For a lot of businesses, typically the kind that most people don’t generally review, a good rating doesn’t really mean anything, a bad rating might if there’s a few of them.
For restaurants, cafes and bars it depends where you are. Every area will have one or two sites/apps where most people typically review these kinds of business. So in some areas Google reviews are a pretty good gauge of things, in others they’re basically useless.
The other thing to figure out is what “good” actually is for a given area, because a 4.7 in some areas could mean one of the best meals you ever have, and in others it could just be an average rating.
Whenever I’m traveling to a new area and looking for that kind of thing, I can usually find people talking about the above for a given area either on travel forums (or places like Reddit) or by watching a few travel vlogs focused on food options, where it often comes up as a topic.
Edit: clarity, don’t just use “place” to mean all three of area, business and website in every instance, kids!
This is especially noticeable in locations with lots of tourism. People tend to give higher ratings when they’re on vacation, as opposed to locals who are more critical.
That has always been my feeling and has recently been confirmed by a study.
I notice this where i live. Reviews from non spanish speakers tend to be 4 or 5 stars and the locals tend to give 2-4 except for really good restaurants get 5.
For a lot of businesses, typically the kind that most people don’t generally review, a good rating doesn’t really mean anything, a bad rating might if there’s a few of them.
For restaurants, cafes and bars it depends where you are. Every area will have one or two sites/apps where most people typically review these kinds of business. So in some areas Google reviews are a pretty good gauge of things, in others they’re basically useless.
The other thing to figure out is what “good” actually is for a given area, because a 4.7 in some areas could mean one of the best meals you ever have, and in others it could just be an average rating.
Whenever I’m traveling to a new area and looking for that kind of thing, I can usually find people talking about the above for a given area either on travel forums (or places like Reddit) or by watching a few travel vlogs focused on food options, where it often comes up as a topic.
Edit: clarity, don’t just use “place” to mean all three of area, business and website in every instance, kids!
This is especially noticeable in locations with lots of tourism. People tend to give higher ratings when they’re on vacation, as opposed to locals who are more critical.
That has always been my feeling and has recently been confirmed by a study.
I notice this where i live. Reviews from non spanish speakers tend to be 4 or 5 stars and the locals tend to give 2-4 except for really good restaurants get 5.