We have been guests of the Balance Hotel Badenweiler. One night during the course of our stay, we had a less than pleasing experience at dinner finding both the food and the service wanting. After complaining about this to the hotel owner, Maria Grüninger, in person, I was disappointed to be accused of lying by both Mrs. Grüninger and the waitress who had been in charge of our table. In Addition to this incident, we had found the very small room (with less than comfortable beds) we had been given not satisfactory for the considerable price we had been charged. So, I wrote a moderate 2star-review on google and later sent a very friendly email to Mrs Grüninger a few days later, not asking for a refund of the payment, but just explaining my point of view and reasons for having put the review.
Mrs. Grüninger replied in an extremely unfriendly note, calling me not only a liar, but "sick" for what I wrote and suggesting that I maliciously was attacking other people out of my own dissatisfaction and I had better clean up my own stuff.
(I have this email as well as all others from the side of Marc and Maria Grüninger as a proof for my allegations. Almost all of them use abusive language.) As well, we received a letter from the hotel's lawyer, threatening us with a lawsuit unless we paid 400 Euros to the hotel for alleged damages caused by my sharing of my experiences on some German hotel review sites. It said that if we would not pay the 400 Euros, we would have to pay over 5 000 as a result of some court order. The owners of the German hotel review sites were forced by the hotel to take my reviews down, as the hotel said that I was lying.
In addition to all that, my husband received insulting emails from Marc Grüninger, the son of Maria Grüninger, threatening him with a lawsuit as well. He also falsely accused me on facebook for having created a fake profile to put an additional review on the hotel's facebook page, using words like "BS". He then proceeded to upload a video on the hotel's facebook page as well as on youtube that contained massive defamation and harassment against myself and my husband, calling us "sick and twisted" (again, we have proof for that). Upon our request, he first took the video down, only to upload it secretly onto a different youtube channel, as well as onto several public German websites. He also wrote a ripoff-report about my husband, falsely accusing him of criminal extortion and blackmail!
After the video had been taken down the first time, my husband offered peace and suggested an olive branch arrangement, where Free Spirit would forgive all the abusive behaviour that had taken place in return for a 500 Euro refund which included a (very generous) charge for his time - given that he charges several hundred Euros an hour for private consultations for those that need help with their spiritual development.
That would have been the end of it - even if no payment would be received - had the video not been uploaded again and spread around as well as the ripoff-report created. As ripoff-reports are permanent, we would not have written one about the hotel at all.
This is an unusual report of a self-proclaimed 'Spiritual Master' that goes under the name 'Free Spirit'. They were guests at a Hotel in Southern Germany in 2012 ; a Hotel that is run by my family. Though the Hotel never claimed to have a 'vegan' restaurant they certainly always had vegan options. Free Spirit and his wife weren't satisfied with dinner. It happens. So Mangemnent gave them - as good will - a generous discount on their bill. To their surprise they would find reviews on an Online-Portal where they voiced their opinion, among other things false accustation about the Hotel staffs 'rudeness', which upon Hotel Management reached out to them via Email. They immediately asked for a 'mandatory refund' of for the entire stay ( mandatory? As if any person in the Hotel world who wasn't fully satisfied has the entitlement to just NOT PAY and get a 100% refund. Sure.) upon which there was a multiple email exchange where things were written from an emotional standpoint as well.
They were so persistant, that Hotel Management called their behaviour ill-mannered. There were continuos blackmailing attempts, with the guy Free Spirit threatening us with 'additions to his reviews' if there wouldn't be a refund made soon. Hotel Management only notified a lawyer, when things became even worse with Free Spirit not only blackmailing us for a refund, but making serious threats that could have them prosecuted by German law, including unfounded slandering of reputation and breach of domestic peace. All things he denies to this day but he keeps insisting about the Hotels 'abusive' emails when in fact they just voiced their opinion on his malicious behaviour and tacticts. Here's the an excerpt from the original email from Novemebr 2013 - I will also add a screenshot to it below:
..If it is not made by Monday and the apology issued, I will be visiting your hotel again next time I am on business - and will be very vocal. I will be happy to sit in your restaurant for as long as it takes you to apologise to my wife for being so argumentative and insulting - and for as long as it takes to refund the money. Also, if you continue to make problems for my wife - I am going to involve my lawyers and I will be making additions to my own reviews.It seems like you are in a Zugzwang position. It appears you have no choice but to conceed, apologize and reimburse to avoid a considerable 'trashing' of the hotels reputation.
I guess I have made myself very clear.
