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Comment by TallGuyShort | Hacker News Reader

So I agree with what appears to be the overwhelming majority that this policy is probably legally unenforceable and was destined to backfire as soon as it was posted on the interwebs, but...

I think they have a legitimate problem and I'm wandering what alternate solutions we can come up with. The person planning the wedding (may or may not be the people actually getting married) thinks this is a good place for the wedding, but many of the guests do not enjoy it. The reviews exist to help that person make that decision. Whether or not guests usually hate it, is part of that decision, but I agree with the venue that what the people getting married want is the bigger part of that decision. How can the company manage expectations better?

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I think a really good example of how to do this is The Grindcore House[1] It is a Death Metal Vegan Coffee shop in South Philly. Almost every negative review is because of the lack of dairy, or choice in music. The owner has responded to a few of the negative reviews explaining his/her position in a respectful tone.

TLDR; if you're running a business don't get petty.

[1] http://www.yelp.com/biz/grindcore-house-philadelphia

EDIT: on further inspection there aren't as many negative reviews as I remember.

It does seem a bit unfair, but at the same time the reviews aren't just a measure of how much the bride and groom will enjoy the place, it's also a measure of how much everyone else does as well.

Perhaps "many of your guests will hate this place" is a valuable signal to couples picking venues.

Honestly, if you've been a legitimate guest of a particular venue IMO it's perfectly fine to leave a review about it. The people that foot the bill aren't the only ones who get to chime in.

But then it's just as valid to write a bad review about a McDonalds restaurant your group of friends decided to go to, because the wine selection sucked.

Valid? Yes. Reasonable? No.

As I mentioned before - there are unreasonable customers with a chip on their shoulder.

I don't think McDonald's is a good example, because everyone already knows what it is, and reviews don't serve a useful purpose.

Let's instead imagine some similar non-chain place called O'Brien's. Would it not be useful, when deciding whether or not to go to O'Brien's for dinner, to see a bad review saying, "I didn't like this place, all they had was burgers, and no booze"?

I'm wandering what alternate solutions we can come up with.

It's really simple: reply to negative Yelp reviews and state your case. If you are reasonable, then people will understand. This is also called taking the high road. It works a lot better than the stupid tactic they have employed.

If the problem is people booking rooms for their guests and the guests often dislike the rooms, then the solution seems easy: don't let people book rooms for large numbers of guests. Make guests book their own rooms.

These people want to have it both ways. They know they have a problem wherein people are frequently booked as guests and then don't enjoy their stay. But rather than try to avoid this situation (either by fixing what these people dislike, or by turning them away) they want to keep raking in the cash, and just want people to shut up about their experience.

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