If your guests leave a bad review, you get a $500 fine

Simply Fated · August 2014

lyndausvi said:

The policy was stupid and I can't even see how it would have been enforceable.

Never respond to review can call people liars and such. Bad business move.

I think it's awful how many people wrote fake bad reviews over this. 2 wrongs not make a right. As far as I'm concerned it bullying at it's finest. I have no problems with the comments on here, Yahoo, DailyMail, whatever on the subject. I draw the line at making fake reviews on Yelp to lower someone's star rating.

I hate Yelp (the company). They might as well be extortionist as far as I'm concerned. One of the places DH use to work they would "ask" for a free cocktail receptions a few times a year for the bloggers. If you refuse your negative reviews would go up. If you said yes they "suggested" certain items, you know so these bloggers will go and give you good reviews.

They would also make it known when they made a reservation that they are a yelp reviewer. Meaning give me all this free shit or I will rip you online.

They call my work 3 times a week. Telling us that if we pay "x" it will help our positive rating. So what they are saying is, give us money and you will look better on your reviews.

I know there are real reviewers out there, but honestly it would be hard to determine which are real, which are fake, which is a result of getting or not getting free shit.

I honestly do not go on the site anymore.

I had a similar problem with a job I worked at for awhile. When I started, part of the training involved how to deal with someone who would, in a sense, try to blackmail me (and the company) with a potentially bad online review.
I've since then gone online and read some of the reviews for that company and I saw some of the customers lying or just writing a review with misinformation.

As much as I like the idea of yelp, it has become more hurtful than helpful for a lot of companies, stores, and even workers.

Cookie Pusher · August 2014

I've been a Yelp Elite for a few years now, and honestly can't ever imagine writing fake reviews or writing my reviews based on free things I got. I know there are some who do, but it just boggles my mind how petty and dishonest reviewers can be. My reviews have all been fair, honest, and not based on coersion or freebies.

StitelME · August 2014

Cookie Pusher said:

I've been a Yelp Elite for a few years now, and honestly can't ever imagine writing fake reviews or writing my reviews based on free things I got. I know there are some who do, but it just boggles my mind how petty and dishonest reviewers can be. My reviews have all been fair, honest, and not based on coersion or freebies.

You are a good egg then. Though honestly, as a consumer, I've been having the issue where I'm seeing a lot of business reviews that read as if they were posted by the business itself - which makes me leery of accepting any of the reviews as truth. It's tricky to figure it out.

NYCMercedes · August 2014

Buh bye. Off to Yelp now.

lyndausvi · August 2014

Simply Fated said:

lyndausvi said:

The policy was stupid and I can't even see how it would have been enforceable.

Never respond to review can call people liars and such. Bad business move.

I think it's awful how many people wrote fake bad reviews over this. 2 wrongs not make a right. As far as I'm concerned it bullying at it's finest. I have no problems with the comments on here, Yahoo, DailyMail, whatever on the subject. I draw the line at making fake reviews on Yelp to lower someone's star rating.

I hate Yelp (the company). They might as well be extortionist as far as I'm concerned. One of the places DH use to work they would "ask" for a free cocktail receptions a few times a year for the bloggers. If you refuse your negative reviews would go up. If you said yes they "suggested" certain items, you know so these bloggers will go and give you good reviews.

They would also make it known when they made a reservation that they are a yelp reviewer. Meaning give me all this free shit or I will rip you online.

They call my work 3 times a week. Telling us that if we pay "x" it will help our positive rating. So what they are saying is, give us money and you will look better on your reviews.

I know there are real reviewers out there, but honestly it would be hard to determine which are real, which are fake, which is a result of getting or not getting free shit.

I honestly do not go on the site anymore.

I had a similar problem with a job I worked at for awhile. When I started, part of the training involved how to deal with someone who would, in a sense, try to blackmail me (and the company) with a potentially bad online review.
I've since then gone online and read some of the reviews for that company and I saw some of the customers lying or just writing a review with misinformation.

As much as I like the idea of yelp, it has become more hurtful than helpful for a lot of companies, stores, and even workers.

Yep. I would read reviews on the boat I worked on. You would get a review that said "DO NOT GO ON THAT BOAT Such a rip off. They change $125 per person for a 45 min sunset sail and you do not get anything".

