I hadn’t realized this until Darren pointed it out…
I had a bit of a negative experience at the Old Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg. So I wrote about it.
Now, if you search Google for “Old Fort Garry Hotel“…
Yeah, you get my pages (one a reasonable review, and one a negative review) first. Above the hotel’s official site. Above Winnipeg tourism sites listing the hotel. Above everything.
Yowza. I don’t regret anything I wrote. I kind of feel selfish for having stayed in my room, but it was my room damnit, and it was midnight. If I’d been told about the party earlier in the day I would have moved without any fuss at all. In fact, I probably would have been thankful they’d warned me.
Again, yowza. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what is commonly referred to as “Google clout”. I’ve never seen it used so decisively. I feel almost guilty. It’s not like I’m trying to harm their business. I guess that’s what happens when you think you’re holding a stalk of wheat and it turns out it’s a big freaking club.
If it’s any consolation, I’d be happy to try the Fort Garry again if I was invited back. Maybe I just caught them on a bad day.

May 26th, 2005 at 9:19 pm
That’s funny, but there’s no obligation to be nice when you are the king of blogging. They should have given you are more royal treatment. It was not so mean what you wrote anyway.
May 27th, 2005 at 7:05 am
I had a similar experience, but with this I did it on purpose. Actually twice because I did it for a local cafe, too.
May 27th, 2005 at 4:47 pm
Haha. That’s awesome. =D
May 27th, 2005 at 8:58 pm
Hillarious google search , great blog post. You don’t owe them anything. $25 a day for wifi is ridiculous no matter what kind of band it is. I recently stayed in a hotel in downtown vancouver. Broadband wifi was $15 day. As soon as I openned my laptop I was picking up wifi signals , none of which required a pass word, so fuck the hotel ,although admit it was not it was not as steep as yours.
Melanie
May 29th, 2005 at 4:24 pm
Blog item of customer complaint Google = Ouch!
Blogger Jeremy Wright wrote a blog item about a negative experience he had at a hotel. Now his complaint ranks above the hotel’s own site in Google.
May 30th, 2005 at 2:28 pm
Hotels rooms now come with hot and cold detractor fans
What can you add to a hotel which seems to have everything? How about bad publicity? The Fort Garry Hotel is probably as well-equipped as any in Winnipeg. It has two hundred and forty two suites with wifi, feather beds
May 30th, 2005 at 3:49 pm
Hotel rooms now come with hot and cold detractor fans
What can you add to a hotel which seems to have everything? How about bad publicity? The Fort Garry Hotel is probably as well-equipped as any in Winnipeg. It has two hundred and forty two suites with wifi, feather beds
May 30th, 2005 at 11:17 pm
Jeremy, the same thing happened with me and a company called LegalMatch. My entry, written over a year ago, has cost them perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars because my post, “Why I’ll Never Use LegalMatch” was either the third or fourth listing on Google when you searched for the company’s name. They recently approached me and have worked hard to get me to change my opinion. If you’d like to talk more, drop me a line.