Free Spirit
Spiritual Author and International Speaker - Skype Mentor - Ascension Teacher - Merkabah Artist
2012 Meeting the Star Beings - Love on the Shores of a Distant World - Keys to Immortality
After that Hotel or I ( I took over communciations with Free Spirit after his malicious blackmail email) had not heard from them for 2 years nor from their 'lawyers' - up until January, 2015, when I spotted 2 new reviews on the Hotel's Facebook page. Since I still had his Info I reached out to him immediately, called him mindless and questioned his integrity. To this day he claims I threathened him with 'defamation' and 'libel' when in fact I only wrote he should think about taking down the reviews or else I would post his original balckmail emails online. His own words, which pretty much speak for themselves, even more so as he calls himself a Spiritual Teacher. I then received several laughable and delusional emails from Free Spirit where it really comes off as they are desperately trying to take their last chance to get their 'freebee' - which in their numbers is 500 Euros plus 'legal fees'. He even took the time the set up 'Olive Branch Agreement' with a straight link to his very official, very own PAYPAL account. He kept ignoring my words that he's wasting my and his time by sending me more blackmail emails about his additional reviews that he just made on Google + and Trip Advisor, desperately taking his last shoot trying to get his free hand out. He also kept mentioning that if we would wanna sue him ( without me even mentioning that) we would have to know about his whereabouts and that our lawyers would have to find him first. He also enlightened me about the UK law (?) in an attempt to dismiss his ways of blackmailing the Hotel - despite the fact that we're located in Germany..here's an excerpt from his recent emails:
..So I am handling the matter from here on for my wife. So if you want to sue us for telling the truth - good luck.
You would need to find where we are located for that to be successful. We do not live in Germany..
..Alternatively - you can refund my wife for the stay that she was not happy with, save yourself a lot of bad publicity and inconvenience and we will consider the matter sorted. Once we receive the refund plus our legal fees to date (500 euros that you can send to me by Paypal at (removed for privacy)@gmail.com) you will never hear from either of us again or see any new reviews..
..You can check out your Google reviews as well. We added our reviews to Google as well so that people would be aware of the kind of attitude they would get from you if they had a complaint..
..You now have three 1 star ratings on Google+ and one on Trip Advisor..So I look forward to hearing from your lawyer once he has been able to locate us..
As mentioned to Free Spirit in my email, I wanted to post his original emails as a direct response to his continuous attempts to get a free handout. As a matter of fact, I see it as my obligation to expose these people. Now it's not up to me to judge him for how he's conducting Business but I surely wanna let everyone who will ever come across this guy, what I have experienced with this Free Spirit person, and have people see the hypocrisy with his Blackmail Agenda towards a small Hotel and what he's preaching on his Website. A self-proclaimed ‘Spiritual Master’, it’s not the first time apparently that his ’spiritual' focus seems to be the bashing of companies. On Youtube, Google+ and anywhere else online like his official website, where he dedicated blog entry to Power Places Tours, and comes to the conclusion that even Power Places Tours does not want to sue him because they know he’s telling the truth as he is a Spiritual Master, and a Spiritual Master is not permitted to lie. On another, very relieving note: According to his official website, Free Spirit went into LIFELONG SILENCE and completed his work as 'Spiritual Master’ on January 14th, 2015. Well, that is some great news, I thought. Unfortunately, he still kept bashing and expressing his harsh claims against other companies until the present day. He also started getting in touch with Hotel Management again to intimmidate them, as he must have realized he couldn't intimmidate me. I made him aware of his Blackmail statements over and over again, and that he has no case just because I call him mindless - so he would then try to harass Hotel Managemnt again, throwing around with Big Wards and Legal Consequences for 'libel' - which as previously mentioned is totally untrue. Google+ removed his false reviews about Hotel multiple times upon me reporting them, unfortunately he kept posting new ones twisting everything that is possible, trying to make me and the Hotel the villains. I then decided to upload a video to expose the guy - a video where I basically say the same as on here, reciting his own words. Of course he tried to intimidate with lagal consequences again, and I had to enlighten him that I'm just reading his words and that there's nothing illegal about it. Still, when Google+ remmoved his review I decided to take it down again, and reached out to him one more time to tell him that it's down - but also mentioning that if he would continue with his malicious behaviour I'd upload it again. Sure enough - a day later posts a new Google+ review, and claims that the video was removed 'under threat of legal redress' He then even has the balls to end his review with the words: I swear under oath that the above review is the truth and nothing but the truth.
This is my experience with Free Spirit. If anyone had similar experiences and the evidence in Emails - please step forward and report the guy.
