$500 for Bad Review Policy? Hotel Owner Apologize

(8/5/2014) Recently, a hotel in Hudson, New York that claim it will charge $500 for guest's bad review online causes a strong backfire. After online users inundated yelp.com with all 1-star reviews, the hotel owners first responded that announcement on their website was just a joke. With one day, after receiving 3000 bad reviews, the hotel owner finally "officially apologize" to its customers. Will this 'joke' costs the owner's business?