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Rigged Google restaurant reviews in Vietnam

20 points by pg5 ↗ HN
Having traveled for a few weeks in Vietnam, the group I've been traveling with have noticed that quite a few restaurants that have 5 stars are using a sneaky tactic to game reviews on Google.

At the end of service, they ask specifically if you enjoyed the quality of the food, as well as the service, then if and only if you confirm both enthusiastically, do they hand you a QR code that takes you straight to the URL to leave a review.

This seems quite dishonest, as it's pre-selecting only positive reviews. My group of travelers have noticed anecdotally that really lackluster restaurants that use this tactic have 5 stars and a huge number of reviews, and it's completely destroyed our trust in the review system.

Has anyone else experienced this elsewhere?

20 comments

[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 51.1 ms ] thread
g-r-a-y-d
Many business in Massachusetts either have signs in the windows asking you to leave a Google review or at the end of the service ask you to leave a positive review. This has happened to me with tours, moving companies, at barbershops, laundromats, tailors and restaurants.

I don’t think it’s unethical but a requirement of a successful service business to ask all its customers to leave review, as long as the company/employee isn’t asking for the review quid-pro-quo.

pg5
Agree with you here, as long as they ask everyone (minus super rude customers). We've noticed here (by observing other tables), especially in the Hanoi, that they only give the QR code to people who enthusiastically answer and look like they are enjoying their food.
pg5
Also, with the QR code they stand there and expect you to write a review on the spot (which we've declined to do, rather awkwardly, every time)
sys32768
I went to a great Indian restaurant in Utah that did this relentlessly, each server giving their names and saying how much it would please their father if we would post a positive review on Google reviews and mention their name.

It then occurred to me why I always see so many reviews where the servers are mentioned by name.

sentientslug
Anecdotally it’s also semi common for restaurant employees to get some sort of small bonus for being mentioned in a positive review.
cpach
Haven’t experienced it, but I’m not surprised. Stuff like this is why I don’t take reviews on Google Maps that seriously.
MattBearman
This is a common tactic in app stores - app asks if you like using the app, and only asks you to review if you respond positively
cddotdotslash
It gets worse than that at some places. I was just in Vietnam and some restaurants offered discounts if you left 5-star reviews. In China, a place actually went as far as confirming you'd left the review by viewing it on their device (literally refreshing until it appeared) and then keying in the discount.
Nextgrid
As other commenters mentioned, this has been common practice in app stores for a while now. The integrity and usefulness of any ratings/review system depends on how well cheating is addressed.

None of the reviews platforms have any incentives to address cheating, either because their business model doesn't depend on their reviews functionality (Google Reviews doesn't make Google any money and is unrelated to Google's ad business, so no reason to care about cheaters) or because it's more profitable to take the side of the cheaters and operate a pay-to-play system (where paying customers can moderate/remove/downrank negative reviews) than to operate an honest platform.

Georgelemental
Google Reviews provides a reason for people to use Google Maps, which gives Google location data they can use to target advertising.
kamikaz1k
I don’t understand the complaint to be honest…why would a business owner _want_ someone to leave a review less than 5 stars?

Especially if you consider, that most people will only naturally leave a review if their experience was negative.

Hate the game, not the player.

AussieWog93
If you're looking for an unbiased review system, just eat at the places with lots of locals in them.

If a restaurant or street food stand is empty, move on.

tayo42
Ehh in the US you end up at Mc Donald's and chick fil a.
linuxdude314
Are you seriously coming down on people in a developing country because of some statistical fairness issue you perceive?

It’s not a quid-pro-quo, it’s them asking you to write your honest opinion.

pg5
Is it not unfair to their fellow restaurants that don't use this tactic and simply have good good chefs/cooks?
linuxdude314
You’re so close!

This is the problem with reviews in general.

Anything in the middle of the bell curve is “unworthy” of a review so only exceptionally bad or good performance is reviewed.

shoebham
This is quite a common practice in some countries, Here in India there's a whatsapp scam going where someone from an international number contacts you to give fake ratings to places on google maps in return for 150INR (1.8 USD)
keiferski
This might be balanced out by the fact that reviews tend to be biased toward negative experiences, as positive/average experiences don't warrant taking the time to review.
davidtranjs
I experience the same as well, they will ask you to give a review at the end. I think this is a smart strategy. Software developers have been doing it for years when they ask users to leave a review in the app. And I dont think there is any ethical intention here. If you don't want to leave a good review then you can ignore their request.

Btw, the review system is always rigged. Same story at Yelp, AppStore, TrustPilot, Agoda. Instead of reading the good review, you can filter out them and read the bad review firsts.