Yelp Review Problems: Top 9 Reasons You Can't Always Trust The Review Site

In a pinch, Yelp can be a great resource for restaurant recommendations. If, for example, you're looking for a Thai restaurant in North Myrtle Beach, there's no easier, faster way to find your answer. The same goes for a laundromat or nail salon if you're just moving to a new town.

But for bigger decisions, like where to have your 30th anniversary dinner, Yelp may not be the best pick, for a whole host of reasons. If you need proof, you might want to take a peek at the top-rated restaurants on Yelp's Manhattan homepage. One of the five, Per Se, is a universally-admired restaurant with four stars from the New York Times and three stars from the Michelin's Red Guide. It's ranked number four. Number one is a Chinatown food stand called "Tofu Guy," and number three is a bakery called "New Kam Hing Coffee Shop." Given that we at HuffPost Food have never tasted said Guy's bean curd, we won't knock it too hard -- but better than Le Bernardin?

With that befuddling winner's chart in mind, here are nine real reasons you should not always trust Yelp reviews:

Loading Slideshow

• Yelp Calls Lying "Personal Opinion"

  A blog post on the SFWeekly website this week brought <a href="http://blogs.sfweekly.com/foodie/2011/09/yelp_lying_about_working_for_s.php" target="_hplink">a troubling Yelp-related incident</a> to light. A Yelper claimed, falsely, to be a writer for SFWeekly in a restaurant review. <em>SF Weekly</em>'s Food editor caught the lie and contacted the reviewer; she admitted that she actually wrote for <em>SF Weekly Voice</em>, and said she'd ask Yelp to change the review. But the website refused to amend the review -- a representative told SF Weekly that the lie in question was "personal opinion."

• Yelp Is Known To Be An Outlet For Shilling

  So many restaurateurs and publicists post glowing reviews of their own restaurants that Eater has a whole column dedicated to <a href="http://ny.eater.com/tags/adventures-in-shilling" target="_hplink">sniffing out shilly reviews</a>.

• Yelpers Are Totally Anonymous

  People do all sorts of weird things when they know they're unidentifiable -- which can throw off the average on sites like Yelp, which rely on the forthrightness and honesty of strangers.

• Yelpers Can Rate Restaurants They Haven't Visited

  Because of said anonymity, there's not even any guarantee that a Yelper has visited the restaurant they're reviewing. One infamous case of this sort of fraud took place in Graham Elliott's <a href="http://www.grahamwich.com/" target="_hplink">Grahamwich</a> restaurant in Chicago -- one Yelper gave it <a href="http://eater.com/archives/2010/09/01/graham-elliots-grahamwich-gets-negative-yelp-review.php" target="_hplink">a vicious one-star review before it even opened</a>.

• Yelp Sorts Its Reviews In Mysterious Ways

  Yelp has been <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/24/yelp-class-action-lawsuit/" target="_hplink">criticized in the past for the byzantine methods</a> it uses to sort reviews on a given restaurant's page. According to the site's FAQ, <blockquote>"Yelp's default sort order takes a number of factors into account and reflects our own attempt to present reviews in a meaningful order. For example, we'll favor reviews from your friends and the users you follow. The sort algorithm does not take into account whether the business is an advertiser or not."</blockquote> Thanks, Yelp. That clarifies literally nothing.

• Yelp Bullies Restaurants

  According to some reports, the "Yelp sort" has an insidious monetary element. Yelp salespeople have been known to<a href="http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/yelp-and-the-business-of-extortion-20/Content?oid=1176635" target="_hplink"> call restaurants offering to push bad reviews far down in the list</a>, if they'll agree to pay to advertise.

• Yelp Doesn't Give Guidelines About Stars

  There are no guidelines on Yelp for what different star ratings mean -- one person's five star experience could be a jaded gastronaut's three star. Yelp does release the distribution of stars actually given out -- and they're definitely slanted toward the positive.

• Only A Tiny Minority Of Yelp Users Rate Restaurants

  Many more people <a href="http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/12/why-yelp-works/#?wtoeid=growl1_r1_v5" target="_hplink">read Yelp than actually write reviews</a>. Most reviewers fall into two categories: people who review every restaurant they visit (see the next slide for more on the "Yelp Elite") and those who have an extreme reaction. People probably won't review a restaurant if they thought it was just OK -- but they are likely to review it if they have very good or very bad experiences, making it hard to trust any given review.

