I have never used Yelp before and it has never played any role in my life. Must be an North American thing
Yeah; I believe Yelp is more north America centric. I've heard trip advisor is common in Europe for restaurant reviews.
Everybody gets a star: Yelp's effect on restaurants and reviews
41–50 of 68 posts
Re: Everybody gets a star: Yelp's effect on restaurants and reviews
#42somehow tabelog seems pretty legit compared to yelp. maybe there are issues in the japanese bubbles idk about and cant participate in. but on a trip to japan following that site led me to some amazing meals. Some of these problems seems like the cause is because its hard to complain in person. I guess we all get labeled "karens" now for showing any kind of negative feedback in person, so we just suck it up and never…
> Some of these problems seems like the cause is because its hard to complain in person. I was recently in an airport in Japan looking to use the meal voucher I'd been given due to a delayed flight. What was available locally was a coffee shop with a very long line (well, not a long line, maybe ten feet, but keep reading), which operated like this: - The person at the head of the line would advance and speak to the c…
they let you do it to get rid of the asshole foreigner who doesn't know the local customs.
waiting your turn, period, is part of Japanese culture.
I get it can be frustrating. especially if your from the USA where increasingly no one waits their turn. Every day I see cars driving down the center lane to pass a few cars and then cutting back in.
Re: Everybody gets a star: Yelp's effect on restaurants and reviews
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Some of these problems seems like the cause is because its hard to complain in person. I was recently in an airport in Japan looking to use the meal voucher I'd been given due to a delayed flight. What was available locally was a coffee shop with a very long line (well, not a long line, maybe ten feet, but keep reading), which operated like this: - The person at the head of the line would advance and speak to the c…
Might that situation (very long wait for service, seemingly-idle employees) be partly explained (or at least rationalized) as a sort of social ritual, to make the establishment seem high-class, or the patrons wealthy leisure-seekers? I've seen similar situations in a number of American coffee shops and fancy sandwich shops. Workers can easily outnumber the waiting customers. The spare ones usually appear busy - with…
> Might that situation (very long wait for service, seemingly-idle employees) be partly explained (or at least rationalized) as a sort of social ritual, to make the establishment seem high-class, or the patrons wealthy leisure-seekers?
Well, it's a kiosk with no seating inside an airport. Presumably, there are no regulars either.
Re: Everybody gets a star: Yelp's effect on restaurants and reviews
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would disagree that the issue in Yelp and Google is that folks skewed to the right in their ratings - my experience has been that if a restaurant has 4.5+, it’s a safe bet. There’s literally no more information you can glean from google. Perhaps the number of votes but even that is not absolute. You have to depend on other sources for any more indication that it’s a good place. My go to source is Reddit. If I go to…
My point is we're different types of users, or our expectations are different. "A safe bet" is not 4.5 stars to me, it's 3 stars because average restaurants should be safe bets. I believe anything 4.5+ should be home runs because I'm putting faith in the score of the restaurant actually having more meaningful information embedded in it. Unfortunately this is not the case because American sites think anything 3.5 and…
[deleted]
Re: Everybody gets a star: Yelp's effect on restaurants and reviews
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm also impressed with tabelog. Japanese reviewers seem to understand that 3 is an average meal, and anything higher should be above average. I wonder how tipping culture of the western world impacts star averages. Americans tip on just about everything. Do we inflate our star rating because it's in our mindset to 'be nice'? Whereas Japanese are courteous on the outside, but uphold strict scrutiny on the inside. So…
I think many Americans rate 5 stars if the business met all their expectations and then remove a star for each unsatisfactory experience. Reviews look something like “4 stars: I removed a star because...”
I give 5 stars when I love something and 1 star when I hate something. Like an up or downvote.
Re: Everybody gets a star: Yelp's effect on restaurants and reviews
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yelp ratings are basically useless, except for egregious things like cockroaches found running around. The worst part about the site and Google is that they paginate restaurants in a local map view by rating. It would be better to see everything all at once for certain views. But restaurants that delist themselves for whatever reason from the review sites, also delist themselves from me ever going to them. I'm never…
Most excellent restaurants where I live would never post pictures of their food anywhere and have no web presence at all. In many you can’t even reserve a table - you go there and eat. Those who need a lot of web presence / pictures etc are usually not great (good but not great). If you see lots of people in a place and it’s crowded it’s probably good.
What area do you live where this is true? Michelin places may prevent customers from taking pictures, in my experience only the overrated ones do this, but they have their presence with information on the Michelin site.
In Tokyo, everywhere but the smallest stand, and often times even them, had reviews on Tabelog. In my smaller East Coast city, every restaurant I've seen within walking distance of my apartment has reviews and their menu online.
Places famous before the internet may get away with forcing their customers to pay in cash and no SEO, but places that completely delete themselves from the web are hiding something. They will also just never come up in a discussion about where to eat because they don't show up online.
Re: Everybody gets a star: Yelp's effect on restaurants and reviews
#47I guess I’m in the minority, but I can’t remember the last time I used Yelp to find restaurants. It’s been obvious for years (it feels like at least 10, maybe more) that they can’t be trusted. I’m actually surprised they still get enough traffic to be sustainable.
If I open Apple Maps and look for restaurants around me, tapping on one displays partial pics and reviews from Yelp. Tapping on those to read more will request I install the Yelp app. I would guess this integration is at least a contributing factor.
Re: Everybody gets a star: Yelp's effect on restaurants and reviews
#48The reviewer that removed star ratings in their reviews is onto something.
The most "real" reviews for restaurants right now is from city subreddits, of all places. Many of these suggestions are from people who live in the city instead of tourists who don't typically eat out (and have unrealistic expectations) or chronic reviewers who must be seen (I was one of them).
Adding stars or grades opens the door for gamification and petty tyrants who want to see businesses burn.
Re: Everybody gets a star: Yelp's effect on restaurants and reviews
#49I know its popular to rag on Yelp in tech circles, but Yelp is still immensely popular amongst everyone else.
It's the same reason that Meta is still raking in billions a year despite nobody in the tech community using it.
Re: Everybody gets a star: Yelp's effect on restaurants and reviews
#50somehow tabelog seems pretty legit compared to yelp. maybe there are issues in the japanese bubbles idk about and cant participate in. but on a trip to japan following that site led me to some amazing meals. Some of these problems seems like the cause is because its hard to complain in person. I guess we all get labeled "karens" now for showing any kind of negative feedback in person, so we just suck it up and never…
> Some of these problems seems like the cause is because its hard to complain in person. I was recently in an airport in Japan looking to use the meal voucher I'd been given due to a delayed flight. What was available locally was a coffee shop with a very long line (well, not a long line, maybe ten feet, but keep reading), which operated like this: - The person at the head of the line would advance and speak to the c…
I think the interesting thing about this post is the sense of entitlement.
Why does a businesses operating in a way you dislike entitle you to yell at them and break their rules?
Maybe the cause is conflating not getting your way with active harm. Refusing to serve you would be neutral, stealing from you would be harm.