Does Yelp have too much of an affect on businesses, or is it the average person relying on the ratings too much that actually affects businesses?
>>7592182
Neither, really. If a restaurant is good, they won't have any problems getting and keeping customers.
Yelp has turned into another glorified social media site, I see more pictures of people and their kids on there now than actual food.
The only time Yelp is useful is when you are in a city or town you aren't familiar with, and then it can be very helpful. I had some awesome pizza delivered to my hotel room at 3 am once in a city I wasn't familiar with, thanks to Yelp. So, in that way, it's still a good service. For your own local purposes, it's pretty crap, except the section on new businesses that have opened, so you can see what's going on around you.
>>7592182
Yelp is only helpful when you need the opinions of a bunch of 20something asian girls
I use Yelp mostly to see pictures of what the food looks like.
What does everyone else use to decide whether or not a restaurant is worth trying?
>>7592228
tripadvisor is good because the people reviewing it are of an older, more cosmopolitan sort and they don't extort money out of businesses to remove negative reviews. It's not as good for younger establishments tho, it takes a while to get a bunch of reviews
>>7592217
this
>>7592217
I wouldn't have put it like that, but there is some truth there. How much the opinions of Yelpers are likely to line up with your own has a lot to do with how much you have in common with their demographics.
>yfw yelp killed amy's baking company
>>7592209
>The only time Yelp is useful is when you are in a city or town you aren't familiar with, and then it can be very helpful. I had some awesome pizza delivered to my hotel room at 3 am once in a city I wasn't familiar with, thanks to Yelp. So, in that way, it's still a good service. For your own local purposes, it's pretty crap, except the section on new businesses that have opened, so you can see what's going on around you.
Yelp is pretty good for casual eating. Even low rated ones will have pics and a few good ratings and maybe someone saying "dont listen 2 da haturz on h3ar this plac has the best chikken tendies".
If a restaurant relies on Yelp reviews, they're struggling already.
>>7592182
I'm not a restaurateur, so I can't comment on Yelp from that perspective, but holy fuck do reviews like the one you posted annoy me.
>Be in London with friends, looking for a place to eat.
>Hotel keeps recommending places, they're either booked solid or closed.
>"Well, there is this one place..."
>Implies it's not great, we see star rating on Yelp is only 3.
>We go anyway. Almost deserted and extremely cheesy decoration.
>Service is awesome.
>Food is awesome.
>Go in planning to order dinner, get a three course meal with dessert.
>Mention we're going to leave a 5 star rating on Yelp at the end of the meal, server is genuinely grateful.
>Check Yelp after we leave.
>"This food was delicious, if slightly pricey. Presentation was good and the pasta was perfect. Atmosphere was perfect, and I would recommend this place to others."
>Three stars.
>"Lovely! Named after my favorite restaurant in a movie!"
>Three stars.
What the hell? It was an Italian restaurant in the most expensive part of the most expensive city in the world. Don't knock two stars off because it's slightly too expensive! That's just being picky.
>>7592182
everybody on yelp is a reddit troll
>>7592182
some of their business practices do sound kinda sketchy. I know google earth does a little muscling as well but yelp sounds like its on a whole other level
The restaurant biz is cutthroat because so many people would love to break in, not cause social media pettiness hurts restaurants
>>7592750
TL;DR: Average people ruin things as a group
It's true. It's very apparent in voting, it's apparent in what society considers the real issues, and it's apparent in the things society (well, the average person) uses. So you give them Yelp and they'll take their grocery-store mentality to the internet. When you have Yelp who literally thinks every review is perfectly acceptable because "muh freedom of speech", then you have no one taking responsibility or caring for the consequences.
That's the problem with Yelp.
>>7592621
How you rate the experience has a lot to do with your expectations. I've seen pig disgusting NYC Italian American tourist traps get five star ratings again and again because someone was all excited to be in the big city and eat somewhere where they thought they heard someone else speaking Italian. They praised the food as authentic because it was different from the Olive Garden back home.
Conversely I've seen low ratings for places with great food and very reasonable prices because the reviewer thought the place as "dingy" or "gritty" or the severs weren't friendly enough.
Objectivity is tough when it comes to restaurant criticism, because no one can really get away from their own expectations. In the case of Yelp it's the expectations of young people with the disposable income to eat out very often. They like being in the know and up on the latest trends. What impresses them may not impress you.
>>7592837
For every flyover reviewing a Times Square restaurant there's going to be a dozen other reviews calling it a mediocre tourist trap.
For every complaint about the decor and waitstaff, there's going to be people saying it's charming or bare bones in a good way. Unless there's rat shit in the middle of the dinning room floor and the staff is ABC tier, I could care less.
I really don't see why people think Yelp reviews are so terrible. There just like any other internet reviews where you can read through a few and get a sense of the place.
