3.5 on Yelp is the New Gold Standard

I’ve had a few experiences staying at five-star hotels and eating at five-star restaurants. You expect the best and you usually get it.

The Jefferson Hotel is a AAA 5-Diamond Hotel and its flagship restaurant LeMaire is a five-star dining establishment. I’ve been a customer of both and I can honestly say they deliver a five-star experience. Excellent. 5+ stars.

Businesses have always had third-party reviews and ratings; from AAA to Zagat Surveys. Even the BBB can tell you if a business is accredited and reputable. Ratings used to have a stringent set of standards and were delivered by professionals. In the old days, reviews were done by food and travel reporters from reputable newspapers or magazines or organizations you trusted.

The Internet ruined this. Everyone, literally everyone, can go online and say anything about any company, without credibility or expertise. Twenty years ago in 2004, something wickedly terrible was invented called Yelp. The Jefferson is rated 4.2 on Yelp. Lemaire gets a 4.1. #ridiculous

Yelp is an advertising company that allows the public to post reviews, often anonymously, of any business. So that means William R. from San Francisco can post a one-star review of the Jefferson Hotel:

“My wife and I stayed at the Jefferson a few days ago; the building was clean and the room was clean. We asked to have (a) reservation to eat at the Tobacco Company. When we got to the Tobacco no reservation. We will never go back.”

In his rant, William R. takes a simple mistake by the concierge or the hostess at Tobacco Company and impugns the five-star reputation of The Jefferson. It’s not fair is it? Yelp then posts the review and then pressures the Jefferson Hotel to buy ads. That doesn’t seem fair either. (Yelp has been sued many times for this, including most recently by the Attorney General of Texas.)

So that’s why I’m always willing to try a 3.5 rated restaurant on Yelp. It usually means the food, price, and service is good, but they’ve been smacked down by a few holier-than-thou Yelpers and by Yelp itself because they didn’t “pay to play.”

By the way, the Texas Inn is rated 4.1 on Yelp, same as LeMaire and we are extremely proud of this, despite Traci C.’s review: “I called at 1:35 am to see what time they were open until. A woman told me 2:30 am. I got there at 2:10 and the door was locked. Someone outside yelled in “they called and said you were open” and the woman inside just laughed and shrugged her shoulders and didn’t let us in.”

When I read the review, I also laughed, imagining Big Mama laughing at a drunk customer trying to come in 10 minutes after we closed.