I'm not particularly proud of the fact that I'm addicted to Review websites...but it's shamefully true. Something that's supposed to help me make a decision quickly, ends up instead taking me hours and hours on end. I ironically encountered this situation this weekend and last week (ok fine, it's not so ironic because it happens almost every weekend!). Trip Advisor has to be my all-time favorite and the site that I spend the most time on. I tend to travel any spare time I get and absolutely cannot commit to any hotel until I read about 10 million reviews on Trip Advisor, and compare each hotel and come to some aggregate conclusion. I have found the most useful information on this site and find it relatively easy to distinguish between "real" reviews and those that are more of an isolated bad incident.
However, when it comes to restaurants, I don't particularly have a favorite review site and seem to find inconsistent consumer-led reviews. Instead, I tend to rely on sites displaying reviews from professional critics. But those sites seem to be slimming down quite a bit (e.g. Zagat) and all you can find now is amateur reviewers sharing their experiences and opinions. Which do you think is better? In the past I would have said professional critics but now it's a different story.
It so happened that this weekend I had a friend visiting from out of town and we wanted to try out a few new restaurants so I found myself constantly being directed in my Google searches to Yelp. I read at least two dozen, if not more reviews of various restaurants but found only a few reviews useful and had to sift through a lot more junk reviews. Interestingly enough, I read today that Yelp has a group of reviewers entitled the “Yelp Elite Squad,” who they consider their best reviewers. So I went back and looked at the reviews in my history and surely enough, the reviews I deemed most real were written by the Elite Squad. It was disturbing however that a NY Times article revealed that some reviews on Yelp seem to mysteriously disappear and it doesn't seem to be clear whether this discrepancy is due to spam filters or that Yelp is catering more toward their paid advertiser's (the very entities being reviewed) needs. Hmmm...it does feel a bit unsettling when you feel that there may be a bias to what reviews are posted, especially for someone like me who spends waaaaaaay too much time reading reviews before making a final decision.
Minus the Wonk
14 years ago
That's a great tip about the Yelp Elite Squad, thanks! I find myself trying to decide if I like the reviewer and accept their opinion as valid while I am reading, so this additional filter of best reviewers might help and save me some time. I, like you, am a research addict. My spur-of-the-moment trip is still preceded by hours review reading.
ReplyDeleteHave you checked out DC Foodies?
http://www.dcfoodies.com/
It is a blog about dining in DC and some of the blogger's favorite restaurants are mine as well. I find his reviews for the most part to be spot on.
I didn't know that my fellow classmates are addicted to review sites. It makes me laugh although I'm probably just as addicted to my friend's blogs and facebook, so I stand guilty of that as well.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, thanks for commenting on my facebook about Disney World. You so rock.
Hi Nisha,
ReplyDeleteNot sure if you've already seen it, but Jeremy, Yelp's CEO has pulled together a great little blog entry with some more color commentary on the rumors about Yelp: http://officialblog.yelp.com/2009/02/9-myths-about-yelp.html
"Which do you think is better? In the past I would have said professional critics but now it's a different story."
As far as the zeitgeist on the topic, it seems that the future of customer buying decisions seems to be based on recommendations, whether that's from official sources, or acquaintances.
People are beginning to pay less attention to advertising/marketing that's placed in front of them on TV or on the radio, and making greater use of recommendations from friends, family, colleagues - the people in their lives that they know and trust. The vast network of people on Yelp is just a single example of that. Twitter and Facebook also serve as methods of obtaining personal recommendations from trusted sources. As people read each others' reviews and vote/comment on them, they form relationships and a working knowledge of each others' tastes, and that translates over into the real world.
Would you trust the word of a stranger working for a newspaper over a friend/colleague of yours for a doctor or dentist they have experienced? An auto mechanic?
Is there even a right answer? I'd like to toss out the possibility that all of these sources of information can co-exist to better serve customers. What do you think?
Best,
-Kevin L, Yelp DC CM