Reviewing the reviews (111, May 2015)

We’re going to describe a scene which probably happened to you last week or weekend. You and your pals are planning a night out and want to go to a decent pub or restaurant so you naturally turn to your social media network for the skinny on what’s good and what’s not. But as we’ve seen from tales of false or misleading reviews, you can’t always take what you read on TripAdvisor, Twitter, Facebook or Yelp as gospel (or even see on Instagram) – indeed, we know that false and misleading reviews can be positive as well as negative.

So just what is the value of social media reviews for the hospitality business? How do restaurant owners deal with demands from bloggers and social media activists for free meals in return for good reviews? Just how prevalent is this practice? Or does the fact that everyone can be a critic with a potentially big public reach mean the customer has a real voice and can keep venues on top of their game?

The panel: Niall Harbison (Lovin Dublin founder), Emily Cunnane (senior community manager at Yelp) and Leo Molloy (777, SuperMissSue etc)

The details: Banter’s review of the reviews and the reviewers takes place at MVP (Clanbrassil Street, Dublin 8 ) on Wednesday May 27 at 6.30pm. Admission is free, but tickets are limited and can be booked here.