Used Trip Advisor for years now and tend to give reviews on places I visit. Had one establishment contact me about a mediocre review I gave (not at all bad, but it turned out to be average). They apologised for the bits and pieces that were sub-standard and offered a small refund in return for pulling my review. I declined. I wonder how many others take them up on the offer and thus boost their ratings? Does this happen often?

 

Too be fair, if they offered me £100 to pull a review, I'd take it. You'd assume they would also take on board the comments and try to make their place better anyway etc.

 

Can you edit your review later ? Once they refund you is there anything to "make" you remove your comments ?
Wonder if you changed your comments but mentioned the refund what they'd do !

 

As a pub owner, I pick and choose which I decide to read and which to just ignore.

For example we were recently given a 1 star review by someone who

failed to book a table for a "special visit"
Arrived 10 minutes after the end of food service
Wasted a 60 mile round trip to come.

And yet this is all the pubs fault.

We have opening times on Facebook, our website and on trip advisor..

So my business get slated for other to read because of one persons self incompatance...


You'll find it happens quite a lot, people paying for reviews.
I've seen posts on the "Cheshire performance review FB page" that unless they remove bad review of the company they will not pay out via court...
As if the court even allows this.

 

Id be well happy to take the money, **** that.

 

The right way to do this would be for the business to offer you a discount off your next visit, on the condition that you leave another review, which they will of course hope (but can't guarantee) will be much better than the last, because they've put the necessary work and effort in since you last went there. You could then also put a footnote in your original review saying "please see my more recent review, this establishment has considerably improved, bla, bla".

Going back and editing reviews when you've not actually witnessed any improvement in service yourself just turns the whole thing into a farce.

 

This ^^^

Otherwise, accepting blatant bribes is the equivalent of being complicit in those "You had an accident...And are owed £2750" scams. It screws the whole thing up for everyone.

 

I dont trust Trip Advisor reviews anymore, went to a all you can eat Indian restaurant last year for a mates birthday, seemed to have good reviews on trip advisor, anyway the food was terrible and the staff where really creepy, and I mean scary creepy that they would just stand next to your table and join in with your conversation and try to be funny, really odd behavior for a restaurant.

At the end of our meals he asked if we could write a review on Trip Advisor of our experience which to get rid of the waiter we agreed we would once we got home. But No he wanted us to do it there and then on our phones and so he can read the review we where submitting, out of the 14 people in our group, 9 of them write a review on there phone and he stood over there shoulders telling them what to write!!

That Indian restaurant was the worst place ive ever ate in, and he must do that to everyone who eats there, I wondered why the reviews where mostly good, but the ones that slipped through did mention there weird behavior of there staff!!!

 

Eminently sensible and above board. I just kept on thinking about the potential damage he could do to his own business if these payments ever got out.

 

Id have added 'this review was at the behest of the restaurant owners'

 

Or "...under duress." lol

 

The only problem I can see with this is that they will know who you are when you turn up & they could give you the 'special delux treatment' which may not be representative of their normal service.

 

That's easily enough dealt with. Book the table under John Smith, and only mention the promised discount when it's time to pay the bill.

 

Hi,
To be honest - the 9 people that wrote reviews at the table have got to be pretty dull.
I would never write a review whilst at a restaurant - what happens if you write a great review then spend next day sitting on the toilet, with food poisoning?
I would certainly not tolerate an over attentive waiter listening and joining in with our conversation.
It reminds me of a few shops around where we live - the staff literally follow you around. I always confront them and tell them that I will call them if I need them - if they still follow me I ask them whether they think I am going to steal something from the shop!
Cheers
Steve

 

How much did they offer?

 

£50 - they called it a 'goodwill payment' but on the condition that I retract the review, so it was nothing of the sort.