Umm, no our sunset sail was $75. it was an hour and a half and it came with a full top shelf open bar and tons of hors d'oeuvres.

It use to make me so mad, but there is nothing you can do about them.

Just like their are trolls on here, there are trolls making up bad reviews.

ETA - or overly good reviews.

mysticl · August 2014

lyndausvi said:

Simply Fated said:

lyndausvi said:

The policy was stupid and I can't even see how it would have been enforceable.

Never respond to review can call people liars and such. Bad business move.

I think it's awful how many people wrote fake bad reviews over this. 2 wrongs not make a right. As far as I'm concerned it bullying at it's finest. I have no problems with the comments on here, Yahoo, DailyMail, whatever on the subject. I draw the line at making fake reviews on Yelp to lower someone's star rating.

I hate Yelp (the company). They might as well be extortionist as far as I'm concerned. One of the places DH use to work they would "ask" for a free cocktail receptions a few times a year for the bloggers. If you refuse your negative reviews would go up. If you said yes they "suggested" certain items, you know so these bloggers will go and give you good reviews.

They would also make it known when they made a reservation that they are a yelp reviewer. Meaning give me all this free shit or I will rip you online.

They call my work 3 times a week. Telling us that if we pay "x" it will help our positive rating. So what they are saying is, give us money and you will look better on your reviews.

I know there are real reviewers out there, but honestly it would be hard to determine which are real, which are fake, which is a result of getting or not getting free shit.

I honestly do not go on the site anymore.

I had a similar problem with a job I worked at for awhile. When I started, part of the training involved how to deal with someone who would, in a sense, try to blackmail me (and the company) with a potentially bad online review.
I've since then gone online and read some of the reviews for that company and I saw some of the customers lying or just writing a review with misinformation.

As much as I like the idea of yelp, it has become more hurtful than helpful for a lot of companies, stores, and even workers.

Yep. I would read reviews on the boat I worked on. You would get a review that said "DO NOT GO ON THAT BOAT Such a rip off. They change $125 per person for a 45 min sunset sail and you do not get anything".

Umm, no our sunset sail was $75. it was an hour and a half and it came with a full top shelf open bar and tons of hors d'oeuvres.

It use to make me so mad, but there is nothing you can do about them.

Just like their are trolls on here, there are trolls making up bad reviews.

ETA - or overly good reviews.

I always take negative reviews with a grain of salt. When people are upset they tend to exaggerate. And I've seen some negative reviews that are purely subjective. We stayed at one place where the biggest negative was their wifi sucked and some people said that would keep them from staying there again. I get it's an issue if you are staying there on business and need to work but we were going on a family vacation, I didn't care about the wifi.

lyndausvi · August 2014

I do not look at Yelp, but other reviews I also take with a grain of salt. I also find some the complaints to be hilarious. It's pretty funny what people get worked up over.

hikebikebemerry · August 2014

FiancB said:

A far better idea is an incentive for good reviews. For example, my photographer gives a discount on prints/albums if you leave them good reviews.

But there is no way in HELL I would ever book this place. Holy crap. I hope this puts them out of business. I would never be okay with a clause either. How about do a good job and then most of your reviews will be great? Plus the guest thing is crazy- if crazy auntie Elma doesn't like the drapes or some shit, that isn't the bride and groom's fault.

*Stuck in the box*

The bolded is totally not cool with me. A lot of people would be more than happy to fluff a review if it meant a discount. This would really bother me if a vendor did it.

thisismynickname2 · August 2014

I'm an occasional Yelper and I'm always honest and attempt to be fair. This one time my post-Yelp experience just blew me away:

I went to a fine dining establishment during Restaurant Week and while the food, atmosphere and service were all excellent, they legitimately screwed up their RW pricing. I politely stated as such in my review and compared the RW offerings to other places of the same caliber in the area.

The owner responded to my review privately to request my information and apologized for the issue. They offered me a coupon. Lo and behold they sent me a certificate for fifty bucks. The place truly was great so FI and I happily went back with the certificate in hand.

The place is super expensive so we haven't been back, but I do still speak highly of it.

