posting a restaurant review in Trip Advisor query

miss choc

Mods change if not right thread here.

Just looking for advice re Trip Advisor when posting a review. I was at a good friends birthday last Friday in a restaurant out of town and whilst the atmosphere, company etc was good the food left a lot to be desired. I would sometimes put reviews good and bad up on Menupages but they are not up there so I decided to put an honest review of my experience. A few gripes that I had were getting a wrong starter, my half finished drink taken away from me, my friend getting a piece of bacon in her vegetarian dish and "one" potato in my Christmas dinner and when I ordered a coffee the coffee machine was broken?? Anyway I put it up on Sunday thought nothing more of it and got a text from the birthday girl saying the manager had contacted her directly about the review and was shocked by it. Firstly I had booked the meal in October and had been point of contact between the Manager should she not have contacted me direct since I was the reviewer also there was only two parties there that night so she probably figured it was me as she was on that night. Was it bad form that she contacted my friend? My friend said she was going to email the hotel later in week as she had got some negative feedback from others but I feel bad now that I put up an honest review that was meant for the hotel and if they had issues to "contact me" and I would have explained the night with them good and bad. I feel I have embarrassed my friend which was meant to be her night and I kinda feel crap I put up the review with no malice as I always do on TA this was my first bad review of an Irish place as places overseas never reply to my review. TA never alerted me so I wasnt aware the manager had sent a review last night till I checked that would have been fine to reply and I would have thanked them but I thought because it was me putting the review up why did they contact my friend I would prefer her not knowing my issues with them as I didnt want to upset her I didnt even say anything on the night cos she was enjoying herself.

the beer revolu

Hotel were totally out of order there, and probably in breach of TA guidelines in contacting anyone to basically hassle them about the review, especially as you were the contact and not your friend.

I have had similar experiences but much more extreme over a negative review I posted about an Irish hotel. I ended up falling out with a colleague and losing a lot of work because the hotel gave the person who booked me in such a hard time.

Just apologise to your friend saying you never, ever expected the hotel to contact them.

You could, if you like, speak to the manager and ask them why they didn't contact you as you made the booking.

You could also report the incident to Trip Advisor as I think the only acceptable response is to respond on the Trip Advisor site.

Luke92

I know of worse experiences.

The co-owner/manager of a <SNIP> eatery tracked down a bad reviewer and went out to the girls house! Effing and blinding out of her to the poor terrified woman who was about 7 months pregnant! The woman's husband had to go to the door to sort the <SNIP> out.

So yeah you got off lightly to some restauranteurs and hoteliers.

MissFlitworth

Hey OP, moved to Consumer Issues as I think this is a better fit for it

miss choc

Ta thanks for that

dudara

Posters - please don't post general experiences with TripAdvisor or anecdotes. Please stick to offering advice to the OP.

dudara

thejaguar

My 2 cents worth

1. Did you make any complaint on the night about the quality of the food or the service?
If not, it's a little unfair to then put up a negative review.
If you did point it out on the night and it was not dealt with in a satisfactory manor, then you were right to post the review.

2. Regardless of the above, the hotel/restaurant manager was way out of line.

Manach

Personally it is important to have genuine reviews like this in circulation so as to both reward or rebuke service received. At least the OP was not fined by the owner, as per a recent British news article over a bad review. There the local standards authority stepped in and fined the owner over this practice.

D3PO

OP I don't really see the issue from the Hotel / Restaurant. I do wonder however how they could have had contact details for your friend if you booked it ? That doesn't tally at all.

However they had her details I have to assume the genuinely thought she put up the review. You haven't actually said what the manager and your friends had as a discussion except for saying the manager was shocked by it. That doesn't explain anything, they could have been unaware of the issues which would make the details of the review shocking.

What else was discussed, did the manager apologise, did they offer any thing my way of apology ?

Whilst I also put up reviews on menupages both good and bad the first port of call is to at the time call the manager over and bring up the problems, this gives them an opportunity to remediate the issues, something they do not have the ability to do if you write a review after the fact.

It seems you didn't bother to do this for whatever reason.

Greenmachine

Hotel manager was definitely way out of line. Horrible behaviour.

D3PO

Manach wrote: »

Personally it is important to have genuine reviews like this in circulation so as to both reward or rebuke service received. At least the OP was not fined by the owner, as per a recent British news article over a bad review. There the local standards authority stepped in and fined the owner over this practice.

It is also best to give the establishment being reviewed the opportunity to rectify the complaint before putting up a wholly negative review. That doesn't mean you don't still put the review up but that at least you can conclude the review by mentioning how they dealt with the complaint weather positively or negatively.

