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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

#31

Post by exhilaration »

ryandrake wrote: post #20

Honestly, I can't believe it is 2024 and people still believe/trust user-generated reviews of any sort. Isn't it widely known that these are always gamed, manipulated, algorithmically distorted and just totally unsuitable for making any kind of judgment about a product? I'm shocked that people and companies still pay attention to these streams of garbage.

I partially disagree. Just as an example, the 1-4 star reviews on Amazon are usually spot-on. It's always worth spending a minute or two to skim through those, starting with the lowest ratings first, while ignoring the 5 star reviews.

Re: She Gave a Hotel a Mediocre Review. Then Came the Badgering

#32

Post by lsy »

Ultimately a professional reviewer wouldn't be so easily swayed by this kind of sleazy behavior, but this is the price for having a stack of "reviews" for every gin joint in every town in the world, all written by Joe Public. Ultimately I think the old system was better: for most restaurants or trips, the "cost" of finding out whether you personally like a place is relatively small, and for bigger outlays we had the Michelin guide, Zagat, or what have you.

Re: She Gave a Hotel a Mediocre Review. Then Came the Badgering

#33

Post by gnicholas »

smashed wrote: post #12
gnicholas wrote: post #4

I'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…

That is also why Airbnb as a company is doing Ok, but not great. In other words, a terrible investment.

They were doing much better before their cost advantaged disappeared when they had to pay local taxes, and before current interest rates whacked hosts.

Re: She Gave a Hotel a Mediocre Review. Then Came the Badgering

#35

Post by nroets »

Airbnb also puts pressure on guests not to leave bad reviews: If you try to leave a 3 star review they ask you to explain using their criteria. And noise and lack of space aren't on that list. And they say they'll tell the host what to work on, as if paying full price for discomfort is acceptable.

Most of the time, I just leave 4 star reviews for places I didn't like and then mention all my hassles in my public comment.

Booking is much better: They ask you what you didn't like.

(I've used both Airbnb and Booking over 50 times over the last 6 years)

Re: She Gave a Hotel a Mediocre Review. Then Came the Badgering

#36

Post by nomilk »

6DM wrote: post #19
iammer wrote: post #7

Amazon 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 reali…

Your comment made me go lookup my old reviews. It's crazy, most of them were deleted. I would have expected to receive some kind of notification. I thought I could sift through the rubble to discern fake from real but now I know Amazon reviews are absolutely worthless.

Wonder if we could make a browser extension that stores and presents amazon reviews.

Could be useful to fill gaps on other sites too, for example when an uploader turns off comments on youtube.

It would be a pretty big middle finger to amazon if the primary site for amazon seller reviews was not actually amazon, but a third party site/app.

Re: She Gave a Hotel a Mediocre Review. Then Came the Badgering

#38

Post by ryukoposting »

SoftTalker wrote: post #17

I don't review anything. It's not worth even 10 seconds of my time. It's all fake anyway.

I disagree. The best way to counter a wall of fake reviews is one thorough, real review. Add a few photos, if you can.

I review every hotel I stay at. From time to time, I switch on a VPN, go into private browsing, and get a bit of joy when I see that my 500+ word Google reviews are the first thing people see.

Re: She Gave a Hotel a Mediocre Review. Then Came the Badgering

#39

Post by nomilk »

nroets wrote: post #35

Airbnb also puts pressure on guests not to leave bad reviews: If you try to leave a 3 star review they ask you to explain using their criteria. And noise and lack of space aren't on that list. And they say they'll tell the host what to work on, as if paying full price for discomfort is acceptable. Most of the time, I just leave 4 star reviews for places I didn't like and then mention all my hassles in my public comme…

Airbnb also occasionally removes bad reviews at the host's request.

Same thing probably happens on other platforms. Example: Sometimes restaurant ratings on Uber Eats are a full 1 star above what they are on google.

Re: She Gave a Hotel a Mediocre Review. Then Came the Badgering

#40

Post by kstrauser »

lakpan wrote: post #24
irishloop wrote: post #14

I once gave an Airbnb 4 stars because I was annoyed they had no way to make coffee, even though it was basically a hotel being run as an Airbnb. Like, not even a cheap Keurig in the lobby They DMed me and told me that was bullshit and if I wanted coffee, I should've filtered by that amenity Which is amazing because coffee is so expected you can't even search by it

I mean… they’re not 100% wrong.

Nah, they're 100% wrong. Maybe a coffee maker isn't as fundamental as, say, a stove or refrigerator, but I'd be unhappily surprised if the place I booked didn't have one. To my recollection, I've never been somewhere without coffee. It wouldn't occur to me to filter for such a thing. Should I also be looking for places that have pillows?

I do see what you're saying, but that's an expected basic amenity.

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