Going Out is handing back control to venue owners and taking it away from unfair and biased, review based websites.

The majority of reviews left on mainstream websites are merely opinionated dribble! These websites are a breeding ground for the overly biased, unfair, frequently disingenuous and often aggressive opinions of individuals with too much time on their hands, looking to vent online with a community of equally ‘experienced counter-part critics’! Unfortunately, for venue owners and operators, these mainstream review based websites provide the platform, the allies and the audience in abundance.

We understand that reviews play an important part in consumer decision making and if processed with a ‘pinch-of-salt’ they can be helpful! However, it is rare that reviews of food and drink truly represent the product, premises, service or experience received, ranging from being disappointing, to potentially disastrous, for the pub, restaurant or venue in the public spotlight.

Negative reviews – an unfair rating system…

Tens of thousands of UK restaurants, pubs and hospitality venues fall foul of unbiased, opinionated, rude and damn-right insulting reviews left on major websites such as TripAdvisor. These negative reviews can be devastating for the business, often causing the venue owners a great deal of unnecessary stress and anxiety. User reviews can also go far beyond complaints about a mediocre meal, poor pint or shoddy service to much more serious claims about theft, fraud and sexual assault, the seriousness of these reviews becomes a huge and overwhelming problem for restaurant and pub owners throughout the UK.

Marketing people call a consistent one-star attack of negative reviews, on a single venue, “review bombing”. Negative review bombing is terminology that strikes fear into the heart of anybody operating a food and drink business; often these attacks go undetected by the website and unless the one-star reviews breach ‘review guidelines’ they are not easily removed! Before the TripAdvisor platform was launched back in 2000, the customer was not always king, and the customer was not always right! With the launch of several major review driven platforms it is now the case that the customer has become a formidable opponent, the customer is now empowered to make or break a venue – a daunting reality for restaurant and pub owners everywhere.

It is not uncommon for venue owners to lean on the legal sector and threaten to sue customers who post negative reviews about their venue. Unless dealing with an extreme and slanderous case this is typically a hugely expensive time-sink, with many hours of additional frustration and no satisfactory result.

"But not all reviews are bad" we hear you say.... In fact, there are millions of positively glowing reviews online!

Fake reviews – a flawed rating system….

There is a huge shadow industry of fake reviews and people paid to leave fake reviews, good or bad! Reviews can be bought, sold and traded on the internet easily, completely undermining the entire review-based system – it is a flawed popularity contest in which you can pay to win, or pay for somebody else to lose!

The review based business model relies upon having real customers, post real reviews - it’s not rocket science, but it is exceptionally difficult and costly to police. Without this layer of transparency the entire credibility of a system must be questioned. Tripadvisor has been under scrutiny many times over the years with the credibility of reviews and ratings on the system in question. One of the most damaging aspects of fake reviews is that they cast doubt over genuine reviews, the reader may be able to spot an overly zealous review or a review that is just so bad it’s hard to comprehend, but this leaves the vast majority of food and drink reviews in a questionable limbo, “do I believe the information presented or not”. This trust issue results in a flawed business rating system.

It has been proven many times that anybody can beat an online review based website rating system. If you have ever watched the Vice magazine documentary created as a hoax by the journalist Oobah Butler called ‘The Shed at Dulwich’ then you will understand that review based ranking systems are fundamentally flawed. The Shed at Dulwich became the number 1, top-rated restaurant in London on TripAdvisor simply by uploading fake reviews!

Its well worth a watch, you can find the documentary here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqPARIKHbN8

It is easy to understand just how simple it is to fabricate reviews and boost a venues’ popularity by review-bombing fake reviews. Platforms that can be manipulated and falsified to this degree are a serious concern to venue owners and are also doing the general public a disservice as they too are being deceived.

Common sense…

At Going Out we acknowledge that poor product and poor service exists and typically these factors alone will determine a venues fate! We understand that for high quality and well managed venues; you are only as good as your last service! Everybody in the trade has dealt with a difficult customer, everybody has a bad day, and everybody has the ability to improve, without the need for this to be unfairly advertised to millions of potential paying customers, through a negative review!

With over 800million reviews and opinions listed on the TripAdvisor website the problem facing landlords and restaurateurs in huge, on average their website receives 270 global contributions every minute, a frightening statistic if you happen to be on the receiving end of overly biased, unfair, disingenuous or the aggressive opinions of a disgruntled individual.

Beat the reviews…

It’s time to hand control back to venue owners! Thousands of venues are utilising www.goingout.co.uk to showcase their venue in detail and to promote their food and drink through the search engine. Restaurants, pubs clubs and venue owners are promoting their menu, facilities and benefits in real time and getting more paying customers through the door. Going Out is empowering venue owners to get more customers with NO REVIEWS!

