Originally Posted by
darthbimmer
My partner and I frequently review restaurants, hotels, and other businesses on Yelp. On a few occasions a person associated with a business we've reviewed has written a hostile personal note. When that happens we ALWAYS update our review with a note about the contact and generally drop the score to 1 star (worst rating) in the process. I know that for my own part, as a consumer who reads reviews while deciding where to eat/sleep/shop/etc, nothing says "STAY AWAY!" like a review from a customer who had a legitimate problem and was attacked for reporting it.
I've written some pretty scathing reviews on Yelp. All of them deserved - I take a lot of pride in writing highly accurate reviews.
I've been contacted by owners of businesses for negative comments on Yelp twice. One, for a fairly negative review of a restaurant by the owner of that restaurant. They essentially said they were sorry that I did not have a great experience with them and they'd like to have me come back again. They also were quite defensive of food that was simply improperly cooked. Professional letter, but very incorrect.
The other time I was contacted due to a negative comment was when I was comparing various shops of a specific type in the area. I was suggesting in my review of shop A that shop A was better than shop B due to price. The owner of shop B e-mailed me to say that he was sorry that I felt their services were not worth what they charged and they would work hard to change my mind in the future. Again, very professional.
This is how these hotel owners *should* be contacting reviewers...