The Industry's Love / Hate Relationship with Yelp

The Industry's Love / Hate Relationship with Yelp

It seems most industry people either love or hate Yelp. I thought one San Francisco restaurant that discusses their love / hate relationship on their blog does a great job of pointing out both sides of the equation. Of course the love comes from getting some fabulous reviews and the hate from any other reviews. The question is, do these forums really offer an honest and fair way for people to get info on businesses they may wish to patronize, or are they simply an easy way to bash a business you don't like or had one poor experience with? Sure, we've always had word of mouth, but that has gone from "you tell a friend, they tell two friends" etc. to "post a review" and have thousands seeing it - and deciding where to spend their money based on it. I admit that I use reviews on some retail sites (such as Amazon) to make purchasing decisions, and have found them helpful. However, what happens when you get a negative post?

I recently heard first hand about one local B&B type Inn and their personal experience with Yelp.

It seems that a group (11 to be exact) had booked the place for one guest's 30th birthday. Let's just say that at the end of their 3 day stay, the guests were unhappy (well at least the 2 that Yelped about it), the owner was unhappy, and their was a question of cost of damages (stained carpet that the carpet cleaners could not fix). Any hotel or B&B stay that involves a call to the cops is probably not going to have a happy ending.

The gist of it was this: due to the location being in a residential area, there are noise considerations, due to this, hot tub use after 8:00PM is not allowed. Suffice to say, the guests decided that they should be able to use the hot tub when they wanted, regardless. Owner's view: loud and drunk guests making a ruckus in the middle of the night; fears of neighborhood complaints that could affect their permit. Guests' view: "mostly well behaved and quiet, but wanted to take advantage of the hot tub, it was a nice night and we were paying for the place. So what, we were in the hot tub at midnight, what's the big deal, no one could hear us." By both accounts there was alcohol involvement, to what extent might be in dispute, but it was a factor. One of the guests even posted that they "didn't come to wine country for a weekend of sobriety." The cops were called, the guests were sent indoors for the rest of the night. By any account, not an ideal situation. Was it handled well by the owner? Maybe, maybe not, at this point it has turned in a "he said, she said" back and forth.

Now the negative reviews come up on Yelp, the owner is upset, stressed, and believes that they are losing bookings due to this. To top it off, in the owner's dealing with Yelp, it seems that for about $300 a month this can all be fixed. That didn't sit well with them at all; now, a couple of weeks later and they have been asked to join the class action lawsuit against Yelp.

Good, bad, indifferent, what have your experiences been with Yelp? How do you feel about businesses that pay and get their negative posts filtered? Would you pay? Let me know what you think!