YELP!!! Help!!

A Five Star Review

Any growing business strives to be rated positively online and attract more customers. As online presence in the business world becomes increasingly important, so do online reviews about businesses. Reviews are becoming the deciding factor for people looking online for a particular service. It seems logical that businesses would go to great lengths to ensure that their customers leave wanting to rave about their experience online, however, some businesses may be taking the desire for good reviews to an extreme.

One example is New York’s unique and quirky Union Street Guest Hotel. According to PageSix, the hotel has a policy of a $500 fine for anyone who has booked a wedding party at their hotel and then given a negative review on Yelp. The fee can be refunded if the reviewer takes down the review or changes it to a positive one. Considering that reviewing websites such as Yelp are a place for honestly and awareness about the faults of businesses, Yelpers are not happy about this drastic, controlling policy.

This policy essentially takes the truth out of reviews since people are being held at financial gunpoint to give the hotel a good review. Because we would have no knowledge of which reviews are truthful, policies of this nature this could make reviewing sites virtually useless.

Although managing your online reputation is crucial for a business to thrive, bullying positive reviews out of customers is not the way to achieve success. Not only does it avoid the inherent problems that customers may find with a business, but will ultimately piss a lot of people off. Both of these consequences are counterproductive for any business.

A tip for the Union Street Guest Hotel; use negative reviews as a chance to improve your business and maybe one day your rating on Yelp can be achieved fair and square.


Nicole Rideout is an Intern at Elizabeth Lampert PR