alt Hacker NewsWe stayed in one last week in Seoul, only because hotels are prohibitively expensive. (We book last minute.)
On leaving, the host offered us a discount on future bookings if we left a 5-star review. This 'beg for a 5-star' practice is common in every Asian business. We got it from a Hilton in Vietnam. (It's probably global. Our recent experience happens to be in Asia.)
In fairness, hotel ratings are the same. My SOP now is to ignore all 5-star ratings. Simply don't read them. Instead, sort by lowest and that gives you the true measure of a place.
Ratings are totally broken.
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I got this once when visiting an airport lounge in Asia. Like beyond begging, the person asked for a review and wanted to stand there until I finished it.
I rated a place 3-star overall after a subpar experience. The review stood for some time, but has since been edited to a 5-star, presumably at the request of a host. Totally broken indeed.
They really are. Across every platform. Ratings are 90% cheating of one kind or another. There's just no way to have people leave honest feedback that isn't subject to begging by the parties whose KPIs those ratings are, or prone to lying/exaggeration/sabotage by people with an axe to grind :(
My experience in Japan is quite the opposite. A good place gets 3 stars because it's up to expectations, while any perceived slight from staff can easily get that down to 2 stars. Reviews of 4 stars or more from locals tend to correspond to some special experience.