There is no harm in a bit of balance even when posting a bad review, things can and do go wrong even in the best run companies, what separates the good from the bad is generally how they deal with your complaint and not necessarily that fact there was a complaint in the first instance.

D3PO

Greenmachine wrote: »

Hotel manager was definitely way out of line. Horrible behaviour.

which behavior was horrible ? We don't know what the conversation the hotel manager had with the contact at all.

Nor do we know why the contacted that person. Which seems strange that they would have the contact number of that person unless they were a point of contact.

Ive never been asked for my contact details in any restaurant where I didn't make a booking so theres something not quite being disclosed here.

I think it would be worth us getting the actual details before condemning the manager.

miss choc

I had mentioned in an early email with the manager if I could have a veg soup instead of what was on offer and she said back in Nov by email that was fine on the night I asked for it and said they could not do it. So I had to get a cheese salad most people had finished their starters by the time I got mine as the waiter gave me smoked salmon in error which I pointed out. My half drank glass of gin was taken which they in fairness apologised and replaced but because it was my good friends 40th I did not want to make a fuss and ruin her night. The manager was nowhere at the end of the night and I only heard about the meat in my vegetarian friends dish at the end of the night. I also asked for a coffee at the bar and they said the machine was broken If I have issues with a place I will always put a review up and if I contact a place will point out the good and bad points which I was going to do but the Manager decides to go straight to my friend and email her. I was very upset about it last night as it sounded I was ungrateful but I explained there was no malice and I was just putting up an honest review. Luckilly she is a placid person and she was cool about it but I'm still angry at the manager :mad: I never wanted to kick off about the issues on the night especially someone elses but because I had booked it and was point of contact I felt responsible that stuff should have gone according to plan but then again thats the hotels fault not mine.

D3PO

miss choc why are you not answering my questions ?

1) How did they have contact details for your friend
2) What was the exact conversation had outside of the manager being "shocked" by the review

on a separate note, making a genuine complaint and kicking off are two very different things. It is very very easy to quietly pull the manager aside away from the group and have a discussion with them.

Greenmachine

D3PO wrote: »

It is also best to give the establishment being reviewed the opportunity to rectify the complaint before putting up a wholly negative review. That doesn't mean you don't still put the review up but that at least you can conclude the review by mentioning how they dealt with the complaint weather positively or negatively.

There is no harm in a bit of balance even when posting a bad review, things can and do go wrong even in the best run companies, what separates the good from the bad is generally how they deal with your complaint and not necessarily that fact there was a complaint in the first instance.

There was no need to contact the OP's friend. The hotel could have posted their rebuttal directly on the review website.

D3PO

Greenmachine wrote: »

There was no need to contact the OP's friend. The hotel could have posted their rebuttal directly on the review website.

and how did they have the Ops friends contact details. Do you not agree that it is very strange that they would have the random contact details of somebody attending dinner unless they were a contact ? Have you ever been asked for other attendees contact details when booking dinner for a group ? I certainly haven't and don't know anybody who has either.

sounds more than a little odd. Hence why I think we should get some clarification of how they had said persons details and the content of the discussion before passing judgement.

Melendez

This post has been deleted.

miss choc

My friend would have given the Manager details nearer the time to doubly confirm numbers as there were family too. Manager rang me in Nov looking for €15 upfront from everyone that was coming as it was Christmas and they needed an exact number one person didnt come because they were sick so I hope they refunded her the money. I dealt with the Manager on 3 occasions to make booking, ask for food and wine menu, and again by email to confirm details on the menu like what was meat in pie, was tea/coffee extra etc.. I also got a call from her re the €15 from everyone I needed to check then with my friend as I would not have an exact final figure and she needed to pay the €15's to the hotel herself so that is where the Manager would have had her details late Nov but I started the ball rolling. I couldnt pull the Manager aside as there were a lot at the table and didnt want it to be obvious on the night I couldnt find her at the end. I literally was just putting an honest review up of my experience and then if my friend needed to contact her later that was fine but not for the Manager to directly contact my friend based on my review. Manager did reply to the TA review on the site and I emailed her in detail last night and thanked her for the positives as didnt want to seem like a bi*** but havent heard back from her. I have also emailed TA about this and waiting to hear back. We will see what unfolds.

D3PO

miss choc wrote: »

My friend would have given the Manager details nearer the time to doubly confirm numbers as there were family too.