Balance Hotel am Blauenwald Reviews
We have been guests of the Balance Hotel Badenweiler. One night during the course of our stay, we had a less than pleasing experience at dinner finding both the food and the service wanting. After complaining about this to the hotel owner, Maria Grüninger, in person, I was disappointed to be accused of lying by both Mrs. Grüninger and the waitress who had been in charge of our table. In Addition to this incident, we had found the very small room (with less than comfortable beds) we had been given not satisfactory for the considerable price we had been charged. So, I wrote a moderate 2star-review on google and later sent a very friendly email to Mrs Grüninger a few days later, not asking for a refund of the payment, but just explaining my point of view and reasons for having put the review.
Mrs. Grüninger replied in an extremely unfriendly note, calling me not only a liar, but "sick" for what I wrote and suggesting that I maliciously was attacking other people out of my own dissatisfaction and I had better clean up my own stuff.
(I have this email as well as all others from the side of Marc and Maria Grüninger as a proof for my allegations. Almost all of them use abusive language.) As well, we received a letter from the hotel's lawyer, threatening us with a lawsuit unless we paid 400 Euros to the hotel for alleged damages caused by my sharing of my experiences on some German hotel review sites. It said that if we would not pay the 400 Euros, we would have to pay over 5 000 as a result of some court order. The owners of the German hotel review sites were forced by the hotel to take my reviews down, as the hotel said that I was lying.
In addition to all that, my husband received insulting emails from Marc Grüninger, the son of Maria Grüninger, threatening him with a lawsuit as well. He also falsely accused me on facebook for having created a fake profile to put an additional review on the hotel's facebook page, using words like "BS". He then proceeded to upload a video on the hotel's facebook page as well as on youtube that contained massive defamation and harassment against myself and my husband, calling us "sick and twisted" (again, we have proof for that). Upon our request, he first took the video down, only to upload it secretly onto a different youtube channel, as well as onto several public German websites. He also wrote a ripoff-report about my husband, falsely accusing him of criminal extortion and blackmail!
After the video had been taken down the first time, my husband offered peace and suggested an olive branch arrangement, where Free Spirit would forgive all the abusive behaviour that had taken place in return for a 500 Euro refund which included a (very generous) charge for his time - given that he charges several hundred Euros an hour for private consultations for those that need help with their spiritual development.
That would have been the end of it - even if no payment would be received - had the video not been uploaded again and spread around as well as the ripoff-report created. As ripoff-reports are permanent, we would not have written one about the hotel at all.
This is an unusual report of a self-proclaimed 'Spiritual Master' that goes under the name 'Free Spirit'. They were guests at a Hotel in Southern Germany in 2012 ; a Hotel that is run by my family. Though the Hotel never claimed to have a 'vegan' restaurant they certainly always had vegan options. Free Spirit and his wife weren't satisfied with dinner. It happens. So Mangemnent gave them - as good will - a generous discount on their bill. To their surprise they would find reviews on an Online-Portal where they voiced their opinion, among other things false accustation about the Hotel staffs 'rudeness', which upon Hotel Management reached out to them via Email. They immediately asked for a 'mandatory refund' of for the entire stay ( mandatory? As if any person in the Hotel world who wasn't fully satisfied has the entitlement to just NOT PAY and get a 100% refund. Sure.) upon which there was a multiple email exchange where things were written from an emotional standpoint as well.
They were so persistant, that Hotel Management called their behaviour ill-mannered. There were continuos blackmailing attempts, with the guy Free Spirit threatening us with 'additions to his reviews' if there wouldn't be a refund made soon. Hotel Management only notified a lawyer, when things became even worse with Free Spirit not only blackmailing us for a refund, but making serious threats that could have them prosecuted by German law, including unfounded slandering of reputation and breach of domestic peace. All things he denies to this day but he keeps insisting about the Hotels 'abusive' emails when in fact they just voiced their opinion on his malicious behaviour and tacticts. Here's the an excerpt from the original email from Novemebr 2013 - I will also add a screenshot to it below:
..If it is not made by Monday and the apology issued, I will be visiting your hotel again next time I am on business - and will be very vocal. I will be happy to sit in your restaurant for as long as it takes you to apologise to my wife for being so argumentative and insulting - and for as long as it takes to refund the money. Also, if you continue to make problems for my wife - I am going to involve my lawyers and I will be making additions to my own reviews.It seems like you are in a Zugzwang position. It appears you have no choice but to conceed, apologize and reimburse to avoid a considerable 'trashing' of the hotels reputation.
I guess I have made myself very clear.