>>7592732
what does google earth do?
>>7592852
>less.
ABC tier?
![Amys-Baking-Company-facebook-freakouts.0[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/b7xYqj9.jpg "Amys-Baking-Company-facebook-freakouts.0[1].jpg")
>>7592867
>>7592209
Pretty much this.
>>7592867
ABC kitchen, it's a vongerichten joint. Was meme status a few years back, really terrible staff
>>7592863
sorry I meant maps
When you zoom in on an area, some shops' names are displayed while others are not.
Those stores have to pay google to have their names displayed.
Not a terrible practice and they should be able to charge for that. I know that they go about it a little aggressively tho
>>7592904
hmmm
>>7592852
A local might never go to the tourist trap, because they know better. The less trendy place might get called dingy because Yelp's demographic skews young and likes to show how au courant they are.
I do not see Yelp reviews as terrible. I was Elite for a couple years. I always thought it was odd that my faves didn't line up with Yelp's. Then I went to an Elite event and realized who the fuck else was doing the rest of the reviewing. It was mostly people 10-15 years younger than me who hardly gave a shit about the food just looking for the free cocktails and wanting to be savvy about whatever the Next Big Thing was going to be, Not my people. Stopped writing reviews shortly after that. Haven't looked back since.
>>7592228
This, I usually have my mind made up where I'm going before going on yelp, but I like looking at the pictures to decide what looks good that I should order
I've left a few reviews on Yelp.
When I like something local I give 5 stars and comment that it was tasty. Just a simple few sentences. If my experience isn't great or average I won't leave any comments. If it's very bad and I want the establishment to burn to the ground I leave a one-star and list good reasons why.
![yelp-south-park[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/Jset3h2.jpg "yelp-south-park[1].jpg")
Make sure to tell the server you're a yelp reviewer so you get extra good service
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDlR_ccnZww
>>7592209
>>7592275
I'm still sore over Zomato killing off Urbanspoon.
http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/01/urbanspoon-zomato-integration/
http://www.geekwire.com/2015/zomato-lays-off-urbanspoon-engineering-team-7-months-after-acquisition/
They are the EA of online restuarant rating services. TripAdvisor is better.
>>7593993
does it asspain you to know zomato is an indian company?
>>7592182
No, but the average person on Yelp is retarded.
>>7593996
Not as much as the amount of asspain Indian food gives him.
>>7592182
If enough people use it won't normal distribution normalize the scores?
>>7592182
>affect
Retard.
Sadly, people do read Yelp and it does effect peoples perceptions
My uncle and aunt own a small Cafe in my town, just selling meat pies and coffee. It is nice and pleasant.
Sadly last year some cunt left a fucking Yelp review where some fucking Abo who got a hold of a computer somehow lied and said that my uncle threw him out and told him to stop 'eating like a wog'. What actually happened was the Abo smashed the pie on the table and started licking the gravy up directly so my uncle told him to leave. But they lost business for a few weeks because of it. And that was one barely literate Abo (he spelt 'meat pie' as 'meet pay'). So imagine what actual well written reviews can do?
>>7595211
Good theory but the problem is that:
1. It is packed full of millennial trash and bored women
2. Yelp allows a business to pay to have negative reviews removed
So not only is the data fucked to begin with but it is skewed
>>7595211
I don't think so. Most people only rate something if it's really good, or really bad, so a decent restaurant can either get a score way to high or way too low just based on people's experiences.
Is it strange to know pretty much every restaurant in your city? Even if I don't I just ask a friend
>>7595463
If you're going to call it a city, then yeah it's strange, when most cities have restaurants opening and closing every week.
If you're talking about the town you grew up in, then no.
if these are true then any positive effect would be canceled out by the obviously easy to abuse system
I know for a fact that there's more people posting fake reviews to Yelp than you realize.
ok you queers, where am i supposed to go when i'm in a different town?
do i go to their newspaper and check to rated restaurants of the year?
any other website that can possibly be bias as well?
tell me what to do if it's not to use yelp
>>7595580
Yelp is fine if you just disregard the obviously retarded negative reviews.
>>7595589
well yeah, i notice it for a butchershop i go to, they have great meats but their little sandwiches shit is a piece of shit that I don't even know why they make them, bread is like a workout for my jaw and it's day old salads are just a pity to see and even worse to go down my throat.
all right so i just keep doing what i usually do, just make sure i know why it's rated that way.
I try my best not to look at Yelp scores, but sometimes there's just nothing else to judge a restaurant by.
I went to one of my favorite local restaurants a few months ago. The food wasn't up to par that time, we were disappointed. I felt I should let the owner know, not looking for a freebie or anything.
I sent a simple and calm email stating it was less than stellar. They got back to me quickly and gave me a free meal ony next visit, and practically begged me not to post it on yelp. I never had any intention to, I love that restaurant and assumed it was just a one time thing.
