4/1/2025 at 11:20:13 AM
I've come to distrust many reviews. First, it's all Goodhart's Law. I heard the average rating on Airbnb is now 4.8. If everyone in the system (guest, host, platform) is incentivized to get ratings up, ratings will go up.Besides, reviews aren't fungible. Why would I trust a stranger's review if I have no idea of their taste.
It's the same on Google Maps. A friend of mine runs one of the best coffee shops and bakeries in the city I live in. She has a few bad reviews because she doesn't allow laptops and has no wifi.
It's precisely why I love it—people are there to be around each other, not to stare at glowing glass.
Similarly, a beloved local restaurant gets bad reviews because there's no English menu and the wait staff doesn't speak English. Again, the absence of tourists is why people love it.
Meanwhile, the tourist traps have great reviews from gullible tourits.
I've gone back to the local news/Reddit for recommendations. Online star ratings are meaningless.
by FinnLobsien
4/1/2025 at 12:28:16 PM
On Booking.com if the hotel sucks but the location is fine, rating them fairly (instead of just 1 star on everything) gives the overall score of 6 or 7, out of 10...by netsharc
4/1/2025 at 12:40:52 PM
Yeah exactly. I feel like it's the same on every marketplace: Their incentive is to have good ratings on the platform.So even if it's not down to taste, but to actual objective factors the platforms don't want to hear it.
by FinnLobsien