A British budget hotel that fined a couple 100 pounds (AUD$180) for writing a bad review about it online has agreed to pay them back and drop its policy of penalising guests who do that, officials said.

Tony and Jan Jenkinson told the BBC they discovered the charge on their credit card shortly after they called the hotel as a “filthy, dirty, rotten, stinking hovel” on the travel website TripAdvisor.

The Jenkinsons said that when they questioned the charge from the Broadway Hotel in Blackpool, a seaside town in north-western England, it pointed out the “no-bad-review policy” in its terms and conditions.

Blackpool Council, which investigated the case, said the hotel has now complied with its request to remove the policy.