Ok so then you were not the single point of contact. Was there any clarity on the review of whom made the complaint ? Its perfectly understandable that the manager reached out to a contact when they saw a bad review. Im not defending the situation but it certainly puts a very different spin on things than you insinuated in your opening post.

Manager rang me in Nov looking for €15 upfront from everyone that was coming as it was Christmas and they needed an exact number one person didnt come because they were sick so I hope they refunded her the money. I dealt with the Manager on 3 occasions to make booking, ask for food and wine menu, and again by email to confirm details on the menu like what was meat in pie, was tea/coffee extra etc.. I also got a call from her re the €15 from everyone I needed to check then with my friend as I would not have an exact final figure and she needed to pay the €15's to the hotel herself so that is where the Manager would have had her details late Nov but I started the ball rolling. I couldnt pull the Manager aside as there were a lot at the table and didnt want it to be obvious on the night I couldnt find her at the end.

Its very easy to get up from the table and go speak to the manager out of earshot.

I literally was just putting an honest review up of my experience and then if my friend needed to contact her later that was fine but not for the Manager to directly contact my friend based on my review. Manager did reply to the TA review on the site and I emailed her in detail last night and thanked her for the positives as didnt want to seem like a bi*** but havent heard back from her. I have also emailed TA about this and waiting to hear back. We will see what unfolds.

You still haven't provided any detail of the discussion the manager had with your friend. For all we know she contacted her to say she was surprised by the review and appologised and provided feedback on how they could improve certain things or offering some kind of gesture to your friend in lieu of the bad experience.

Your expecting people to comment on a very vauge post severly lacking in detail to give a genuine opinion.

Right now theres nothing to condem the manager for to be honest.

I find it strange that I have to for the third time ask you about what the exact conversation the manager had with your friend is. Why are you being so evasive with detail ?

miss choc

This is the text I got trying not to be vague "Hiya I got mail from ..... she didnt know I had a crap experience and asked if that was our general consensus" My friend just got an email. I can't be more specific on what was between my friend and the Manager. I contacted the Manager by mail and have not had a response also when I do I want to ring her and point out the good things too. I did not feel it was my place to take someone aside on the night where there is a party of 13 people and said I would deal with it the next day. If the manager had contacted me I would have explained and my friend would have been left out of it I didnt want her to have to deal with the crap. The only thing I guess what happened is that the manager saw the review and went straight to the main person my friend, even though my user name is my first name so she knew well it was me and not my friend. I will wait for TA to get back and if I dont here from Manager I will ring her direct as I want to explain my review (good and bad to her) All posts I do on TA or menupages are honest experiences which I'm entitled to write about.

D3PO

ok so I think we should all hold off passing judgment then until we know the facts.

The manger reached out to a contact person for the meal and we do not know what he or she said to your friend. I think before condemning the manager you should get the email forwarded to yourself and then after reading it call the manager to discuss.

Right now we would all be jumping to conclusions to give any opinion.

miss choc

True I can only wait I sent Manager a mail re her TA response so am still waiting. And interested to see reponse from TA too in terms of 3rd party contact on someones review.

dudara

Irrespective, the OP used a particular channel to make a complaint/leave a review (i.e. TripAdvisor). I do think that the manager should have used the same channel to respond. The manager made assumptions about the owner of the review, which I really don't think they should have done.

D3PO

dudara wrote: »

Irrespective, the OP used a particular channel to make a complaint/leave a review (i.e. TripAdvisor). I do think that the manager should have used the same channel to respond. The manager made assumptions about the owner of the review, which I really don't think they should have done.

The OP has said they responded to the TA review. I see no issue in also reaching out to a contact of the group making the complaint pending what exactly was said.

For all we know the manager was deeply apologetic, provided a gesture of goodwill given the feedback and provided information on how they were going to correct the deficiencies pointed out in the review.

Now of course they may not but I think its only fair we wait to know more before condemning what may actually turn out to be a very good response to a complaint made.

Dudara not sure if its allowed but can the OP post a link to the TA review or can we ask for this via Pm ? Might be good to actually see the review and the response to actually give some reasonable feedback to the OP here.

dudara

For all we know the manager was deeply apologetic, provided a gesture of goodwill given the feedback and provided information on how they were going to correct the deficiencies pointed out in the review.

If the venue had already responded on TA, I don't think they should have followed up with the person without first asking permission if they could contact them in person. It's just politeness really, and it sets the context for a conversation.

D3PO wrote: »

Dudara not sure if its allowed but can the OP post a link to the TA review or can we ask for this via Pm ? Might be good to actually see the review and the response to actually give some reasonable feedback to the OP here.

