The real guest book

Nearly all restaurants and bars with their own website have a virtual guest book, but few people write into them – customers believe they are censored. They are probably right as well, since we can hardly find complaints in them. However, web 2.0 contents record independent opinion, therefore they are considered more authentic by restaurant-goers than restaurants’ web sites. A well-written post at a news site about negative experiences could reach several thousand people and tarnish the reputation of a restaurant or bar. Owners should definitely acknowledge rightful criticism and make efforts to correct the mistakes. The right reaction could even turn an ordinary guest into a regular. As for self-appointed restaurant critics, in the United States many of them caused problems to restaurateurs even when they praised a place, because they accompanied their posts with low quality photographs. However, owners did not ban them from their restaurants, instead they helped them to improve their posts (at the same time making sure that the restaurant’s logo appeared in the picture). This is how criticism can be turned into advertisement.