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Food

The UK Government Wants to Know How Reliable TripAdvisor Reviews Are

Much to the delight of harangued waitstaff, a UK business watchdog has launched an inquiry into the trustworthiness of reviews posted on sites such as TripAdvisor and Yelp.
Phoebe Hurst
London, GB
Photo via Flickr user Ames Lai

Last week, a man called a woman a "chav" on Facebook.

So far, so social media. The problem was that the man in question was responding on behalf of his Manchester restaurant, 47 King Street West, via its Facebook page.

Melissa Grogan-Morgan wrote a negative review on the restaurant's profile page after holding her hen party there with 17 friends and family. Owner, Mike Hymanson responded to the accusation of bad service with the kind of outburst that makes PR managers wake up in a cold sweat. "The chaviest worst most vile people ever to grace our restaurant," he wrote, throwing in a few "peasants" and "trash" for good measure.

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Chavgate ensued, Hymanson deleted all social media accounts (the 21st century equivalent to "going underground"), and diners took to TripAdvisor to say that yeah, actually, they didn't much like the service 47 King Street West either. At one point, the restaurant was receiving more than ten "one star" ratings in 24 hours.

Welcome to the tricky world of online restaurant reviews. While our complaints were once addressed by flustered managers dragged out from the back to assure us that yes, the soup was cold but your entire table gets free desserts and a souvenir T-shirt, dining qualms now take a direct line to the internet. TripAdvisor, Yelp, and Urbanspoon have become kindly ears to our portion size grumbles and waitstaff vendettas, some more dramatically worded than others.

READ MORE: For Yelp Reviewers, Bad Restaurant Service is like 9/11

But a new government inquiry could see an end to this online outlet of passive aggressive sniping. Last month, business watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), launched a call for information on online reviews and endorsements, encouraging both customers and business owners to share their opinions in an online consultation. The fact-finding exercise analyses the role online reviews and blogs, as well as media companies, play in "helping businesses to promote their products/services."

While the CMA is looking into pretty much any online review website—from "specialist review sites, trusted trader sites, retail platforms and retailers' own websites" to blogs (although presumably not that "alternative TV review blog" you abandoned after two posts)—dining review sites are expected to make up much of the evidence, and the inquiry is being welcomed by the British Hospitality Association.

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"User reviews, on the whole, are tremendously useful.The issue is that a small few do misuse these sites to leave untrue, malicious or blackmail reviews," says Jackie Grech, Policy and Legal Director at the BHA, who will be submitting their own evidence in the inquiry. "It may be a small few, but every review has a huge impact on the millions of prospective customers who use online reviews to guide their decision every day."

READ MORE: As a Chef, I Wish Yelp Didn't Exist

More than 125 new contributions are posted on TripAdvisor every minute, while Yelp boasted 135 million monthly unique visitors last year. Despite the reach of such online review sites—and the fact that Australian, French and Italian authorities have all taken action against fake reviews in the past five years—the CMA's inquiry is the first of its kind in the UK.

"Online review sites have tremendous market power as they are often the sole information source for potential customers," says Grech. "Safeguards to stop misuse have to be put in place to ensure that these sites work as well as they can for consumers and for businesses."

Indeed, restaurants can be ruined—whether deservedly or not—by a bad Yelp review, and TripAdvisor has been criticised for failing to have systems in place to address false reviews. In 2013, Derbyshire pub owner, Dave Mountford accused TripAdvisor of inadequate customer service, after negative reviews of another establishment were mistakenly posted on his pub's profile page.

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"This is simply not our pub," Mountford told The Publican's Morning Advertiser. "I've done everything I can to get this review changed and they [TripAdvisor] are doing nothing."

TripAdvisor did not respond to MUNCHIES' request for comment.

As well as meaning fairer representation for restaurant owners, it is also hoped that diners will benefit from the CMA's inquiry. Because how many times have you turned to Urbanspoon on your first night in a new city, only to end up eating soggy rice paper rolls in a side street Vietnamese joint that is anything but "the best restuarant i've EVEr been to!!!!!"?

"We're keen to hear from all sectors affected by this and so the call for information is directed pretty broadly. Although we mention three particular areas in the release (hotels, selecting tradespeople and choosing cosmetics) as examples, this certainly doesn't limit any other sector contributing and a lot depends on what we hear back," a spokesperson from the CMA says. "It seems likely that restaurants and cafés could well have a lot to contribute so we'd encourage them to get in touch."

While probing exactly how reliable stuff written on the internet is can only be a good thing, maybe next time we have a problem at a restaurant, we should just complain the good old-fashioned British way: by spending half the meal silently hoping the waiter notices your dissatisfied huffs and thinned lips, before giving up and just complaining to your dining companions in the car on the way home. Yes! That'll teach those waiters to bring us tap water when we ask for sparkling!