Free Spirit
Spiritual Author and International Speaker - Skype Mentor - Ascension Teacher - Merkabah Artist
2012 Meeting the Star Beings - Love on the Shores of a Distant World - Keys to Immortality
After that Hotel or I ( I took over communciations with Free Spirit after his malicious blackmail email) had not heard from them for 2 years nor from their 'lawyers' - up until January, 2015, when I spotted 2 new reviews on the Hotel's Facebook page. Since I still had his Info I reached out to him immediately, called him mindless and questioned his integrity. To this day he claims I threathened him with 'defamation' and 'libel' when in fact I only wrote he should think about taking down the reviews or else I would post his original balckmail emails online. His own words, which pretty much speak for themselves, even more so as he calls himself a Spiritual Teacher. I then received several laughable and delusional emails from Free Spirit where it really comes off as they are desperately trying to take their last chance to get their 'freebee' - which in their numbers is 500 Euros plus 'legal fees'. He even took the time the set up 'Olive Branch Agreement' with a straight link to his very official, very own PAYPAL account. He kept ignoring my words that he's wasting my and his time by sending me more blackmail emails about his additional reviews that he just made on Google + and Trip Advisor, desperately taking his last shoot trying to get his free hand out. He also kept mentioning that if we would wanna sue him ( without me even mentioning that) we would have to know about his whereabouts and that our lawyers would have to find him first. He also enlightened me about the UK law (?) in an attempt to dismiss his ways of blackmailing the Hotel - despite the fact that we're located in Germany..here's an excerpt from his recent emails:
..So I am handling the matter from here on for my wife. So if you want to sue us for telling the truth - good luck.
You would need to find where we are located for that to be successful. We do not live in Germany..
..Alternatively - you can refund my wife for the stay that she was not happy with, save yourself a lot of bad publicity and inconvenience and we will consider the matter sorted. Once we receive the refund plus our legal fees to date (500 euros that you can send to me by Paypal at (removed for privacy)@gmail.com) you will never hear from either of us again or see any new reviews..
..You can check out your Google reviews as well. We added our reviews to Google as well so that people would be aware of the kind of attitude they would get from you if they had a complaint..
..You now have three 1 star ratings on Google+ and one on Trip Advisor..So I look forward to hearing from your lawyer once he has been able to locate us..
As mentioned to Free Spirit in my email, I wanted to post his original emails as a direct response to his continuous attempts to get a free handout. As a matter of fact, I see it as my obligation to expose these people. Now it's not up to me to judge him for how he's conducting Business but I surely wanna let everyone who will ever come across this guy, what I have experienced with this Free Spirit person, and have people see the hypocrisy with his Blackmail Agenda towards a small Hotel and what he's preaching on his Website. A self-proclaimed ‘Spiritual Master’, it’s not the first time apparently that his ’spiritual' focus seems to be the bashing of companies. On Youtube, Google+ and anywhere else online like his official website, where he dedicated blog entry to Power Places Tours, and comes to the conclusion that even Power Places Tours does not want to sue him because they know he’s telling the truth as he is a Spiritual Master, and a Spiritual Master is not permitted to lie. On another, very relieving note: According to his official website, Free Spirit went into LIFELONG SILENCE and completed his work as 'Spiritual Master’ on January 14th, 2015. Well, that is some great news, I thought. Unfortunately, he still kept bashing and expressing his harsh claims against other companies until the present day. He also started getting in touch with Hotel Management again to intimmidate them, as he must have realized he couldn't intimmidate me. I made him aware of his Blackmail statements over and over again, and that he has no case just because I call him mindless - so he would then try to harass Hotel Managemnt again, throwing around with Big Wards and Legal Consequences for 'libel' - which as previously mentioned is totally untrue. Google+ removed his false reviews about Hotel multiple times upon me reporting them, unfortunately he kept posting new ones twisting everything that is possible, trying to make me and the Hotel the villains. I then decided to upload a video to expose the guy - a video where I basically say the same as on here, reciting his own words. Of course he tried to intimidate with lagal consequences again, and I had to enlighten him that I'm just reading his words and that there's nothing illegal about it. Still, when Google+ remmoved his review I decided to take it down again, and reached out to him one more time to tell him that it's down - but also mentioning that if he would continue with his malicious behaviour I'd upload it again. Sure enough - a day later posts a new Google+ review, and claims that the video was removed 'under threat of legal redress' He then even has the balls to end his review with the words: I swear under oath that the above review is the truth and nothing but the truth.
This is my experience with Free Spirit. If anyone had similar experiences and the evidence in Emails - please step forward and report the guy.