Sep 13, 2023·edited Sep 13, 2023Liked by Brent Hartinger
The best thing I've heard said about this whole review culture is that we're now expected to be the unpaid marketing intern in the company's publicity department.. (I wish I could remember who said this, because it's brilliant and I wish it had been me.)
I've stopped leaving reviews entirely. It takes too much mental energy that I need to save for my actual creative work...
"I had a wonderful stay in this great property, and Myrtle was the perfect hostess oh my god the bathroom almost killed me stay away I can't believe how great the whole experience was and I'm sure it will meet your expectations too. Thanks for a fabulous time and please write me a nice review!"
Review inflation is absolutely a real thing and it drives us crazy. I actually think it started with the hotel booking sites where the ratings start with "Exceptional" and the euphemisms get slightly less enthusiastic until you get to "Nice" which is usually a descriptor for accommodations that are an appliance box under a bridge. Side note...I Executive Produced a television special with Shelley and she was just a delight. She told me that Stanley was running out of money when they were shooting "The Shining" and the studio would not give him any more so he drew advances on the budget and put the cash into short term CDs to increase the amount he had to shoot. Go figure :)
Oh! Isn't she lovely? I did a whole series of interviews with her, and I was totally charmed. Completely unlike every other celebrity I've ever met. Innocent and sweet.
Dying here… not like Shelley Duval dying 🤪 That was about the funniest thing I’ve read in years! I give you guys a 10-star rating. Or better yet an 11 … on par with This is Spinal Tap. Thank you both for making my day!
There aren't enough "laugh" emojis to show how hilarious this was. I've been reading hotel reviews lately in lieu of a trip and it's amazing what people complain about. A hangnail would require a trip to the ER, for pete's sake. No wonder they want 4.6 or higher just to compensate for the whiners.
If you’ve never seen the Black Mirror episode “Nosedive” … well, once you’ve seen it there’s no more to be said about reviews and where they’re taking us. Which of course Black Mirror specializes in — taking current technology to its logical if absurd and terrifying ending.
I’ve never grasped the mental process behind the reviewing and rating process by guests, nor the expectations from owners. A recent review I came across:
“The room smells, the sheets are not changed, the sink is dead, the water in the bucket is not clean, the bathroom is dirty, there are cigarette butts, the owner doesn't want to accept orders from the online platform, so you have to pay again when you arrive at the place.”
Michael and I are both writers of books, and we used to laugh about the opposite thing. People would write, "I LOOOOOVED this book! It's great! It changed my life!" Three stars.
Oh my gosh. Brent, your commentary on reviews and your hierarchy systems had me in stitches. Thanks for the laughs on the matter; I appreciate your comedic take on all this. I'm glad people are seeing the current state of review culture as ridiculous. Reviews themselves are valuable, but they are wholly unregulated save for extreme cases.
I worked in Social Media Content Management years ago (mostly design, advertising, marketing), but when 'Review Management' was added to my plate I stepped away. Reviews transitioned from helpful feedback to advertising, destabilization of consumer choice, and market control. Businesses have weaponized them to mimic the hotel industry's pricing tiers, middle management relies on them to replace the cost of supervising employees (like cashiers, associates, etc), and customers become conditioned to be amazed by mediocrity. Just as 5-star reviews = acceptable, 1-star reviews are more likely to be seen as 'unreasonable' unless colossal failure occurs among a high percentage of users - especially when facing a overwhelming wall of 5-star reviews.
Customer voice and power over businesses has been reduced greatly, once again. It's all about leveraging, and all about money. *sigh*
Yeah, I don't know what the hell the answer is. The current system is crazy but OTOH, any system seems like it is quickly gamed and corrupted -- and yeah, weaponized, in businesses, but also by clients -- exactly because reviews have become so unbelievably important, as you say.
That's funny, you're absolutely right: customers' voices have been reduced yet again. So ironic.
Ha! This was brilliant!! I've never stayed in an Airbnb that deserved 5 stars. Even if I enjoyed for the most part, something was always wrong. The worst was walking into one that hadn't even been flipped from the last guests. Like, the bedding was just piled up beside the wash machine. Bare mattresses.
I can't believe the balls of essentially telling guests they're assholes if they don't leave 5 stars 🤣
Thank you for the good laugh this morning. This type of review inflation has been around for years. Review culture has gotten so bad, you cannot tell what the truth is anymore. I cannot count the times I have heard a business tell a customer if they cannot leave five stars, not to leave a review at all. I worked in home construction, and at the first walk through the homeowner manual plainly stated anything less than 5 stars IS a bad review... and this goes back over 20 years.
