NORTH-EAST entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne is considering suing a travel website because of “dishonest” customer reviews about a hotel he owns.

Darlington-based Mr Bannatyne is furious after Trip- Advisor refused to remove a review comparing one of his hotels to Fawlty Towers.

He says the comments by guests at the Charlton House Spa Hotel, in Somerset, were spiteful and untruthful.

Mr Bannatyne, whose chain of hotels includes locations in Darlington and Durham, said TripAdvisor was risking the livelihoods of hoteliers and restaurateurs by publishing all reviews – and pledged to mount a campaign against it.

He said the website – which, in reply, said it investigated all suspicious reviews and took a zero-tolerance approach – should remove fraudulent or defamatory reviews, rather than offering operators a right of reply.

It follows a disparaging critique that compared Charlton House to the fictitious venue managed by John Cleese in the BBC comedy series.

Mr Bannatyne said: “Trip- Advisor is a despicable and cowardly organisation, which is bullying small hotel owners all over the UK. As a recent victim of a rogue review, I am well placed to lead a campaign for more protection against the perils of TripAdvisor.”

He is considering legal action if the website continues to refuse to remove untrue, unfair and dishonest reviews.

Charlton House has an average rating of four-and-a-half out of five, from 56 independent reviews. Among them 35 rate it as “excellent” and none gave it the lowest rating of “terrible”.

Many reviews included responses from Mr Bannatyne and hotel staff, including acting manager Phil Brown.

A spokesman for Trip- Advisor said it was rare for hoteliers to threaten reviewers with legal action. She said: “An owner cannot ask a reviewer to remove their review.

Any issues regarding the content of reviews should be addressed by writing a public management response on the site.

“This tool allows hoteliers to directly respond to reviews within TripAdvisor, offering the opportunity to acknowledge both positive and negative feedback.

“We take our responsibility as the world’s largest travel site extremely seriously.

Every review is screened by our proprietary site tools that are continuously upgraded and a team of dozens of quality assurance specialists investigate suspicious reviews.

“If a property owner has an issue with a traveller review, we provide avenues for them to raise concerns. Hoteliers also always have the option of posting a management response to any review on their property.”