To hate trip advisor

[Passthebubbly]

I need to vent. I own a small hospitality business family run that we have put our heart and sole into for 11 years. We have won a ton of awards and do our absolute best to show people an amazing time. We appreciate every single customer.

Our feedback has always been so good but since reopening from last lockdown what has happened to people? Just got a 1 star review as woman didn’t like her soup and the toilet was too small and there was god forbid a cobweb. Didn’t think to say at the time so we could change her meal just wait till behind a keyboard and leave a 1review. 2review yesterday because we don’t serve a full menu all night - we don’t have a bloody chef right now. My husband worked 78hours last week in that kitchen. Am so sick of watching what we have built and what we work our backsides off now in due to staff shortages be tarnished by keyboard warriors. Rant over just raging anyone can go on and leave 1* reviews for thing we can’t change like size of toilets in a listed building. So unfair.

I often look at the low reviews to see if it’s something I actually care about (e.g. some people hate hotels where there aren’t lifts but it doesn’t worry me so it wouldn’t put me off booking).
It’s also really clear where there’s obviously a real issue and lots of people complain about the same thing compared to a couple of bad reviews and mostly good ones (especially if the owner politely explains the issue e.g. the wait times were temporarily longer than usual due to staff sickness etc).

I do love the mad one star reviews though. My personal favourites include:

• A man who complained about a hotel because he put his sandwich outside the window to keep it cold and it was eaten by a pigeon. (There was a fridge in the room!)
• A woman who had a room overlooking a public carpark and saw a couple ‘committing a sex act’ in their car.
• A pub that didn’t serve red wine straight from the fridge (he was very upset that he was offered an ice bucket instead because then he’d need to wait for it to cool down).

@Ohdearthatwasntgreatwasit please never feel like that. I guess I can only speak for my own place but we would so much rather you just say “I really don’t like that can I change it” and give us the chance to get you something you will enjoy. We want you to leave happy and full and if that means changing your dish so be it. That’s what the business is all about I hate to think people have not enjoyed our food and would much rather know and change it to something else

I have only left one bad review once, when I was threatened by a pub landlord! I either leave positive if they're warranted or if not will privately email the establishment with constructive feedback. Am not into dissing people and their businessess online.

I work in hospitality and since lockdown ended I feel a big portion general public have for the most part, turned into massive arseholes. Moany and needy. It’s like they have forgotten how to behave in public

I'm sorry OP. If it's any consolation, some people cannot be pleased regardless of what you do for them. They will find a problem with something regardless of what it is and have to complain.

God my ex is the nutty reviewer on trip advisor-he loves a good review

Top gems are-expensive-not worth the money-I had a full day of fun with the kids-there was loads to do,but hate spending more than 10p a year on them
The toilet had skid marks on the bowl-yes his own!
The water pressure wasn’t very strong when I went to wash my hands-he never washes his fucking hands-he won’t have gone near the sinks
I didn’t like the soap in the toliets-read above
My steak was underdone-it’s how you asked for it,rare-you donkey!
Not worth the money I paid-you didn’t pay!I did!
I didn’t like the glass my coke came in
I don’t like x beer-why bloody order it then?
My drink was one of those tiny glass coke bottles-which was made clear then you ordered!
The bed creaked-yes-anything would have creaked under the pressure of you trying to wang your tiny Willy and huge man tits about on it
A castle-too historical-well yes-it’s over 500 years old,it’s had a tiny bit of history behind it
The sea view room had a view of the sea (how dare it?)
The castle ruins at Alton towers-just a pile of bricks with nothing to see-no shit Sherlock
He once paid £30 a night to stay in a b&b then moaned it wasn’t 5* and the breakfast was ‘basic’,(it was but well cooked,tasty and filling) the hotel was full of ‘old people’ and ‘smelt of old peoples food’ and they didn’t give him the bottle of champagne he’d ordered but hadn’t paid for

He,along with all the others are just nitpicking dickheads

@Frenziedandfurious you are my kind of customer

@HerbivorousRex these are too funny

@Horaceandgus dear god woman I was feeling so down today with these reviews you have made me absolutely crack up laughing. Sorry you had to deal with that and glad for you he is now an ex 👏👏👏👏

@Passthebubbly Honestly, don’t worry about it. I always use trip advisor when deciding where to stay and mostly read the 5 and 1 star reviews. If you’ve been given a 1 star for a silly reason like a cobweb/not sunny enough/transfer took ages/hard seats in reception area etc then I ignore them. I’ll only take notice if they are consistently saying the same thing eg cold food/rude staff/crap entertainment. I get it’s disappointing but I’m sure most people are able to look at the reviews objectively.

