Are yelp and citysearch trustworthy?

penniesfromheaven

i have gotten some great recommendations so far on the board. my dilemma is for some of the more specific things, one of you might chime in and say you hired someone but haven't worked with them, and then there are no other follow ups on the topic. so then i go to city search and yelp. there seem to be a ton of brides who write reviews for the reception halls, and makeup artists. those sites seem to be more for restaurant critiques but i was able to find out some feedback on a string quartet as an example. do you guys think those sites are useful or is it a safer bet to rely on "knottie advice"

jess&lane52804

I generally like yelp. I also like weddingwire for vendor reviews.

brideinfall08

i LOVE yelp...i think it's very trustworthy...alot of knotties actaully make lists of vendor reviews on yelp

lizbride0609

i love wedding wire and yelp. i go to a lot of the yelp parties which is completely NWR and i use it for everything and i have lists on there that i made from asian noodle bars to the stuff i used for wedding i dont know if this will work yelp.com/list/wedding-crap-chicago

romagrrl

I'm a 4 year yelp elite member. Love it. I stopped using citysearch after they took down a review because the salon was a paid advertiser. Yelp does no such thing. Two others that I used -- projectwedding.com weddingwire.com

bridetwobee2003

YELP addict!

mbuhpathi

i have used wedding wire for so much of my research. i think yelp is involved in a slew of lawsuits, but i still use them from time to time.

romagrrl

Another awesome thing about yelp and WW is that you can see how many reviews that the reviewer has written. So, if I see a 1 star review and that is the only review the person has written, I think "they really hate this place enough to go out of their way to write the review." If I see a 5 star review and that is the only review the person has written, I think hmmmm, suspicious. NWR, but if you find that the same person is giving 5 stars to places you love and 1 stars to places that you hate, then you can become their friend. On yelp, I have an identical twin. We always rate places the same. It's bizarre yet cool at the same time. Obsessed yelper, as you can tell. OK, time to stop yelping about yelp.

rhorowitz

i use the knot and yelp equally. i am on the elite too. i am actually not a "nest" regular though.

tonyandstef

Yelp is typically reliable.  You can tell when they're fake reviews.  If there's someone that reviews a lot and they have a review on their, It's usually reliable.  I usually look there and elsewhere too, to get a more rounded idea...I used to be crazy on there all the time, but now the wedding planning is taking over my free time. 

dbroan

LOL! I have not posted here in a while. Time to stop yelping about yelp...funny and cheese filled. I recently helped my cousin do research for her wedding. She booked with a couple vendors I used because she liked them as well. We looked on a few sites for vendors and it seems like the reviews are questionable. Some mentioned here. I wonder if they are paid ads.   

romagrrl

droan -- Paid advertising never takes the form of a review. It's usually in a section between the contact information and a review.

JayandStephanie

Yelp is COMPLETELY unreliable. If you do the research you will find that they have multiply law suits filed for extorting business by pulling down the good reviews and posting bogus bad reviews. They then approach the business to advertise with them in exchange for deleting the bad reviews. Use wedding wire or onewed.

romagrrl

JayandStephanie, Not exactly true...check it out here. http://officialblog.yelp.com/2009/01/index.html

Maria and Sam

Hi, I also love Yelp and also am an Elite member, and believe the reviews are honest and fair, straight from those who actually use whatever it is you're looking at (restaurant, spa, company, etc.).