Makes my blood boil, signs like that do. What Airbnb needs to do is standardise their rating system (and show the key at every stage during the review process) so that everyone always knows what the stars mean.
I hear you, but disagree :) At the moment there is so much interpretation as to what the stars mean... 5 stars = my experience was out-of-this-world exceptional / this place is 5-star and in line with 5-star hotels / the place was clean / I have no complaints. And when hosts (like the ones at the place you stayed at recently) try to guide guests through THEIR interpretation of the star rating (which is skewed to get them a 5-star rating), then that just muddies things further. To my mind if the rating system is standardised, and labels are clearly shown every time a guest needs to rate something (5 stars = excellent, 4 stars = good, 3 stars = average, 2 stars = weak, 1 star = terrible) then that would hopefully (!) work as an effective guide and bring some consistency and truth (in an ideal world) to reviews. IMO :)
Right but the problem is that we need a standard even apart from Airbnb. They can post one thing, but if everyone else "thinks" something else, or if other platforms have different ides, then it's still muddied. Which is where we are today. But I agree with you that the current situation is just not working. I just don't know how we standardize it internet-wide. There's no way, for example, Amazon users will ever accept "anything less than five stars is a bad review."
The best thing I've heard said about this whole review culture is that we're now expected to be the unpaid marketing intern in the company's publicity department.. (I wish I could remember who said this, because it's brilliant and I wish it had been me.)
I've stopped leaving reviews entirely. It takes too much mental energy that I need to save for my actual creative work...
Exactly! And if we are not 100% on board (often for good reason), it means the end of their business...
which is why I just don't review anymore at all unless I have something spectacularly good or spectacularly bad (usually the former) to say.
The weird thing about online culture is that everything slowly seems to become irrelevant. Everything is eventually gamed.
You expressed perfectly how I feel, and why I rarely review anything. Every time I get a review request, it's like, "Ugh. More homework."
"I had a wonderful stay in this great property, and Myrtle was the perfect hostess oh my god the bathroom almost killed me stay away I can't believe how great the whole experience was and I'm sure it will meet your expectations too. Thanks for a fabulous time and please write me a nice review!"
It's funny cuz it's true. LOL
Oh yeah... Sink pedestal not actually attached to wall, upstate NY...
Loved this. Loved the Shelley Duvall theme. 😂
Why thank you!
Review inflation is absolutely a real thing and it drives us crazy. I actually think it started with the hotel booking sites where the ratings start with "Exceptional" and the euphemisms get slightly less enthusiastic until you get to "Nice" which is usually a descriptor for accommodations that are an appliance box under a bridge. Side note...I Executive Produced a television special with Shelley and she was just a delight. She told me that Stanley was running out of money when they were shooting "The Shining" and the studio would not give him any more so he drew advances on the budget and put the cash into short term CDs to increase the amount he had to shoot. Go figure :)
Oh! Isn't she lovely? I did a whole series of interviews with her, and I was totally charmed. Completely unlike every other celebrity I've ever met. Innocent and sweet.
Dying here… not like Shelley Duval dying 🤪 That was about the funniest thing I’ve read in years! I give you guys a 10-star rating. Or better yet an 11 … on par with This is Spinal Tap. Thank you both for making my day!
Thank you! lol
I completely disagree with this. Cannibalism should always get ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐.
Note to self: Never be alone with Amran.
Especially with steak sauce in the room!
This was laugh out loud funny and a great start to my day!
Thank you!
Thanks for the laughs! Since I’m about to take an international flight, I really hope the scale goes higher than your 5 stars.
There aren't enough "laugh" emojis to show how hilarious this was. I've been reading hotel reviews lately in lieu of a trip and it's amazing what people complain about. A hangnail would require a trip to the ER, for pete's sake. No wonder they want 4.6 or higher just to compensate for the whiners.
hahaha, yes, we've got a whole world of whiners these days, don't we?
If you’ve never seen the Black Mirror episode “Nosedive” … well, once you’ve seen it there’s no more to be said about reviews and where they’re taking us. Which of course Black Mirror specializes in — taking current technology to its logical if absurd and terrifying ending.
Oh! Loved that ep. Love the whole series, actually. Hard to watch but always on point. LOL
Hilarious. And so true! How can we trust a platform with so many false and inflated reviews?