Why are you blaming trip advisor? It's no different from Facebook reviews or Google reviews.

And you are responsible for staff shortages, however difficult that maybe. If I'm going out for a teat somewhere it's good to know where isn't properly staffed and will be delayed.

As has been written, if negative reviews are the minority AND answered by the venue then most people won't take too much notice.

I do read the bad reviews but usually the establishments response can make me dismiss them. For example, anyone who complains about the food and the owner says something like 'we always listen to any concern about our food if customers raise them at the time they dine with us' or similar. This indicates to me a diner who just sat and didn't just politely say something i.e. 'my soup is cold' at the time. If they can't say something is wrong at the time, why bitch about it later? No one can change that.

It does wind me up when hospitality establishments expect you to complain there and then though. A lot of people don’t like confrontation and feel it would further sour the experience.

Who wants to risk having someone spit in your soup?

Politely pointing something out to the waiting staff isn't confrontation though.

Idiotic reviews are very easy to spot so I wouldn't worry about it too much!

[quote Passthebubbly]@Horaceandgus dear god woman I was feeling so down today with these reviews you have made me absolutely crack up laughing. Sorry you had to deal with that and glad for you he is now an ex 👏👏👏👏[/quote]
Sweetheart-hold your head up high
Your place sounds lovely and I’d visit in a heartbeat
Ignore any shitty reviews and focus on the good ones
If someone is going to get pissed off over a cobweb,I suggest they take it,shove it up their arse and lighten up

Some people just love to nitpick-I will look at reviews and if most of them are 4+ then we’ll go and make up our own minds-a small loo and one tiny cobweb wouldn’t put us off-I have worse in my own house

(We once went to a pub that had nothing higher than 2 stars and it was foul-I learnt my lesson there,I should have listened when I read that the service was shit and the vanilla ice cream was radio active yellow-it was)

I read the 1 star on tripadvisor but I am always reassured by a nice not smart comment back by the company mentioning how sorry they are and wish it had have been mentioned at the time in order to fix. If i see that know the reviewer is being unfair. Sometimes people are just looking for that "please come back and have a meal on us" comment.

When I have posted 1 star the place has been awful with ample opportunity to fix my issue. If i have a problem with my accommodation, see things that need attention but am happy with everything, I pay my bill and then let them know.

For the commenter above sorry I forget the name we were not short staffed my husband stepped in and covered all the kitchen shifts. No other complaints from any customers and no shortage of gods service. I am only talking about trip advisor as this is the only forum I have ever had issue with over something like this. We are truly lucky not to get many and reviews at all but the ones we have had have been on trip advisor. That’s the reason I mentioned it.

I once read a review of a Cuban hotel, the person was complaining that they didn’t have freshly squeezed orange juice. Apparently there was no excuse for this because ‘Florida is so close’

I looove TripAdvisor, I've found some absolute gems of hotels and restaurants that I probably wouldn't have looked twice at otherwise.

Don't take it to heart OP. I always filter down to the bad reviews and I wouldn't be put off by a couple of people moaning about food or bathroom size. That's personal opinion.

Take a look at the reviewers profile, I bet they've left loads of crappy reviews. I once saw a proper scathing review from a guy, so I looked at his past reviews and they were all 1* - he'd even reviewed the same restaurant 4 times over the space of a few years and absolutely slated it each time - so bad that he kept going back! Some people just love to moan.

@Horaceandgus can we be friends? 😂 you have made me laugh so much today.

Thanks everyone. Well I have responded and kept my head high. Just have to suck it up just honestly hate to think anyone has left my place feeling like that. It’s not what we are about

@sayanythingelse cracks me up that it was so bad he went back 4 times to leave a 1*review.

I wouldn’t mind but the lady who left the review was from “in my opinion” the dirtiest, filthiest city I have even been in my life.

Do you respond? I love it when owners respond and either hold their hands up and apologise but also point out what really happened and how ridiculous the customer is.

I know how you feel. I have my own business in the hospitality sector and blimey some people are nuts … some of my favourite low scores…
No saucepan (they were 2 in the cupboard!).
It rained.
Local pub was closed on a Wednesday
Traffic to the beach was busy
They couldn’t eat the (sealed) biscuits we left due to gluten intolerance

Don’t let it get to you (although I know it’s hard!)

I was once looking for an inexpensive hotel in Paris and found one in an old building near the Gare de Lyon with mostly 4 and 5 star reviews. The 1 star reviews included:

"Very narrow corridors"
"Very small lift"

but my favourite was:

"Staff do not speak English"

I booked it. It was excellent. The corridors were indeed narrow, the lift was small and most of the staff did not speak English.

I find it extremely useful, and disregard any obviously ridiculous low scores when most are very good reviews.