>>7595636
Pictures of the food? Besides most of the time it's due to service which is really variable.
>>7595681
>>Pictures of the food?
Have you ever seen a Big Mac meal that actually looked like this in your life?
>>7595211
>/ck/ attempts to do maths
You're attempting to use the central limit theorem, which only holds true for INDEPENDENT random variables
>>7592217
Well, I'd really like to know what they think about the size and shape of my dick, so...
YELP! IS A SCAM
NEVER USE IT
>>7595697
To add to this, Yelp is good for looking at actual pictures of the food, as opposed to staged photos. I don't look at star ratings anymore, I look at the review text and photos
I just use it because sometimes local places don't have websites but Yelp still has an online menu somehow.
>>7592837
I like a lot of the younger reviewers. A lot of the problems seem to come from older people, especially the entitled mindset. A younger guy with a disposable income and a wider palette (these times, brah) might provide a better review than some stingy, stoic, older woman who's only been to Olive Garden and her local diner.
Yelp is some gay shit. If you want real recommendations, find a food critic in that town whose opinions you trust or agree with and then see what they like (or even reach out to them)
Literally that easy. When I went to Phoenix, I just googled "Phoenix Food Critic", found the one that isn't a dottering old lady with cat eye glasses, and shot him an email. Bing bang bing, bing bing bing bong, that easy
This bar near my house that has some of the best bar food in the city had poor yelp reviews because it was in a "dude-bro" neighborhood and everyone who reviews on yelp is a shitty hipster who just drinks PBR and gets upset when the Killers are played on the jukebox. Literally every negative review was just because of the area it was in and how above the bars they are and how much they "hate being dragged here"
I say good riddance. I'll just eat some awesome barbecue and watch baseball you hitler haired cunts.
>>7592182
>or is it the average person relying on the ratings too much that actually affects businesses?
Retards gonna retard. There are some places in my town that serve shitty overpriced food but have insanely high ratings because everyone that's been going there since childhood gives them five stars while other places that serve excellent food for way less have around three because of people whining about phoned-in orders being wrong or the lack of a beer menu.
>>7592217
so much this it hurts
>>7592883
>their facebook was hacked
>>7592182
Stupid asses like this are cancerous to rating/review sites. You'll see plenty of assholes like this all over the Amazon customer review sections.
So quick to give any and everything a 1 star rating and then spout an asinine opinion in a quest to feel important.
>>7592209
Pretty much this.
If I don't know about a restaurant in my area, someone I know does. And if it's any good, I'll hear about it somehow.
It's when you're in an unfamiliar city and have a mighty need for food that Yelp comes in handy. You can't beat being a few taps away from a comprehensive listing of nearby food with relative quality ratings and price ranges. The reviews themselves tend to be as trash as any online review, but as a "I'm hungry, what's nearby that's not shit?" tool it's indispensable.
>>7592182
>using yelp on vacations
whenever im on vacations i ask the busboy where to eat, he will give me some bullshit tourist recommendation and the i ask him no dude, where do people that live here eat and he will point me to some great place.
One of the only times you should tip someone
>>7598533
>Stupid asses like this are cancerous to rating/review sites. You'll see plenty of assholes like this all over the Amazon customer review sections.
My favorite thing is when the reviewer says they LOVE the product, but giving it one star because of shipping issues
>>7598571
>because of shipping issues
I always see them complain about customer service. Literally everything can be perfect about the product, arrival time, condition of the box, etc. But they'll give the whole entire product a single star cause of 'muh terrible customer service experience ;(((((.
>>7598533
Did you know the majority of one star reviews on Yelp are given by women?
Did you know the majority of those one star reviews are given for slow service or other things of that nature?Bitches hate to wait, bruv.
Did you know if you pay Yelp, that they will let janitors/moderators prune your one star reviews that are "vindictive" or "unreasonable", thereby effective giving Yelp a pay to win button?
That's not even mentioning the fact that SJW's use it as a protest zone now and blast the pages of people they disapprove of with one stars out of political spite.Like that dentist who hunted big animals, yeah, he's an asshole, picket hism place, whatever, but Yelp shouldn't let their "review" site be used as a forum for mob justice. What's hunting lions got to do with how good someone is as a dentist?
Yelp is good for people with zero time or zero social skills. Talking to some locals is almost always better, local food critic reviews are almost always more informative(though a lot of those motherfuckers are shysty too to be honest)
>>7598533
This, I use Yelp (or Google Maps) sometimes to try and find restaurants I've never heard of in my area, but so many reviewers are pricks who give low ratings just because the workers didn't worship them or because of some very minor issue. That's why I always read a bunch of reviews rather than rely on the rating.
It's great to see pictures of the menu and food though.
>>7595484
This wouldn't surprise me.
