Perils for restaurant owners from online critics

Rye — American Kitchen and Spirits owner Josh Fitzgerald monitors online reviews and replies to good or bad reports.

Tauranga bars and restaurants are at the mercy of online review forums, owners say, and not everyone agrees with the public sharing its opinions.

Online restaurant reviews made headlines last month when Auckland's popular Mt Eden restaurant Molten hit back at a group of disgruntled diners who left an unhappy review on the commercial website Zomato.

The restaurant then took to social media and reviewed the diners as guests.

Josh Fitzgerald, owner of The Barrio Brothers and Rye - American Kitchen and Spirits said he monitored online reviews all the time.

He said it was important for customers to have reliable reviews because people were more frugal with money.

"It's a way for customers to be assured their money won't be wasted.

"Everybody's perception of what is good is not always the same. I know for a fact we have regular customers who have left bad reviews," he said.

"They come in often but then they will only give you a really nasty review when they have perceived something is wrong, which is a little bit frustrating, but everybody is entitled to their opinions."

Lesley Graham, owner of Grindz Cafe, said she had received Facebook reviews via private message. She preferred to have feedback sent directly to her rather than published openly online.

"It affects your business when people can read negative feedback. We would be much happier if someone came up to us and dealt with it then and there," said Mrs Graham.

The public are allowed to place a review that is their own personal opinion. Whether it's right or wrong, who are we to judge? But it is difficult for businesses to contend with.

Alan Sciascia

"You know, you do try hard and you try and make everything right and sometimes things don't go right," she said.

Mrs Graham said cafe and restaurant owners "don't have a chance to defend themselves".

Spuntino owner Eddie McDermott said owners "don't have the right to reply".

He said his operation always maintained the rule that the customer was always right, "whether that was the case or not".

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Ulku Altinkaya, co-owner of Costantinopoli, formally known as Zeytin On the Strand, said: "Sometimes, it's not what happened, and it's not true, but we don't want to answer and we don't want to start an argument."

Slowfish Beachfront Cafe co-owner Eveline Delaux said online reviews were important to boost an establishment's profile.

"It's just the time we're living in at the moment ... it's very important to get your profile out there," Mrs Delaux said.

Bay of Plenty and Waikato manager of Hospitality New Zealand Alan Sciascia said food outlets were up for review online whether the establishment knew it or not.

"The identity of the person making the review is very difficult to determine or prove, and so you don't really know if the person has actually dined at a particular establishment. In turn, you also don't know if that review is coming from a business competitor," he said.

"People are reviewing somebody's business, which is therefore somebody's livelihood.

"The public are allowed to place a review that is their own personal opinion. Whether it's right or wrong, who are we to judge? But it is difficult for businesses to contend with," Mr Sciascia said.