Covid 19 Omicron: Dunedin bar Woof! celebrates 'biggest week' of the year after keeping vaccine passes

The bar is still getting flooded with one-star reviews - but business is booming. Photo / Twitter/Dudley Benson

A Dunedin bar that has been getting flooded with fake one-star reviews online after it announced it would continue requiring customers to show vaccine passes is now celebrating its "biggest week" of the year.

Woof! bar co-owner Dudley Benson made headlines last week when he attempted to reach some of those who had left the one-star reviews, including a kiwifruit lab technician, a bank business intelligence manager and "two evangelical Christian brothers, builders from Whangārei".

Just a few days on, while the one-star reviews and homophobic abuse "continue to flow in", the bar has also experienced its biggest week in 2022.

Benson said on Twitter that Google is "removing those reviews every day or so" and thanked everyone for flagging them.

An update on our Vaccine Pass use over the last week at Woof!:
- one-star reviews & homophobic abuse have continued to flow in, now from all over the world
- Google is removing those reviews every day or so, thanks to our community flagging them
- We had our biggest week of 2022 pic.twitter.com/bKmi6LP4Nv

— Dudley Benson (@DudleyBenson) April 10, 2022

Benson said he had attempted to contact the people who left the fake reviews in an effort to hold them accountable.

After announcing that we would continue the use of the Vaccine Pass at our bar Woof! in Dunedin, we've been flooded by fake one-star reviews from all over NZ. So I decided to track these people down and phone them, or their workplaces, to hold them account. pic.twitter.com/UF6QW0iJVo

— Dudley Benson (@DudleyBenson) April 8, 2022

While Benson didn't manage to speak to all the "reviewers" in person, he said it "[felt] great to take some power back" by making contact.

"I'm fed up with randoms trying to sabotage what our team have worked so hard for, without any consequences," he tweeted. "PS Honestly, don't mess with a queer business please."

Woof! is one of the few hospitality businesses in Aotearoa that have chosen to continue requiring a vaccine pass as a condition of entry.