She Gave a Hotel a Mediocre Review. Then Came the Badgering
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Re: She Gave a Hotel a Mediocre Review. Then Came the Badgering
#2Re: She Gave a Hotel a Mediocre Review. Then Came the Badgering
#3I'm currently planning a trip to India. I've been to several countries around the world and never worried about reviews too much, but India really seems to align with this story. I'll see hotels with countless 5 star reviews (hundreds or even thousands!) that are overwhelmingly positive and get ready to book. But with one hotel my BS meter got triggered, since it was in a rather dingy seeming part of town but still had thousands of great reviews, the pictures were gorgeous, and it was fairly cheap. Also, the reviews were all written in the same voice. "The owner is a very good sir top number one" style.
The low reviews had pictures of holes in the walls, bugs, exposed wires, and dozens of comments of people saying "I don't remember posting it, but this hotel posted a 10/10 review under my name. I think they hacked my account" or "the owner forced me to write a positive review before checking in" kind of stuff.
Since then, I've gone back and given a second look at all the hotels I've reserved so far and order reviews by negative first. So many are just fake or coerced reviews. I compared against places I've stayed in the past and I've seen no such thing. Delhi, in particular, seems overwhelmingly fraudulent and with owners openly getting pissed if you don't leave positive reviews. Small towns in India seem like they're probably okay (guests posting smiling selfies around the hotel and nothing overtly suspicious or anything), but I'm definitely feeling anxious about my upcoming trip.
Then there's the famous case where Thailand tried to arrest a man for a not positive review: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/29/american-wesle...
Re: She Gave a Hotel a Mediocre Review. Then Came the Badgering
#4I've heard from establishments after leaving reviews on several occasions. Typically they will either offer a free meal or a refund of the unsuccessful meal. I will update a review to let people know that I was taken care of, but I haven't ever taken down a review. I would consider doing so if my experience had been one-off, and I understood that it would not happen again (e.g., if an employee acted terribly and was no longer working there).
One frustrating incident I had was when I stayed in an airbnb and found cockroaches, lack of hot water, and general filthiness. I wasn't able to leave a review because airbnb moved me to another unit (after many hours spent on the phone), and my account showed I had never stayed in the problematic unit. I can see why hosts would like a policy like this, but it's terrible for guests.
Re: She Gave a Hotel a Mediocre Review. Then Came the Badgering
#5I'm currently planning a trip to India. I've been to several countries around the world and never worried about reviews too much, but India really seems to align with this story. I'll see hotels with countless 5 star reviews (hundreds or even thousands!) that are overwhelmingly positive and get ready to book. But with one hotel my BS meter got triggered, since it was in a rather dingy seeming part of town but still h…
> Since then, I've gone back and given a second look at all the hotels I've reserved so far and order reviews by negative first. So many are just fake or coerced reviews.
Of course, there's also a risk of fake negative reviews, from competitors.
Re: She Gave a Hotel a Mediocre Review. Then Came the Badgering
#6I'm currently planning a trip to India. I've been to several countries around the world and never worried about reviews too much, but India really seems to align with this story. I'll see hotels with countless 5 star reviews (hundreds or even thousands!) that are overwhelmingly positive and get ready to book. But with one hotel my BS meter got triggered, since it was in a rather dingy seeming part of town but still h…
> Since then, I've gone back and given a second look at all the hotels I've reserved so far and order reviews by negative first. So many are just fake or coerced reviews. Of course, there's also a risk of fake negative reviews, from competitors.
That's something I've definitely worried about and seen some people mention in reviews around India. I mostly try to identify the voice of the comment writer. If they're from America but talking in odd English with a 10/10 review, I doubt it's real. Same if it's 1/10 from America and written with strange grammar.
Re: She Gave a Hotel a Mediocre Review. Then Came the Badgering
#7Amazon seems to encourage this. I ordered a pair of cheap wireless headphones that were highly rated. I get them and they are crap. But, included in the package is a flyer offering an Amazon gift card for more than I paid for the headphones if I gave a 5-star review. My integrity is worth way more to me that that. So I leave a one-star review with a picture of the flyer, hopefully someone else will see that and realize the reviews are fake. Amazon rejected my review because it didn't meet their guidelines since it mentioned "Reviews given in exchange for cash, discounts."
Re: She Gave a Hotel a Mediocre Review. Then Came the Badgering
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Since then, I've gone back and given a second look at all the hotels I've reserved so far and order reviews by negative first. So many are just fake or coerced reviews. Of course, there's also a risk of fake negative reviews, from competitors.
That's something I've definitely worried about and seen some people mention in reviews around India. I mostly try to identify the voice of the comment writer. If they're from America but talking in odd English with a 10/10 review, I doubt it's real. Same if it's 1/10 from America and written with strange grammar.
Sadly, generative AI will probably render this clever heuristic ineffective (at least at savvier establishments).
Re: She Gave a Hotel a Mediocre Review. Then Came the Badgering
#9Ratings should always be on a curve for the rater, and on a 10 point scale, with no official meaning attached to the number of stars. If you rate everything 10 stars, you just gave everything 5 stars. If you want your 10 stars to mean 10 stars, you need to rate a bell curve of other stuff too.
(you might say "but if I only select the best places, and the ratings are always confirmed, that would be downvoting them." No, it wouldn't, that's exactly the type of situation that Gaussians know how to handle. Whatever is the average rating and whatever is the excellent rating will emerge from the collective.)
if you wish to attack my plan, I'll only listen if you offer a defense of the status quo, or offer a better improvement plan.
Re: She Gave a Hotel a Mediocre Review. Then Came the Badgering
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's something I've definitely worried about and seen some people mention in reviews around India. I mostly try to identify the voice of the comment writer. If they're from America but talking in odd English with a 10/10 review, I doubt it's real. Same if it's 1/10 from America and written with strange grammar.
Sadly, generative AI will probably render this clever heuristic ineffective (at least at savvier establishments).
Just look for the review to summarize what it said at the end