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A more savvy hotelier might have had some reservations about adopting this policy.

The owner of an upstate inn who threatened to impose a $500 fine for each negative online review saw the plan blow up in his face Monday when Page Six exposed the outrageous tactic.

Hundreds of scathing comments drove the rating of Hudson-based Union Street Guest House on review site Yelp down to a measly 1 star — with more than a thousand others removed for violating rules against “harassment,” “lewdness” and “defamatory” postings.

Some of the reviews were clearly attempts at humor, such as the 5-star rave from “Zane E.”

“The concierge has all the best escort services on speed dial. They had an amazing selection of videos. My favorite were the she-male and cuckold ones,” he wrote.

But most attacked the inn’s since-revoked written policy that warned anyone who booked the place for a wedding or other event that “there will be a $500 fine that will be deducted from your deposit for every negative review . . . placed on any Internet site by anyone in your party.”

“Rob S.” of San Luis Obispo, Calif., decried the inn’s “unethical business practices.” “My guess is that they claim that we owe them about $150,000 by now,” he wrote.

“Alex V.” of Los Angeles called the policy “the most despicable practice I have ever read about in the history of modern business.”

“Do we live in a Stalinist autocratic regime?” he added.

And “Nathan S.” of Seattle said of the backlash: “This is what happens when you think you are more intelligent than the Internet.

“Let this be a lesson to those of you who feel that prioritizing customer service is no longer a requirement. If you receive negative feedback, learn from it and move on,” he wrote.

A source at the Union Street Guest House insisted that the policy “was meant to be tongue-in-cheek,” but admitted that the attempt at humor had fallen flat.

“We like to have fun,” the source said. “We’re not trying to screw people over. We have five rooms. It was never meant to be some horrible rule.”

But one Yelp member contacted by The Post said he actually received two emails from the inn’s management threatening to impose the fine if he didn’t take down the 1-star review he posted last year.

Rabih Zahnan, 38, of Alexandria, Va., said he stayed at the inn for a friend’s wedding and was stuck in a room that was “musty and had a bit of mold smell.”

“The reaction that they sent just reinforced my 1-star review,” said Zahnan, who works in private equity.