L’Atelier Joel Robuchon at the Hotel du Pont Royal, in Paris, has an average four stars on Trip Advisor. One reviewer said his dinner there was “very disappointing” and another wrote that the restaurant was “too much of a show off” and had a lot of “pretence”.
An eating place in Gudja, a farmhouse, has an average 4.6 stars on Facebook. Diners posted comments on the social media saying the venue provides “great atmosphere” and “excellent food in abundance”. And Cavett Place, in Ħandaq, attracted more than 8,000 likes on Facebook with positive reviews for its atmosphere, karaoke and live entertainment.
The conclusion based on social media reviews is obvious: the Gudja eating place and Cavett Place could teach L’Atelier Joel Robuchon a lesson or two about catering. The truth, however, is rather different.
L’Atelier Joel Robuchon has two Michelin stars. The chef whose name the restaurant carries has a total of 25 Michelin stars, operates restaurants all over the world and, in 1989, was named ‘Chef of the Century’ by the guide Gault Millau.
The one at Gudja is an illegal restaurant, operating on the strength of a legal loophole allowing such establishments to accept patrons only by appointment. Moreover, its owner is seeking planning authority approval to develop the farmhouse into a tourism development.
Four years ago, the same authority slapped him with an enforcement order against the use of the place as a bar and restaurant as well as against illegally-constructed rooms, ovens, stores and cages where animals are kept. To add insult to injury, it is situated on public land through a lease from the government.
Cavett Place is also operating illegally and was served with an enforcement notice in 2012. The person listed on the notice is Mark Gaffarena, involved in the Valletta property expropriation scandal. But all is well in the world of social media and, according to citizen reviewers, both places in Gudja and Ħandaq are good restaurants.
The Malta Tourism Authority’s CEO, Paul Bugeja, recently spoke of an online information system to keep tab on negative reviews posted on 31 holiday sites, including Trip Advisor. Such online reviews will be included in the MTA’s procedures and action taken on shortcomings reported on such reviews.
Writing in this newspaper, Mr Bugeja quotes statistics to justify the decision, including that 26 per cent of travellers use internet sources to choose their holiday destination and that about 45 per cent of tourists remain active on social media during their stay.
However, according to the US-based research institute Gartner, about 15 per cent of Trip Advisor reviews are fake. It is also widely known that fake Trip Advisor reviews are used by some operators to damage the reputation of competitors.
Thus, rather than simply relying on social media, the MTA should use all legal tools available to monitor and regulate the hotel and catering industry. It should also clamp down on illegal catering operations which still escape the law and are well beyond the reach of any reputation management exercise. Such illegal operations damage the industry’s reputation.
The MTA recently said it will target illegal catering operations as part of a reform of the travel and tourism services law. The same had been said in 2013, when this newspaper first reported the Gudja illegal operation. What has happened since is that the MTA lost a case before the Tourism Appeals Board as it could not adequately prove the place was accessible to the public.
Slow service indeed.