Reputology's "State of the Review" is an in-depth analysis of online reviews & reviewer behavior for the restaurant industry. Reputology.com is a review monitoring and management tool.

1. State of the Review
by
Reputology.com

2. The “State of the Review” is an in-depth analysis of
restaurant industry review data and reviewer
behavior.
The data set consists of 1,500+ reviews for 350+
business locations.
The data and analysis has been provided by
Reputology.com – a review monitoring &
management service.

3. The Basics
Before delving into the fun details of review data and reviewer
behavior, let’s establish some baseline stats. 6.8 days
The average restaurant receives 1 new review every
Frequency that the average business gets 1 new review
week. Though the majority of reviewers give good ratings, on
average, 1 in 3 of those reviews is lukewarm if not flat out
negative.
As you probably expect, Yelp is the review directory that
generates most of the reviews - about 50%. That said, the
other 50% is coming from the other review sites, like Google +
Local, Foursquare, TripAdvisor, etc.
Brought to You by Reputology.com

4. Indies Get 190% More Reviews, Chains May Suffer
One of the biggest differences is the
average number of reviews received
by restaurant chains versus those
received by independents (defined in
this study as having 4 locations or
less). It’s unclear why the magnitude
of the discrepancy is as large as it is,
nearly double. But the fact that
independents get more seems
reasonable because reviewers are
trying to help other diners get
information about previously
unknown local businesses. And they
might not feel this same need for the
chains.
Though the difference in average
ratings is comparable, the difference
in review volume would seem
problematic for restaurant chains,
given that the algorithms on
directories favor businesses with
more reviews (assuming ratings are
similar) and more diners are going
online to find a place to eat.
Brought to You by Reputology.com

5. Reviewers Favor Fast Casual, Tough on Casual Dining
Restaurant type matters. Fine dining
receives the most reviews at 6.5
reviews per month, potentially
because its higher standards are a
magnet for critique. Under that same
rationale, casual dining receives
fewer at 4.4, and fast casual falls in
line getting the fewest at 3.8.
You might expect that fine dining
receives the highest average rating
because diners are supposedly paying
for higher quality service and food.
But fast casual has an edge over both
fine dining and casual dining at 3.7
stars versus 3.6 and 3.2,
respectively. Possibly, fast casual
benefits from lowered expectations.
Casual dining, on the other hand,
might be suffering because it’s
compared to fine dining.
Fast casual also gets 12% more of its
reviews from Yelp than the other
segments do. This might be explained
by the fact that the demographics of
Yelp reviewers and fast casual diners
both skew younger.
Brought to You by Reputology.com

6. American Gets More Reviews, Lowest Ratings
A curious spread appears when
breaking down the data by cuisine.
Specifically, American restaurants get
0.7 more reviews per month than
their Ethnic counterparts. It could be
that American restaurants in our data
set receive more business and are
thus just more likely to be scrutinized.
Alternatively, it could be that a larger
portion of the demographic going to
Ethnic restaurants are less inclined to
leave reviews.
Despite receiving more reviews,
American restaurants get weaker
ratings compared to Ethnic
restaurants 3.2 versus 3.5,
respectively. This might be because
more American fare exists and
competition for that cuisine is
tougher, whereas Ethnic restaurants
get a novelty bonus in the opinions of
its customers who do leave reviews.
Italian restaurants were split out in
particular because they averaged the
highest ratings. We’re not sure yet as
to why, but our best guess at this
point is that pizza isn’t just great on
margins but also a tough-to-screw-up
crowd pleaser.
Brought to You by Reputology.com

7. Yelp/Google Negative, Tripadvisor/Opentable Positive
Restaurants get lower ratings on Yelp and Google than they do
on Tripadvisor and Opentable. This difference is about 0.5
stars between Yelp and Tripadvisor and even higher between
Yelp and Opentable.
One explanation is that the demographic of reviewers on
Tripadvisor and Opentable is less likely to leave a negative
review for a business. They may be older and less inclined to
be vocal and opinionated.
Another is that Tripadvisor and Opentable are much more
“business friendly” than Yelp and Google. Tripadvisor seems to
encourage businesses to solicit reviews as evidenced by the
marketing collateral it asks them to share with customers. And
Opentable’s reservation system means businesses can get the
emails of their diners so that they can contact happy diners to
ask for reviews. Yelp and Google, however, have no solicitation
policies, and Yelp is notorious for filtering legitimate positive
reviews if they don’t pass it’s algorithm check.
Note that this review data was gathered for businesses that
received at least 1 review on Tripadvisor to eliminate the
possibility that Tripadvisor draws better reviewed restaurants
than Yelp and Google.
Brought to You by Reputology.com

8. Reviewer Behavior, Market Penetration Vary by Region
The average number of reviews
received per month differs by region.
Most dramatically, restaurants in the
Los Angeles, CA area receive double
what those in metros of Georgia
receive, at 5.5 reviews versus 2.7.
Why restaurant reviews happen more
in LA is unclear. Perhaps it’s a
function of the fact that Yelp has
made reviewing a popular activity,
and it is based on the West Coast.
But Massachusetts restaurants
average about the same number of
reviews as Georgia, despite the fact
that Yelping is more popular there
(see Directory Distribution charts).
On that note, differences in directory
distribution exist and have
implications. Massachusetts reviews
have a distribution close to the global
average. Georgia reviews, on the
other hand, are much more evenly
distributed. This might mean that
Georgia business owners have more
directories to tend to, but if their
reviews on one aren’t strong, it won’t
have as large of an impact on their
reputation as it could for a
Massachusetts owner.
*Note that this data comes from a different selection of
businesses than those monitored by Reputology.com and
was randomly selected across the internet.
Brought to You by Reputology.com

9. This data and analysis has been brought to you by
Reputology.com – a review monitoring and
management service.