• Restaurants Throw Special Parties For The "Yelp Elite"

  If you're one of those people who writes a Yelp review of every nail salon and yakitori joint you visit, you can become part of the "<a href="http://www.yelp.com/elite" target="_hplink">Yelp Elite</a>." Once you're part of this creme-de-la-creme, you can get invited to <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43344769/ns/business-local_business/t/yelps-elite-epicurean-force-totally-free-labor/" target="_hplink">special "Elite-only" parties that restaurants</a> throw to attract good reviews. Sounds nice, right? It may be, for the "Yelp Elite" -- but it's bad for the general public, because these events often translate into glowing, misleading reviews for the party-throwing restaurants.

Comments

[AmandaGal]

06:48 AM on 10/04/2011

Yelp is flawed, but reviewing restaurants with a star system is problematic anyway. I review restaurants, not for Yelp, but I'm required to use a "star" rating. I've been called out for a few times. How do you rate an Asian Noodle Soup place that's the best noodle soup in town? Five stars? Then people complain, "You rated Le Fine Restaurant the same as Asian Noodle Soup?! What are you on!" If you rate one 3 and the other 5, people call you a snob, and say "The only restaurants you like are too expensive for real people to eat at" (plus, you never get the really good, hidden local dives people love to visit).

I've written a blurb that my star rating is based on an ideal version of the type of restaurant I'm reviewing. People don't understand or read that and still complain.

[Ericka A]

02:10 PM on 09/30/2011

A Yelper can’t ask Yelp to change a review. If she said she was a writer for SFWeekly and was actually a writer for SF Weekly Voice then she is responsible for changing her own review to reflect that.

It’s not hard to sniff out phony reviews. You usually put more weight into reviews written by people you know or people who have a Yelp presence.

Yelp sort probably only makes sense if you use the site regularly. I think they did a pretty good job of explaining it. They assume you are going to take reviews by your friends and people you follow more seriously. I know I do. Therefore, the reviews by people you are connected with usually show up first on a page.

If you have any common sense you will know to toss aside a review where the yelper gave 1 star because the glass had condensation on it and they can’t stand that. Again, it’s not perfect, but that’s why they don’t just have a star system. You’re able to write about your experience and people get a good idea about whether or not you’re review is useful.

When you go to Yelp Elite events you review the event, not the restaurant. You can decide to return and then review the restaurant. That statement is very misleading.

[Ggucguycu Ugcygucgcyuu]

01:14 PM on 09/30/2011

01:42 AM on 9/29/2011
ANNOUNCEME NT:

We have recently implemente d a system to outsmart yelp from hiding our filtered reviews:

Step 1- first of all, if you’re advertisin g with yelp, stop doing so and shift that money to optimize your own web site instead

Step 2- have a graphic designer make a yelp badge that is placed on your web site. It should say “we have …… filtered and unfiltered reviews on yelp”.

Step 3- when a visitor clicks on the badge, it will go to another page ON YOUR OWN WEB SITE (instead of going to yelp)

Step 4- on this page have your graphic designer get a screen capture (picture) of all your filtered and unfiltered reviews and have them pasted together onto one page.

Now, all your reviews (filtered or not) will be visible to all your web site visitors.

5- put a note on the top that says, “for your convenienc e we have placed all our filtered and unfiltered reviews on one page to see. If you’d like to go to our live yelp page, click here …………”

Make the whole page clickable to your live yelp page so no-one will say you’re trying hide something or to be dishonest

Just be sure to shift that $300 per month on yelp advertisin g and put it into KEYWORDS that people will search for.

[DSevere]

12:51 PM on 09/30/2011

You have to take these things with a grain of salt. I recently checked Yelp for downtown gyms, since we are moving there, then visited them in person.

And ended up joining the two star one, which I liked a lot better than the others that had better ratings.

[grod805]

12:22 AM on 09/30/2011

Something I've noticed from Yelp is that a lot of "yelpers" quickly go negative whenever a restaurant changes ownership. I think this is terrible because a lot of restaurants just want to make it and people already go visit with a negative view and usually give these places low rating.

I think yelp really needs a lot of work. The site could be a lot better.

[troutboy]

06:44 PM on 09/29/2011

At any website that offers reviews, the reader must take any information with a grain of salt. Whether the subject is restaurants (Yelp, for instance), electronics (BestBuy), books (Amazon). services or sporting goods, there are going to be biased, self-serving or anger driven reviews that may or may not provide legitimate information. A satisfied customer is much less likely to rush to their computer to post a review than someone who is angry or dissatisfied.

An analogous situation would be local city council meetings. Lets say that at the next meeting the main topic will be a building permit for a new shopping center. Who shows up to the meeting? The angry old curmudgeons who oppose everything (there seems to be one or two at every council meeting, anywhere), contractors & realtors who will make money in the construction and people who oppose it because there will be more traffic and "outsiders" in their neighborhood. People with nothing to gain or who aren't mad about the new development don't attend.

