We value your feedback (especially if it’s positive). Illustration: Viktor Morozuk
If you enjoy reading this column, please rate it below …
Actually, before you go scrolling to the bottom to give me a one-star review, the option does not exist. You can, of course, post a comment, which many of you do. But we don’t provide an opportunity to give a star rating and thank goodness for that.
Online reviews and star rating systems have taken over the world, whether you’re staying at a hotel, eating dinner, riding in a car, buying a hat – everything we do, we can review.
Is it a good system? Is it fit for purpose? Does it provide us with valuable insights and tips on services we want to avail ourselves of, or is it a flawed, abused and unreliable service that allows poor services to prosper and good providers to suffer?
First of all, a declaration of non-interest from me. I never read reviews, be it for movies, music, restaurants, or hotels. I always believe I don’t need to hear someone else’s view of something to decide if I will see things the same.
I also believe many critics are pompous, supercilious egomaniacs who try to outdo each other with their pontificating views, not daring to speak out against the latest art-house movie or music, or trendy café, through fear they will be accused of “missing the point” – or being left of the next round of celebrity interviews or product junkets.
In the same manner, I also ignore star ratings. As an experiment, read through some reviews you can find on travel or restaurant sites. Have a look at some of the reasons given for awarding a hotel a one-star rating.
Not enough dessert choices, not being able to get a chair close enough to the pool, not being able to work the remote control for the air-conditioning – just some of the grievous shortcomings put forward to justify slamming a hotel for its service.
How can this be fair? How can a business have its reputation trashed because of the views of a couple of disgruntled customers whose disappointment, while justified, may have been expressed during a heat-of-the-moment reaction to not having enough pepper in the shaker at dinner time?
Yes, the rating system is useful for sending a message to a service to buck up its ways to maybe change its approach to customer relations. And for sure, some very ordinary providers have been run out of business because nobody enjoyed the experience.
But there are also plenty of reports of businesses rorting the system, getting their mates to deliver favourable reviews, or even getting their friends to denigrate their business rivals. Yet another reason why I don’t put my trust in star ratings.
On the plus side, ignoring the reviews often makes booking tables at restaurants or getting a cheap hotel easier. On the negative, you always run the risk of, despite all the online warnings, booking yourself in for a dreadful experience.
We are too far gone to change the system. But at the very least, we should be wary. It is not a foolproof system, and it is open to abuse.
I give this column five stars.
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