To the original topic, I can't believe any business would have the balls to do a non-disparagement clause. That's just like broadcasting, "We're NOT perfect in the services we offer and already know you'll trash us if we don't try to ban you from trashing us." What the fuck, seriously?

levioosa · August 2014

hikebikebemerry said: FiancB said:

A far better idea is an incentive for good reviews. For example, my photographer gives a discount on prints/albums if you leave them good reviews.
But there is no way in HELL I would ever book this place. Holy crap. I hope this puts them out of business. I would never be okay with a clause either. How about do a good job and then most of your reviews will be great? Plus the guest thing is crazy- if crazy auntie Elma doesn't like the drapes or some shit, that isn't the bride and groom's fault.
*Stuck in the box*
The bolded is totally not cool with me. A lot of people would be more than happy to fluff a review if it meant a discount. This would really bother me if a vendor did it.

ETA: Because TK formatting sucks.

When I bought my car the salesperson told me I couldn't leave a bad review about my experience because it would negatively impact her. I didn't like it the first time she suggested it, but she was pretty pushy and mentioned it about eight more times which made me very uncomfortable and honestly made me want to leave a negative review for that alone. She kept saying "It has to be a full ten stars, nothing less. They don't like it and we can't have less than ten stars." I wanted to tell her she was loosing a star every time she bugged me about it, but instead I just kept quiet and left with my car. She also then emailed me a few days later asking to rate high.

I do like to Yelp, and I like to read reviews. I always give honest reviews and post Pros and Cons about places. Very rarely is a place ALL cons (although I have had one or two and man were they doozies). I also take reviews with a grain of salt. We were trying to find a place to rent a kayak over the weekend, and one lady commented that she couldn't believe the terrible service and the nerve of the staff to rent her a kayak, but not help her take it to the lake and push her off from the shore. Um...really?

huskypuppy14 · August 2014

lyndausvi said:

The policy was stupid and I can't even see how it would have been enforceable.

Never respond to review can call people liars and such. Bad business move.

I think it's awful how many people wrote fake bad reviews over this. 2 wrongs not make a right. As far as I'm concerned it bullying at it's finest. I have no problems with the comments on here, Yahoo, DailyMail, whatever on the subject. I draw the line at making fake reviews on Yelp to lower someone's star rating.

I hate Yelp (the company). They might as well be extortionist as far as I'm concerned. One of the places DH use to work they would "ask" for a free cocktail receptions a few times a year for the bloggers. If you refuse your negative reviews would go up. If you said yes they "suggested" certain items, you know so these bloggers will go and give you good reviews.

They would also make it known when they made a reservation that they are a yelp reviewer. Meaning give me all this free shit or I will rip you online.

They call my work 3 times a week. Telling us that if we pay "x" it will help our positive rating. So what they are saying is, give us money and you will look better on your reviews.

I know there are real reviewers out there, but honestly it would be hard to determine which are real, which are fake, which is a result of getting or not getting free shit.

I honestly do not go on the site anymore.

I agree. I don't trust Yelp at all. I always read the extra reviews where you have to take an eye test and put the numbers in to verify you are a real person.

huskypuppy14 · August 2014

I really like tripadvisor though. Every place that I've found on tripadvisor has been wonderful, so I feel that they are a much more honest site.

arrippa · August 2014

huskypuppy14 said:

I really like tripadvisor though. Every place that I've found on tripadvisor has been wonderful, so I feel that they are a much more honest site.

If I am not on TK, I am on tripadvisor. I trust those reviews more than Yelp.

I have heard of Yelp's shady business practices so I don't even go on to the website anymore.

WinstonsGirl · August 2014

I'm good with TA too. Though I wonder how this hotel is getting their reviews. On TA, I've got a random screen name and don't even put my proper city that I live in (it's close, not not exact). Are others really signing bad reviews with their real name and the wedding they were with?? I can't see how they could track everyone.

We've always had good results, with the exception of this last diving company. They and only 1 negative review, aside from mine, everything else was glowing. I guess we just got the unlucky time.

larrygaga · August 2014

/dead

If your guests leave a bad review, you get a $500 fine

Re: If your guests leave a bad review, you get a $500 fine

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