An Indiana hotel charged one of their guests $350 and threatened to take legal action after she posted a negative review about the facility.

Katrina Arthur and her husband, stayed at the Abbey Inn & Suites in Brown County, Indiana, in March 2016. They chose the particular hotel because they wanted some "alone time," but ended up having a nightmarish experience.

"It was a nightmare," Arthur said, ABC affiliated Eyewitness News reported. "The room was unkempt, and it looked like it hadn't been cleaned since the last people stayed there. We checked the sheets and I found hairs and dirt."

In addition, they discovered that there was no water pressure and the air conditional was out of order. The room, she said, smelt like sewage and was left to Arthur to clean up.

"We didn't see anybody we could talk with, so I decided to call the number that goes to the front desk and it automatically went to a lawyer's or something weird like that," said Arthur. "I actually had to clean the room myself."

After their stay, they were sent an email from the owners asking them to post a review online. "I was honest," said Arthur. "I wanted people to know not to waste their money because I know people save their money for special occasions."

That is when Arthur was charged $350, which she ended up paying in addition to being forced to retract her negative review. "I feel like they were punishing me for being truthful and I don't think that's fair," said Arthur. "I was very angry they had done that."

Arthur took the matter to the Indiana Attorney General’s office, who filed a lawsuit on Dec. 15 against Abbey Management, which owned and operated the Inn.

It was then revealed that the Inn had a policy which essentially gave the company the right to penalize guests who left negative reviews about the facility.

"Guests agree that if guests find any problems with our accommodations, and fail to provide us the opportunity to address those problems while the guest is with us, and/or refuses our exclusive remedy, but then disparages us in any public manner, we will be entitled to charge their credit card an additional $350 damage," the policy read, according to the lawsuit.

The policy, which neither Arthur nor any of the other guests who stayed at the facility were privy to, went to state that any guests refusing to take back negative comments will be entitled to legal action.

The lawsuit claimed that Abbey Inn & Suites had no right to draw up such a policy because reviews are protected under free speech, something that customers cannot be penalized for. The lawsuit added that the facility intended to use the reviews as a sales tool.

Mike Blumenthal at GetFiveStars.com, a platform that helps companies gather customer feedback said: "The ability for a consumer to say what they want about a business via an online review is largely protected at both the state and federal level. This question has long been settled and it is amazing to me that any business in this day and age would think that they could constrain a consumer in such a way."

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