom not being cleaned etc).

          Initially he offered to refund me for 6 nights and take money for 1 night but that he had to call Expedia for this, and he was told it was impossible for the booking to be cancelled. We ended up being partially refunded in cash for the total amount the guesthouse would have received.

    • Illian on 17/08/2019 - 12:36
      +5

      Lol so many dumb assumptions. You obviously run your own cheap cockroach infested accommodation, you should be ashamed. Here's a tip for you, there is NEVER an excuse for violence.

    • bobwokeup on 17/08/2019 - 21:08
      +1

      I like how you assume a lot during your attack on OP. "Thought I was going to" does not mean he said he's going to leave a bad review. Obviously he knew others had left bad reviews and he didn't want another one.

      • payton on 17/08/2019 - 21:24

        seems like OP have omitted quite a lot of details as to how things escalated that badly

        • lpede5 on 19/08/2019 - 14:26

          Hi! I’ve just included what I thought to be relevant. When I got the refund from the owner and I put my wallet away he asked “so you have no more complaints yes?” I took that as him asking whether all of my complaints had been addressed. And considering he did not seem concerned about the cockroaches I said no.

          It seems he misunderstood this as meaning I was going to leave a bad review, and demanded the money back. When I then said I was not going to leave a review he then grabbed my hand and went for my wallet. I backed away at that point and said I wouldn’t leave a review, and told him to leave as he had assaulted me.

  • armdrags on 17/08/2019 - 08:00
    +7

    My advice is bikies :)

    • bdl on 17/08/2019 - 12:35
      +2

      and eat biscuits whilst waiting for bikies to turn up

  • [Deactivated] on 17/08/2019 - 08:26

    Very scathing comments.

    Please show proof when making such comments for it to be taken seriously. Not really needed here since noone is named but still good practice.

    • lpede5 on 17/08/2019 - 12:15
      +2

      Hello. I have a video but was more after general advice. I know how some users can be when commenting on videos so I would rather leave personal details out of it. This is why I’m not naming the guesthouse at this point. If that means some people won’t believe me then that is unfortunate.

  • bobbified on 17/08/2019 - 09:12
    +9

    …but I am not sure what to do with it…

    1. Watch the video again, then
    2. Watch it again and take notice of your own behavior (you look like an idiot now, don't you?)
    3. Remind yourself that you're on holidays in a foreign country where customs are not necessarily going to be the same
    4. Remind yourself to be polite and respectful at all times
    5. Remind yourself that it's rude to shove a camera in people's faces
    6. Remind yourself that the camera isnt going to protect you.
    7. Remind yourself not to antagonise the locals. The money earnt could be the locals' livelihood and threatening them with bad reviews is not a smart move. You have no idea what people are willing to do and you end up putting yourself and your girlfriend at risk.
    8. Do not come back here and whinge if your $5/night accommodation doesn't live up to your 5 star hotel expectations.

    I'll so sick of entitled idiots who go around with a camera thinking that they can blackmail service industry people into getting what they want or they'll "post it on social media"! Get a life!

    • Changskies on 17/08/2019 - 10:26
      +1

      Yup - op sounds like one

    • lpede5 on 17/08/2019 - 12:12
      +3

      Hi there!
      2. No
      3. Yes
      4. Yes
      5. The camera was not in anyone’s face. He was unaware that he was being recorded as my girlfriend hid it well.
      6. Of course, but as he didn’t know he was being recorded this doesn’t apply.
      7. Yeah this is very true. It doesn’t seem worth outlining the problems with the room in detail if this is where it can lead.
      8. Cockroaches in a toaster, a dirty toilet, broken door. There was much more wrong, but my post was about support for the assault, not the dirty room. Agoda has also agreed that the room was filthy.

      I would never blackmail someone.

      Cheers.

      • Eeples on 17/08/2019 - 13:11
        +1

        And the penalty for recording someone covertly in South Korea is…?

        • GoldenDragon888 on 17/08/2019 - 15:14
          +1

          I know what it is in North Korea.

  • owli on 17/08/2019 - 10:55
    +1

    OP, you've got it all wrong, did you know in South Korea, when the host draws blood using his finger nail it is considered a sign of great respect for the guest. This is just a kooky misunderstanding.

  • [Deactivated] on 17/08/2019 - 11:22

    Post the video if you think your in the right.

    As for reporting it to the police, how are you going to hang around long enough for Court cases ec

  • Donaldhump on 17/08/2019 - 11:31

    leave some presents behind in the room for him to clean up.
    tell him you have AIDS
    and your hostel was dirty, how much was it a night?, its a hostel, its a cheap dump for budget people who prob cant afford to clean it relgiously, you want clean get a hotel.

  • dcep on 17/08/2019 - 11:48
    -1

    just post reviews everywhere saying - annyeong oppa sarangheyo kimchi daebak jang!

    • payton on 17/08/2019 - 12:32
      +1

      Oooopa Gangnam Style

  • bazza1980 on 17/08/2019 - 12:35

    OP, what do you actually want to achieve?

    Do you want the owner to be prosecuted over the "assault"? Well show it to the police. Whether or not there will be charges laid is another story as a "bit of blood" is probably going to result in a verbal warning from the police.

    You said you got a partial refund and you said you will/have left negative reviews online, so not sure what "advice" you actually want.

    • lpede5 on 19/08/2019 - 14:18

      Hi Bazza1980. I was basically wanting to check that I had all of my bases covered. I thought there might be an accommodation organisation (or something) that I could report the hostel to directly. Since I didn’t want what happened to me to happen to another I wanted a second opinion. I’ve spoken to the police last night.

  • Love a bargain on 17/08/2019 - 13:03
    +1

    OP. Just report the assault to the police and put a factual review on the condition of the accommodation and the assault on TripAdvisor, Google review, Agoda, etc are probably all you can do.

    To all those who are sceptical of OP's story (or decided to make fun of his situation). If OP set out to blackmail the accommodation provider, wouldn't they have picked a fancier place. How much many can you seriously squeeze out of a hostel even if you try?

    • lpede5 on 19/08/2019 - 14:28

      Thanks for the comment. This is what I’m going to do, based on the comments it looks like it’s the most I can do. I’ve seen the police last night and will leave my reviews next.

  • ssjwill on 17/08/2019 - 13:56

    should've slapped him with kimchi

    sorry only got alerted about this thread because of the word toaster :)

  • try2bhelpful on 17/08/2019 - 15:01
    +1

    I would go back to whatever service you booked through to make the complaint. Tussling with the owner, threatening the owner, is not a great idea. I’ve stayed at places where there are cockroaches; sometimes regions just breed a lot of cockroaches. Sounds like you got your money back for most of the accomodation, just leave your review and move on.

    • lpede5 on 19/08/2019 - 14:32

      Hi. During my stay I did notify Agoda but it didn’t do much. They had to go through their “supplier” who was not timely with getting back to them on how to best resolve the situation. It was actually agodas suggestion to talk to the owner directly. The staff member I spoke to in the Agoda chat recommended it.

      I did not threaten the owner, I agree that is never a good idea. I’ve spoken to the police, and just have to leave my reviews now.

  • starburstyellow on 19/08/2019 - 09:57

    Video or it didn't happen.

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