[gemini68]

11:16 AM on 09/30/2011

Exactly. And that's the whole point. You read the reviews and then decide for yourself. If anyone is relying on reviews to make their decisions for them than that's just naive.

[JustinP213]

05:06 PM on 09/29/2011

Most of these criticisms are without merit. Yelp is definitely a helpful website to use. I live in NYC, and I use it often. I don't make my decisions solely based on Yelp. But, for a lot of places I visit after reading reviews, I think that most of them are accurate.

[Rokgoo]

02:39 PM on 09/29/2011

The problems with Yelp are much more deeper. Yelp is just a fraud. They have professional writers (reviewers). After a business gets some independent reviews, Yelp ad-department calls the business and tries to sell advertisement. If the business is not agree to buy their offer, suddenly all reviews will be deleted as "false reviews". Just google it and you will find many bad reviews about Yelp itself.

[inkwell]

02:54 PM on 09/29/2011

If the business is not agree to buy their offer, suddenly all reviews will be deleted as "false reviews".

This is not as prevalent as you're intent on imparting. It's an exagerration. I've been Yelping for many years now, and have never seen anything like that happen. If it has happened, there may be more to the story than at face value.

Yelp is the most comprehensive and legitimite review site out there.

[Rokgoo]

03:50 PM on 09/29/2011

Hey, I would like to work for Yelp, do you know if your company have opening?

[Daniel Reitzenstein]

02:10 PM on 09/29/2011

yelp is the modern tech maffia, exchanging protection from and for reviews for advertising money. look no further than my mom's salon for reference. one awful review and one good review almost 3 years after the fact...and 18 good reviews filtered and not shown to anyone (can be found at the bottom of the page if you use a human captcha and know what you're looking for)

http://www.yelp.com/biz/head-to-toe-salon-and-spa-tarzana

[inkwell]

02:24 PM on 09/29/2011

If a reviewer doesn't have a diverse amount of reviews and has an "orange head", or, lack of a picture showing themself, Yelp will filter it out. That level of anonymity cannot be trusted and don't get the benefit of the doubt. Simple as that. Of those 18 reviews, I see 1 that Yelp likely should not have filtered out. Yelp gets scolded for allegedly letting every anonymous person review, then gets scolded for filtering out questionable reviews too. They can't win.

[O K Ali]

02:07 PM on 09/29/2011

I read Yelp and write a review once in awhile. I don't consider myself a foodie, but I know what I like. When choosing a restaurant, I don't just read the smoke-up-the-booty reviews, but the scathing ones as well. It's easy to pick out the personal vendettas and personal favors from the honest to goodness opinions. Just like my English teacher in high school use to tell us, I know how you talk so I know how you write. A person who has more than five reviews in different categories will get more pull than the one off review of a person that read something somewhere and decided to thrown two cents into the mix.

[LONDON3]

01:51 PM on 09/29/2011

Simply because someone disagrees about a review does not make it NOT worthy...... Food critics are also opinionated. Guess what, everyone has an opinion. You must be smart enough to filter whats real and whats not. Great reviews have lots of details that one can only get from a real experience.

Now I am not saying there are NOT fake reviews out there, but Yelp is not the only site with that issue........ Haters! I HATE them!
Hate reviews, then go get some REAL experience yourself !!!! Damn its that simple

[LOLatGOP]

01:50 PM on 09/29/2011

Yelp is a scam. I can't believe people still use it. It's nothing but owners, friends, families, and paid reviewers. There's a reason the less than stellar reviews are always filtered: they're trying to make as much money at IPO as possible, and to do that they need to ingratiate themselves to the business community.

[inkwell]

02:19 PM on 09/29/2011

ROFL

[grod805]

12:24 AM on 09/30/2011

It depends on the area you live in.. Where I live most restaurants have 100+ reviews. I doubt a couple of family / friend reviews would change the rating too much.

[caneca]

01:46 PM on 09/29/2011

I ignore any review site where chain restaurants are among the best rated.

[Wheelo]

01:30 PM on 09/29/2011

While Yelp is sometimes helpful for restaurants that don't have their own websites, I don't put any real credence in any of the reviews there after reading how Yelp tries to shake down restaurants to hide or not promote bad reviews.

This article was an eye-opener and Yelp's management did nothing to refute the accusations - just a lot of babbling and feet shuffling.

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/yelp-and-the-business-of-extortion-20/Content?oid=1176635

Zagat is a much better guide.

[cafecaro]

01:14 PM on 09/29/2011

For the MOST part, it's the younger generations that are using Yelp and writing reviews. It's not surprising that cheaper restaurants such as Tofu Guy will have a lot more reviews, that places like Le Bernandin.

Yelp is by the people for the people. If you don't know how to sift through reviews, then you don't understand how to use Yelp.