Donald Trump critics whelp on Yelp
Then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump waves along with his family after a ribbon-cutting at the grand opening of Trump International Hotel in Washington, Oct. 26, 2016. Credit: AP
Donald Trump critics have discovered an additional way to express their displeasure with the new president. They’re logging in to Google and Yelp to leave bad online reviews for Trump hotels, restaurants, golf courses and resorts.
The average rating of the 29 Trump properties in the United States has dropped to 3.7 stars out of 5, down from 4 stars before the election.
That finding comes from Signpost, an online rating technology company that looked at three years of user-review ratings on Google and Yelp. Between October and January, 5-star ratings for Trump accommodations have steadily declined, while 1-star reviews have spiked.
Suspecting these are political, not actual user reviews, Yelp announced an “active cleanup alert.” It will more closely scrutinize reviews of the Mar-a-Lago Club — Trump’s Winter White House — and other Trump properties.
There remains a wide range of opinion on Yelp’s Mar-a-Lago page. Claire H. of Santa Barbara, California, doesn’t like the style: “The décor can only be described as garish, what poor people think rich people live like.” But Melitta B. of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, calls the resort “unbelievably beautiful.”
Is Trump reading his reviews on Yelp? Melitta B. might have a future in Washington.
