Sydney, Australia -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/19/2013 -- Sites like Trip Advisor, Yelp and Foursquare are playgrounds of customer satisfaction. Just how essential are these online reviews to your restaurant, cafe or hotel, and are they helpful or hurtful? It depends on who you ask finds Wholesale Direct. Many small businesses have suffered at the hands of bad reviews, which have directly affected their reputation. Everyone's suddenly a critic, without the credentials. Consumers in general seem content being in the driver's seat, and feel validated.

The most problematic aspect of online reviews: there's little or no accountability. Reviews can be done virtually anonymously; competitors can hire people to post bad reviews; and reviews are even being used as a currency.From customers wanting a discount, threatening a bad review, to suppliers offering to "pay" with five good reviews, the system seems faulty at best.

Trip Advisor also boasts of having 50 new reviews per minute. It's impossible that their filters are catching the startups that get paid to create 20+ positive/negative reviews falsely, every day.In several cases, complaints were posted about food that didn't exist on the menu, and 'perks' that a hotel offered, which were impossible (you can't have an algae-riddled swimming pool without a pool).

Restaurants should not be be too concerned about online reviews finds Wholesale Direct, as a multitude of review sites restaurants can't keep up with every review that's posted.

There are several positives about reviews you can use for any business in the hospitality service, including;

Bad reviews are inevitable as restaurants can't please everyone, especially in the hospitality industry, but you can make them work for you. It's a public format, and many of the sites offer a place for your business to reply to any review.

Online reviews are unavoidable aspects of modern-day business. They aren't essential. They can help or hurt your reputation. As a small hospitality business, you can make every review count in your favor.

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