It's all becoming meaningless, isn't it? And thank you!
I’ve never grasped the mental process behind the reviewing and rating process by guests, nor the expectations from owners. A recent review I came across:
“The room smells, the sheets are not changed, the sink is dead, the water in the bucket is not clean, the bathroom is dirty, there are cigarette butts, the owner doesn't want to accept orders from the online platform, so you have to pay again when you arrive at the place.”
Title of review?
“Acceptable.”
🤷♂️
LOL
Michael and I are both writers of books, and we used to laugh about the opposite thing. People would write, "I LOOOOOVED this book! It's great! It changed my life!" Three stars.
Oh my gosh. Brent, your commentary on reviews and your hierarchy systems had me in stitches. Thanks for the laughs on the matter; I appreciate your comedic take on all this. I'm glad people are seeing the current state of review culture as ridiculous. Reviews themselves are valuable, but they are wholly unregulated save for extreme cases.
I worked in Social Media Content Management years ago (mostly design, advertising, marketing), but when 'Review Management' was added to my plate I stepped away. Reviews transitioned from helpful feedback to advertising, destabilization of consumer choice, and market control. Businesses have weaponized them to mimic the hotel industry's pricing tiers, middle management relies on them to replace the cost of supervising employees (like cashiers, associates, etc), and customers become conditioned to be amazed by mediocrity. Just as 5-star reviews = acceptable, 1-star reviews are more likely to be seen as 'unreasonable' unless colossal failure occurs among a high percentage of users - especially when facing a overwhelming wall of 5-star reviews.
Customer voice and power over businesses has been reduced greatly, once again. It's all about leveraging, and all about money. *sigh*
Why thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.
Yeah, I don't know what the hell the answer is. The current system is crazy but OTOH, any system seems like it is quickly gamed and corrupted -- and yeah, weaponized, in businesses, but also by clients -- exactly because reviews have become so unbelievably important, as you say.
That's funny, you're absolutely right: customers' voices have been reduced yet again. So ironic.
I hate so many things about the modern world. LOL
Ha! This was brilliant!! I've never stayed in an Airbnb that deserved 5 stars. Even if I enjoyed for the most part, something was always wrong. The worst was walking into one that hadn't even been flipped from the last guests. Like, the bedding was just piled up beside the wash machine. Bare mattresses.
I can't believe the balls of essentially telling guests they're assholes if they don't leave 5 stars 🤣
Thanks! Yeah, it's crazy.
Oh, my, that hasn't happened to us yet. LOL
Hopefully it never does!
Thank you for the good laugh this morning. This type of review inflation has been around for years. Review culture has gotten so bad, you cannot tell what the truth is anymore. I cannot count the times I have heard a business tell a customer if they cannot leave five stars, not to leave a review at all. I worked in home construction, and at the first walk through the homeowner manual plainly stated anything less than 5 stars IS a bad review... and this goes back over 20 years.
You're welcome!
Yup, the status quo is not workable. Just totally unhelpful to the consumer.
Makes my blood boil, signs like that do. What Airbnb needs to do is standardise their rating system (and show the key at every stage during the review process) so that everyone always knows what the stars mean.
Yes, but if Airbnb is doing it, it has the same effect, making reviews pointless.
I hear you, but disagree :) At the moment there is so much interpretation as to what the stars mean... 5 stars = my experience was out-of-this-world exceptional / this place is 5-star and in line with 5-star hotels / the place was clean / I have no complaints. And when hosts (like the ones at the place you stayed at recently) try to guide guests through THEIR interpretation of the star rating (which is skewed to get them a 5-star rating), then that just muddies things further. To my mind if the rating system is standardised, and labels are clearly shown every time a guest needs to rate something (5 stars = excellent, 4 stars = good, 3 stars = average, 2 stars = weak, 1 star = terrible) then that would hopefully (!) work as an effective guide and bring some consistency and truth (in an ideal world) to reviews. IMO :)
Right but the problem is that we need a standard even apart from Airbnb. They can post one thing, but if everyone else "thinks" something else, or if other platforms have different ides, then it's still muddied. Which is where we are today. But I agree with you that the current situation is just not working. I just don't know how we standardize it internet-wide. There's no way, for example, Amazon users will ever accept "anything less than five stars is a bad review."
I think for the Brent & Michael five star rating you should have had a typo.
Hehehe!