Click here to register your venue.

Hospitality Action's, Invisible Chips is a simple initiative and way for people to assist people working in hospitality whose livelihoods are under serious threat from the Coronavirus pandemic that has swept through the UK during 2020.

Restaurants, pubs, cafes, coffee shops and hotels reopened post lockdown in the UK and have started to resume trading in a very uncertain and restricted marketplace with further curfews and safety measures in place by the Government.

Hospitality Action has created a fun and engaging fundraising campaign to raise awareness and raise money for people directly affected by the downturn in the Hospitality sector, who may face future hardship as a result of the impact of Covid-19 within the UK.

0% fat, 100% charity. Invisible chips are a side dish that you can order directly from your chosen venues menu, or from the invisible chips website, and donate directly to the charity to help those affected.

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT, BUY INVISIBLE CHIPS: https://invisiblechips.org.uk/buy-invisible-chips/

The main brand ambassadors for Hospitality Actions, invisible chip are Heston Blumenthal and Fred Sirieix with an army of stockists and supporters including Brewdog, Gaucho, Hilton Hotels, Big Drop Brewing and our own organisation, Going Out UK.

Going Out UK are a proud supporter of the Invisible Chips initiative and endeavour to promote the initiative on our website and marketing materials in a bid to ‘chip in’ and raise National awareness of this fantastic and worthwhile initiative.

You can view all of the Invisible Chips supporters by visiting the official website here: https://invisiblechips.org.uk/supporters/

Regardless how seasoned your liver and how many pints you can down whilst Going Out in Birmingham, a full-on session in the local boozer is never going to be the healthiest option, but there is such a thing as damage limitation!

We suggest that you take notice of these food related hacks to combat the negative effects of a late night in the pub! (and always drink responsibly regardless)!

Downing a bottle of wine, half a bottle of your favourite gin or several pints of strong lager on a night out is not a good idea on an empty stomach. This is fact based scientific stuff!

Those cheesy chips or chicken kebab might seem like a gourmet choice at 11pm but you’re doing it the wrong way around! The stomach diffuses alcohol through the stomach walls, the less you have in there the faster it gets into your blood stream and the faster you feel the effects. From a scientific perspective the faster it enters your body the bigger the impact upon your organs, such as your liver and kidneys. So, eat before you drink and the alcohol takes a lot longer to filter through into your system – it is that simple!

If you want to elevate the scientific part, then try eating foods that contain a high level of natural fats, these can include good and healthy options such as avocado and oily fish such as salmon – we did say ‘natural fat’ not an extra-large Domino’s pizza order! This natural fat slows down your digestive system and the rate at which the food leaves your stomach. The more that’s in your stomach, the slower the absorption rate of what you are winding down your neck in the boozer!

Whilst at the pub get your hands on some roasted nuts, crisps or any other tasty snack that they might have, this helps to combat the dreaded hangover more than you might think for the reasons outlined above – the nuts are the best option unless you’re somewhere super posh and they have olives on the bar.

Eating is most definitely not cheating on a night out! You can thank us later!

 UK customers spend an average of £70 on food and drink during a night out.

Going Out has established from quarterly reports supplied by several independent bar and restaurant owners that people spend an average of £70 on a night out on the town! The restaurant and pub scene is far from doom and gloom.

Food and dining spend was up by over 11% and wet sales spending in venues are reported to be up by over 10% at £19.25. Spend on transport was also significantly increased by over 30% meaning that more and more people are using taxi firms and public transport to get in and out of towns and cities when going out. The report is good news all round for the hospitality and restaurant sector.

Other facts that we are encouraged to learn is that people are going out more often and they are staying out for longer! Nearly 60% of consumers reported that they go out at least once a week and they stay out for an average of 5 hours – great news for the takings of restaurants, bars and clubs.

Over 50% of consumers reported that they were generally happy with the standard and variety of restaurants, bars, pubs and clubs in their locality with the younger generation (18 – 25) providing the most favourable survey data.

Interestingly, personal referrals are still leading the way in people choosing which venues to visit but we are due to see a shift with intuitive technology such as the Going Out Food & Drink Search Engine, www.goingout.co.uk which empowers consumers to find venues based on food and drink preferences, if you fancy it, you can now find it!

GoingOut aim to maintain and update a comprehensive list of UK Hospitality and destination venues for users. We understand that venue circumstances change and there may also be some business owners that wish to remove the free listing powered by the GoingOut Food & Drink Search Engine.

* Once the listing has been removed, your venue will no longer appear in the search results on our website, and customers will no longer be able to find or contact you through the GoingOut system.

If you still wish to remove your venue, please complete the form below and a member of our business team will validate your information and action your request.