Curious situation that I have heard some hoteliers remark about:
They believe social reviewers a tight knit group of people that suffer groupthink (IE “Yelp Elite”).
In this, a lot of time reviewers of their own travel networks, say Trip Advisor or someone using LA Times Travel site, are easily and confidently swayed by reviewers within their own network.
In an ideal web 2.0, user generated content such as this is *absolutely* meant to be informative, evaluative, and impacting. They are meant to create a community of honest and trustworthy sources: balanced, honest, real, truthful, and experienced.
As it should be if all reviews on all sites if the reviewers were professional. But… they are not. They are often fickle, misguided or simply wrong. Often spelling is of little concern, and a fair review (or pertinent) is further down the agenda.
These sights are far from objective. Look at Sf.Eater‘s ongoing efforts for ontological, anthropological discussion and documenation in their series called “Yelp Wanted“. It is hilarious really…
… until you get to us. The business owners and those involved with the business. Then it becomes sort of frustrating. Sort of depressing. Possibly maddening.
You have business owners suing reviewers, or simply lashing out. You have other ones trying to fight back and sue some of the sites. Merchants angry, or better yet, small innkeepers organizing trying to “convince tripadvisor”.
It is pretty incredible. It attests to the lobby like influence these user sites have.
So why are there no checks and balances? Why oh why isn’t there even a spell check?
Joking aside, there is no way to seek veracity for reviews on most of these sites. Expedia and Travelocity give the opportunity to review only *AFTER* the processed stay has occurred. Of course this was easy for them to do, as proof of stay already existed, and you didn’t have to come up with some arbitrary verification process.
But it is interesting how often (to bring this back to the first line), seemingly, someone will read a review prior to using a business, and will have a self fulfilling expectation, either good or bad, of what to expect.
For example… an important reviewer negatively comments on something, only to start a string of similar comments. There have been cases of yelp reviewers commenting on businesses they haven’t even used, simply because other reviewers had bad experiences. Or a better example might be when a Yelp Elite Party is held at a specific restaurant or event center. It is assured an endless string of glowing reviews will be lobbed towards the provider as a goodwill back scratch. When someone does not write a glowing review, there is a backlash.
(Actually, it seems that Yelp has removed that post because one of their staff continually provides bad PR. Here is another thread where he is duking it out with a non elite member. It sounds drunken, and sophomoric.)
So what’s the moral? Is there one or is this another silly ramble?
No… the moral of the story is that this is an ever involving dynamic between businesses and customers.
What I am starting to get disappointed in is that these sites that aim to be a boon to the consumer is simply making it more complex.
In a day and age where human contact is rare and far between, we are now finding ways to be unprofessional to one another in our business relationship without ever having seen each other.
So… take every review with a grain of salt, be as aware as possible, and do your best to be honest, transparent, excited, and real to reviewers.
However, the most proactive thing is to talk to your guests, and engage them on property while you have the chance. Whereas before you had the one special reviewer from the paper with his picture in the kitchen, every single guest has the potential of being an “amplified consumer” that will be a boon, or bust, for your property.
If they must groupthink, we may find it wise for it to be thunk in your favour.
I know I shouldn’t end with a made up word, but it’s time to play poker.
As someone who reviews hotels, I take great pride in doing a job well.
I am equally frustrated by the bogus reviews that you’ll find on group travel sites. I also know they come from both sides of the travel equation — the industry trying to pad its PR and public image and travelers who are just jumping on the bandwagon without having an actual experience.
It’s easy for each side to point at the other, but ultimately that does no good.
I think the solution lies in less reliance on group-think sites, and more reliances on indidvidual sites and writers, with whom readers can develop a trusting relationship.
Thanks for your comments. It is true… I am a yelper, and I see a large part of the reviewing, content generating part of the community tire of the sophomoric hijinks… and the less than professional or responsible reviewers.
your comments are really well received, and made me think! Thank you!