The Fifth Floor restaurant in San Francisco, which has one Michelin star, pays Yelp $300 a month for such a sponsorship, said Todd Stillman, its general manager. On the day he said that, Fifth Floor’s top two Yelp reviews, including the sponsored one, were raves. But three others in the top 10 were pans.
Mr. Stillman shrugged it off and said he had used bad reviews to correct staff or kitchen problems, or had e-mailed the reviewer with an explanation. “Feedback is good when you’re in the customer satisfaction business,” he said. “If you don’t evolve in this marketplace, you go extinct.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/dining/05yelp.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
