What's new

Yelp reviews

kelbro

Alfred Spatchcock
Had a very interesting conversation last night with a restaurant owner...

What's your ratio of good reviews to bad reviews on Yelp?

What triggers you to leave a review?
 
Not a Yelp fan. TripAdvisor seems to be more helpful.

Probably over 90% of my reviews are pretty positive. But I do not go to places with poor ratings.
 
I post pics and reviews on Google maps... Starting to almost everywhere I go. Even fast-food joints. Some are so good or so bad I feel others should know!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk
 

ouch

Stjynnkii membörd dummpsjterd
After conducting extensive research on the subject, Ouch International has concluded that there are only two types of Yelp reviews-

1) shills
2) grudges
 
A friend who at one time had some skin care stores told me that if you pay for ads on Yelp you can control negative reviews. Also, there are individuals who get paid to put reviews on Yelp.
 
After conducting extensive research on the subject, Ouch International has concluded that there are only two types of Yelp reviews-

1) shills
2) grudges

:lol: "Reviewers, come out to play-ayy." Never left a Yelp review. To me Yelp reviews are similar to Amazon reviews (and a lot of my posts) in the sense that they are sometimes less than helpful and/or should be taken with a 'grain of salt'... However, while traveling through unfamiliar lands, the places with overwhelmingly positive Yelp reviews have generally turned out to be pretty good restaurants. I'd be interested in hearing some of the owner's thoughts though KB.
 

mrlandpirate

Got lucky with dead badgers
I don't like reviews , I like adventures so I'll try a place if it's good I'll go back if not I don't
Kind of like hunting food in the modern day:001_rolle
 
Business owner here. Not food though. I never worried about Yelp until a customer called and asked why we went out of business. Apparently someone told Yelp we were closed down and they believed them. When I looked at Yelp it said we were closed down and there were negative reviews, which shocked me. I never could get Yelp to believe we were not shut down. I claimed our business and everything, then I started getting calls about advertising with them. I said no. Pretty soon we disappeared all together. I just looked and we are back with no reviews at all.

I did find out who said we were shut down. A direct competitor who is unstable on her good days. She told me she left the bad reviews and said we were closed down to stop customers from leaving her business and coming to ours. I just thanked her for the business.
 
Word of mouth, lots of friends exploring the local quickly expanding scene and like mentioned earlier, it's all an adventure. I'll check the menu on line and see if it looks interesting and decide from that and the prices whether i think it's worth checking out. I do read reviews in print media, same person doing the reviews all the time.
dave
 
Reviews on Yelp tend to be more polar love/hate reviews. TripAdvisor, since it's easier to post a review, tends to learn towards a more honest spread.
 

kelbro

Alfred Spatchcock
It's fun to hear who enters reviews and when. It's like the old story about people will tell 10 others about a bad experience and seldom tell anyone about good experiences.

I travel a lot and usually consult Yelp to look for places close by. I look at the stars but seldom read the reviews. It doesn't influence me much on where to go but I do not go to ones with many low ratings. I seldom leave a review unless it is exceptional at either end of the spectrum. Everyone has bad days.

The restaurant owner that I was speaking to described lots of interesting situations. People at a restaurant across the street writing them a bad review because his sign annoyed them. Bad reviews because they didn't like the free live entertainment (band). People complaining that their server did not serve them well after the owner noticed she was swamped and filled in for her. They entered their negative review while they were at the table! He asked them about it and they said that their server shouldn't have to need backup. Like it was her fault they seated a table of 12 in her section and they wanted separate checks! He 'offered' them to leave since they were so disappointed but they refused and stayed for their meal and seemed to enjoy it. But, he still had a bad Yelp review on his place.

Owners can respond to posts but cannot get them removed, even if they are false.
 
I am one of those who tends to only leave a review on yelp for either really bad service or exceptional service. Not really intentional but those are the only two times I really even think about yelp.
 

oc_in_fw

Fridays are Fishtastic!
As long as I get fairly decent service, if the food is good I give them a good review. If the food isn't good, I just don't leave one.
 
I am one of those who tends to only leave a review on yelp for either really bad service or exceptional service. Not really intentional but those are the only two times I really even think about yelp.

I am essentially with Dave on this one. I have never left a Yelp review, but I would tend toward making an effort if the experience was exceptionally noteworthy on either pole.
 
Most of mine are good but most restaurants and business I'm trying are ones I have carefully reviewed.

What triggers you to leave a review?
An experience to one extreme or the other. A "meh" experience tends to be forgettable. The exception might be businesses that have no reviews. I'll post one if I have an experience with the business and they have no reviews.

To me Yelp reviews are similar to Amazon reviews (and a lot of my posts) in the sense that they are sometimes less than helpful and/or should be taken with a 'grain of salt'...
With reviews in general I find the trends more useful than individual data points. Sometimes specific details in a given review can be useful but finding useful reviews requires a lot of reading between the lines to assess each individual review.
 
After conducting extensive research on the subject, Ouch International has concluded that there are only two types of Yelp reviews-

1) shills
2) grudges
my negative yelp reviews are definitely spawned by grudges. I'm not shilling for anyone though. The two worst were one where they charged us $200 extra because they ran my wife's card for an event someone else was having and then told us it was our server's fault when we called back. That's poor. The other was after placing an order 6 days in advance and showing up on the day of the event my order didn't exist. And there was nothing they could do for me. That kind of behavior gives me a grudge.
 
It's been said before here, but I'll repeat it. Generally when someone gives a review. It's negative, no one ever talks about the great experience they had, very rarely anyways.

The only time I've ever left a review (on google not Yelp) it was because at a restaurant we had a group of 11 and they added gratuity to each individual check rather than like 20% to the groups total.

For example:

My wife and I had two dinners $25, and $26 dollars She had one cocktail at $9, and our total after taxes and gratuity was $98

My grandma had a $13 salad/cup of soup with water and her bill was $32 after taxes and gratuity.

On top of that the service was awful (I assumed that's why they added gratuity)
 

ouch

Stjynnkii membörd dummpsjterd
I don't get it. How does a $13 soup come out to $32 after tax and tip unless there's a $15 charge for removing my shoe from the waiter's you know what.
 
Generally speaking, if a place can still manage an average of 4 stars with over 50 reviews in this cesspool we call the Internet, then they're usually going to be a pretty good place.

I do tend to skim through the reviews themselves, though. If you can't write a review with proper spelling and grammar, I don't care what you have to say. If your review is short enough to be sent as one or two tweets, I don't care what you have to say. Basically, if you can't be bothered to clearly justify your opinion with details to support in a way that doesn't offend my eyes, why should I trust your opinion?
 

ouch

Stjynnkii membörd dummpsjterd
Generally speaking, if a place can still manage an average of 4 stars with over 50 reviews in this cesspool we call the Internet, then they're usually going to be a pretty good place.

I do tend to skim through the reviews themselves, though. If you can't write a review with proper spelling and grammar, I don't care what you have to say. If your review is short enough to be sent as one or two tweets, I don't care what you have to say. Basically, if you can't be bothered to clearly justify your opinion with details to support in a way that doesn't offend my eyes, why should I trust your opinion?
This is, without question, one of the best posts I have ever read anywhere.
 
Top Bottom