“THE service was appalling. Spotted a mutant cockroach scurrying across the kitchen floor. Unquestionably the worst restaurant I’ve ever had the displeasure of dining at.”
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So reads a review of a Wagga restaurant (we’ve decided not to name it) on travel and restaurant review aggregator site TripAdvisor.
If you haven’t heard of TripAdvisor, you’ve been living in a cave, and it would have to be a cave with no internet reception.
TripAdvisor is an online force of nature, a review site that can single-handedly shift the tourism economy of entire nations.
Where once restaurant critics, travel writers and word of mouth would influence where patrons visit, it’s now up to amateur reviewers tapping away at keyboards and phones.
A staggering 91-plus per cent of travellers now use sites like TripAdvisor to help determine where they play and stay.
Some 115 reviews are added to the site for restaurants, attractions and accommodation every minute.
It makes nearly $US1 billion in revenue annually and boasts more than 60 million members.
But its sheer scope and unedited nature means it has serious flaws.
The pettiness and hysteria of some of the reviews boggles the mind.
Of the Sydney Opera House, one of the seven wonders of the modern world, a British reviewer opined: “It’s a pretty awful 1960s style concrete building. It’s really nothing special at all. Save yourself the effort.”
The list goes on. It seems no melon is ever ripe enough for the reviewers of TripAdvisor.
Some of the world’s greatest restaurants and most opulent hotels have dozens of scathing reviews.
And that sums up both the genius and madness of TripAdvisor.
By affording everyone a voice, by being a champion of consumer power and by giving every comment equal weight, it has become a mass of contradictions.
Restaurant owners and hoteliers have little recourse if a fake or defamatory review is published.
They can pay a fee and respond to the comment, but the damage has often already been done.
Of course, by holding establishments to such rigorous account, TripAdvisor has helped raise the service bar across the globe.
And that can only be a good thing.