I don't think that would be fair, as we would be making both the establishment and the OP identifiable. The OP can choose to reveal that via PM if they wish, but it is their choice. I do not want anyone soliciting that information from them.

P. Breathnach

D3PO wrote: »

The OP has said they responded to the TA review. I see no issue in also reaching out to a contact of the group making the complaint pending what exactly was said....

OP has told us that it should be reasonably obvious which of the contact persons in the group posted the review because of the use of her first name in the review.

It's bad form of the manager to drag OP's friend in, while ignoring OP.

miss choc

Thanks all what 99% of people are saying to me, the manager should have contacted me and not upset my friend by directly contacting her I would have dealt with it. It ended up my friend disappointed that we did not enjoy our food, me being upset as I didnt want to get my friend involved, and me angry that the manager did that. I was embarrassed when I got the text and apologised and told her it no wait reflected the good night ie company, atmosphere we had and I enjoyed it and there was no malice intended in the genuine review I had put up. Luckilly she is a good friend and agreed with me that service and food could have been better but I didnt want her having to deal with a "shock" email from the place.

delahuntv

why is it that instead of bringing any issues to the attention of the manager on duty on the night or making a formal copmplaint to the establishment the next day, people run as fast as they can home to post "reviews" up.

my oh my, you got a wrong starter. Open your mouth and say it to the server. It will be corrected.

A piece of meat fell into the vegetarian dish (are you 100% certain it was and not something that looked like bacon), again, SAY IT TO THE SERVER!

Coffee machine broken - sure if they served you instant coffee you'd whine about that too.



Its as simple as this - get your gripes heard there and then. If no satisfaction, write to the place and ask for a response. If at THAT stage you don't get a response, THEN post wherever you like, but for christ's sake give them a chance to rectify it.

Surely at one point in your life you have made an error or screwed up - would you like if the person you made the error on suddenly shouted about that to everyone without giving you a chance to correct yourself?

delahuntv

miss choc wrote: »

Thanks all what 99% of people are saying to me, the manager should have contacted me and not upset my friend by directly contacting her I would have dealt with it. It ended up my friend disappointed that we did not enjoy our food, me being upset as I didnt want to get my friend involved, and me angry that the manager did that. I was embarrassed when I got the text and apologised and told her it no wait reflected the good night ie company, atmosphere we had and I enjoyed it and there was no malice intended in the genuine review I had put up. Luckilly she is a good friend and agreed with me that service and food could have been better but I didnt want her having to deal with a "shock" email from the place.

But YOU posted on trip advisor without giving the hotel a chance of rectifying itself.

100% your fault that your friend is upset.

TheDriver

I am still at a loss as to how the manager "upset" your friend? Maybe they want to make amends and offer another dinner etc?

If I post a review on TA, I don't be specific about dates etc and don't post a review the next day as anonymity is key.......

D3PO

miss choc wrote: »

Thanks all what 99% of people are saying to me, the manager should have contacted me and not upset my friend by directly contacting her I would have dealt with it. It ended up my friend disappointed that we did not enjoy our food, me being upset as I didnt want to get my friend involved, and me angry that the manager did that. I was embarrassed when I got the text and apologised and told her it no wait reflected the good night ie company, atmosphere we had and I enjoyed it and there was no malice intended in the genuine review I had put up. Luckilly she is a good friend and agreed with me that service and food could have been better but I didnt want her having to deal with a "shock" email from the place.

I don't understand why anybody would be embarrassed by putting up an honest review, nor do I understand why anybody would be upset that somebody in their party was unhappy with their meal.

its not a reflection on them nor is it a reflection of their company. If I were your friend the only thing Id be upset with is the fact you didn't speak up at the time and got the issues sorted there and then rather than going off and venting online.

Right now at worst we can say the manager should have contacted you and not the other contact person, but that's it. We still have no idea what the manager said to your friend nor does it appear you have actually spoken to your friend about it or you would at least know the jist of what the manager said to them.

The service may not have been up to scratch but by god you don't half seem to be making a mountain out of a molehill.

as Dellahunt said regardless of you trying to justify it the first port of call should have been for you to approach the manager on the night to raise your issues. Going online posting reviews without giving a company an opportunity to rectify the problem or problems is a pretty unreasonable thing to do.

the hotel clearly have not delivered a satisfactory service but you haven't approached it in the right way either. Im not trying to defend the undefendable but I think its only fair to point out that your actions have also contributed to the situation here.