Fake restaurant still gets a passing grade
Setting up a fake restaurant (in name only, that is), placing it (for a fee) on a review site, then publishing nothing but bad reviews about it from various accounts—and still getting a passing grade from a restaurant site…? How does that work?
Shady joint
Not all review and/or comparison sites operate equally transparently. The Fork, renamed after Tripadvisor acquired restaurant review site Iens in 2015, is struggling to explain why the fake restaurant that the TV programme Rambam ‘set up’ for this journalistic investigation (then repeatedly rated it as far below average themselves) still received a passing grade. The setup consisted solely of putting together a website, adding some photos of, among other things, chickpeas, and then registering it with The Fork.
To be included as a restaurant in the search system, operators are required to use The Fork’s reservation system. This then costs them two euros per reserved seat. For large groups, this can really add up, restaurant owners say. It is also the case that if your restaurant offers hefty discounts, you move higher up the rankings.
Because not all restaurant owners are fond of the above, many have left the platform. Consumers therefore do not see all the restaurants in a city, and the highest-rated ones are not necessarily at the top either (because of the discounts offered by others).
You get a six! And you get a six!
But what happened to the makers of Rambam went a little further. They registered their fictional restaurant Mambar on The Fork, paid all the reservation fees, wrote fairly poor reviews about it from 44 different accounts, and should ultimately have ended up with a rating of 5.4. But things turned out differently. They were rewarded with a 6.2. And what did they discover? According to The Fork/Tripadvisor, there is virtually no restaurant anywhere in the Netherlands with a score below 6. That sounds super cosy, of course, but no bad restaurants in the entire country? We know better unfortunately…
The Fork has not yet been able to give Rambam a conclusive explanation (after an earlier confusing response stating that recent reviews and how experienced the reviewers are carry significant weight, although neither could have been a factor in the case of the short-lived Mambar). The Fork/Tripadvisor does say that it does not disclose details about exactly how its system and algorithm arrive at ratings.
The Consumers’ Association is also not amused if it turns out that the entire system is not based on fairness. “Then this entire rating system is essentially worthless, and it borders on deception,” they say in the programme.
If there are further developments to report, we will keep you posted. In any case, it reminds us of the YouTuber who set up a Deliveroo business serving nothing but reheated microwave meals!
Also read:
- Confession: I’m buying my house based on thuisbezorgd.nl
- Snackspert: ‘You simply feel like writing a scathing review too’
- I have a chef crush and I’m not ashamed
