Table service

[tikistitch]

Lonely Planet rebuts 'fake' claim

Lonely Planet has insisted its travel books are accurate, after reports that one of its former writers claimed he had made up sections in its guides.

Author Thomas Kohnstamm said he had accepted free services, contravening company policy, and did not even visit one of the countries he wrote about.

Lonely Planet says it has reviewed the books that Mr Kohnstamm contributed to but has so far found no inaccuracies.

It also denied that the author's methods were common in travel writing.

"It isn't commonplace, because we have no evidence that the things that he alleges that he did working on the Brazil 5 guide... applied to other books," Stephen Palmer, the chief executive of Lonely Planet, told BBC News.

Mr Kohnstamm has been publicising his new book, Do Travel Writers Go To Hell? It tells how he travelled South America, selling drugs to supplement his income and enjoying casual sex, sometimes in the establishments he wrote about.

He says that after having sex with a waitress on a table after hours, he reviewed the restaurant with the words "the table service is friendly".

We use the Lonely Planet series (along with the Rough Guide series) extensively as we've traveled. Needless to say, we'll be seeing their recommendations in a new light from here on out....

Comments

[sarahpolk.livejournal.com]

The books from Moon Publishing are nice, also.