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Online rating (icon image): Tell the world how it was on vacation
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Hardly anyone books a holiday without first reading online reviews: Metrics such as HolidayCheck sun and Google stars have a decisive influence on where people spend their time.
But who are the people who review hotels and restaurants privately?
And how much influence do their reviews have on our experiences?
Lawyer Miriam Vollmer has dealt with such questions.
She will present her findings on Wednesday evening at 7.30 p.m. at the Berlin network conference re:publica, in her lecture "Cheeky waiters, cold scrambled eggs: The Holidaycheck Hotel Revue".
SPIEGEL spoke to Vollmer in advance.
SPIEGEL:
Ms. Vollmer, many people read reviews, but not everyone writes them themselves.
You do that?
Vollmer:
Very often.
Sometimes a gratuity thought drives me: If the holiday was great and everyone was really nice to me, I would like to say thank you publicly.
And sometimes I think, "That was kind of stupid, but not so bad that I'm going to take it to court immediately": Then I tell the whole world, for example, that I found the sliced cheese at breakfast insufficient and let off a bit of steam .
SPIEGEL:
Do you prefer to rate hotels?
Vollmer:
I also rate restaurants that I find under- or overrated.
I have a lot of opinions and I am very happy to say them.
I think I have that in common with most people who write reviews at all.
SPIEGEL: To
what extent do third-party reviews shape your everyday life?
Vollmer:
If a hotel has nice photos, but only gets a recommendation of 62 percent and many people write that it is incredibly dirty there, I tend to take the neighboring hotel.
Even if that might appeal less to me architecturally.
SPIEGEL:
Online ratings have a direct impact on our lives.
Vollmer:
Sure, for that reason alone the topic deserves more attention.
Everyone always talks about how important the internet is for political processes, about what the digital is doing to our carbon world.
But it's often about who became president and how.
And almost nobody talks about the fact that three people writing about hair in the sink can bankrupt a hotel.
SPIEGEL:
Do you have an explanation for that?
Vollmer:
In our society, the political is overrated, while the area of consumption is being privatized.
On Twitter, for example, many more people talk about American politics, which doesn't directly affect them in Germany, than about who goes on vacation and what they experience there.
Such conversations are considered irrelevant, almost quaint.
SPIEGEL:
Don't online reviews also have an image problem, starting with fake ratings through to sometimes absurd complaints or formulations?
Vollmer:
The proportion of people who unintentionally produce comedy is incredibly high.
Part of the comedy comes from people not being able to follow written conventions.
At the same time, these people are confident enough to complain online that the bread was too dry.
Or that they thought it was stupid that nobody spoke German in their Majorcan hotel.
SPIEGEL:
Do you take such assessments seriously?
Vollmer:
At first I think, "Why can't these people use punctuation?" or "Why do they want such a provincial holiday experience?".
This exposes oneself as a rather repulsively limited educated citizen who is also stuck in conventions that are unnecessary at this point.
Maybe also as someone for whom statements seem less valuable simply because people are bad at putting commas.
But everyone can judge whether their own hotel room was dirty.
You don't need to be good at commas to do this.
SPIEGEL:
So you can learn something about yourself from online reviews, but also something about the person making the review?
Vollmer:
Yes.
For example, if someone complains that there are too many Russians or Britons in a hotel and that the staff does not speak German, it usually reveals two things: they are not good at foreign languages and think foreigners are stupid.
SPIEGEL:
How important do you think it is to be clear about whose assessment you are looking at?
Vollmer:
Young people rate things differently than older people, families differently than people traveling alone.
However, a cross-section of society is often responsible for the overall rating.
Very elegant hotels, for example, are apparently perceived by many people as oppressive.
They often get less good ratings than consensual shops.
If you like it stylish, you won't choose the hotel with the most sun.
The charm of the run-down and whimsical is also difficult to grasp through reviews.
SPIEGEL:
Do you ever laugh out loud when reading reviews?
Vollmer:
Of course.
People are incredibly funny when they give their opinions on the computer without being judged themselves.
In addition, many hotels are also incredibly strange places.
SPIEGEL:
Because they do everything to get good ratings?
Vollmer:
The classic beach experience hotel is often rated on portals such as HolidayCheck.
These are separate worlds.
Productions in which the visitors also take part.
The buffets and their layout, the waiters.
The funny, maybe sad thing about the animators, whose dream in life was probably not to juggle in a holiday club in Turkey.
If you imagine such vacations as theatrical performances, about which the guests later write reviews, it's very funny.
SPIEGEL:
For your presentation you tried to assign the judges to specific categories.
Vollmer:
I identified a few groups, quite unscientifically.
The "prosecutors," for example, who simply want to vent their anger and complain, for example, about the "worst vacation of my life."
SPIEGEL:
Who else is there?
Vollmer:
The "officers".
These are people who see themselves on the road in the service of the community and therefore tell it briefly but precisely that the local internet costs twelve lira and that soft-boiled eggs are only available on request.
The "piggy banks" are more problematic for hotels.
They don't want to spend any money, but are dissatisfied if they only get exactly what they can expect for their 275 euros for a week in the Mediterranean.
SPIEGEL:
What do you call users who write excessively?
Vollmer:
»Thomas Mann«.
I assume these are people who don't have a blog and who aren't asked to write an essay about their best holiday experience either - that's why they do it on HolidayCheck.
The fifth large group are »the grateful ones«, who rave about the best week of their lives or thank the waitress Paola from the restaurant online.
SPIEGEL:
It is mostly men who are active in many online forums.
How about hotel reviews?
Vollmer:
I suspect more reviews come from women because we are in the private sphere here, where many women feel more at home than men.
Also, in many families it seems that women make the holiday decisions and do the booking.
And those who make the booking are often later asked by e-mail to rate what they have experienced.
SPIEGEL:
In the past, you booked your vacation based on a few catalog information, today you come across numerous assessments of previous guests online.
How is this changing our travels?
Vollmer:
On the one hand, the ratings save people a lot of lousy vacations.
On the other hand, distance and the exotic are disappearing, as is exploring.
Even on a backpacking trip through more remote areas of Thailand, I might already know in advance which hostel room the fan doesn't work or where breakfast is worth it and where it isn't.
Suddenly, as a supposed discoverer, I am close to maximum expectation management, which is why people book package holidays.
Reviews make the world less surprising, but also more manageable for many people.
SPIEGEL:
As a lawyer, do you have another tip on how to write an online review that is as unchallengeable as possible?
Vollmer:
Stick to the truth, don't speculate, don't slander anything or anyone.
And one should refrain from exaggerations – even those that one believes are easily recognizable as rhetorical stylistic devices.
