Business Opportunities Weblog

No Yelpers

By on May 27, 2008 in Ideas


The New York Times:

The Rooz Cafe, a restaurant and coffee shop in Oakland, Calif., signals its distaste for patrons who post reviews on Yelp.com with a small sign: No Yelpers.

The sign is routinely ignored by devotees of Yelp, a San Francisco Internet company that enables average folks to write reviews of everything from restaurants to plumbers to parks.

“If you want good coffee and a comfy place to work, I’d recommend this place,” wrote Stephanie S., who gave Rooz four stars. “And the No Yelpers sticker made me laugh.”

Rooz’s owner, Steve Ranjbin, said he put the sticker up as a joke, but added that he had a complaint about Yelp.

“Yelp does not respect us as business owners,” Mr. Ranjbin said. “They don’t listen to business owners unless you’re an advertiser paying Yelp.”

Mr. Ranjbin, who said that amateur reviews can hurt his business, said some had misquoted him or called his employees names, but that Yelp had refused to take these comments down. Yelp rarely removes reviews, even when advertisers complain, preferring to let the crowd have its say.

The sign is routinely ignored by devotees of Yelp, a San Francisco Internet company that enables average folks to write reviews of everything from restaurants to plumbers to parks.

Read more.

Photo by yelp.com.

customer service reviews trends

Rich Whittle has added 6,226 posts to Business Opportunities Weblog.

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  • http://wahm.business-opportunities.biz Angela

    Otherwise I like the idea of yelp. He may think it hurts his business, but customers will appreciate reading what others will think about a place before they visit. In reality, someone should be able to tell the difference between a bad comment and an intelligent one.

  • http://www.etavitom.com etavitom

    yelp is an awesome site and the only one i go to for new places to eat. i’d rather read reviews from customers i can trust.

  • ellie

    Yelp is full of annoying douchey hipsters who fancy themselves food critics. And no, I’m not a business owner, I just read one too many reviews in which a “yelper” called the readers her “fans”. Don’t flatter yourself, sweetie.

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