Oobah Butler is a journalist and a filmmaker. His first job was writing false reviews for websites and reviews are something people consider because they look authentic. “Over the years, I just thought the only bit of TripAdvisor that is real is a restaurant itself; or maybe… it is fakeable?!”
And then, the story of faking the existence of a restaurant on a website (TripAdvisor) where people usually search for restaurants and plan holidays, began.
Oobah said, “I want to get The Shed at Dulwich to number one on TripAdvisor.” And started working on it in 2017. He focused on 4 points while writing reviews about The Shed:
- Food is eaten outside
- The place is weird
- The place is homely
- Appointment only
- So that people would not show up.
He ensured authenticity of the reviews. If one review says The Shed is an amazing vegan restaurant and the other review says they serve fantastic beef, they are screwed.
To get verified on TripAdvisor, he bought a phone, landline and a website to upload intended pictures.
*** The Shed at Dulwich is ranked 18,190 in London, UK ***
A month later, he received a call to reserve a table for 2. He declines the reservation saying the restaurant is booked for the coming 6 weeks.
The (fake) reviews on TripAdvisor created a lot of buzz. When The Shed hit the news, Oobah spent 20 hours giving interviews for newspapers and magazines across London.
*** At this point, The Shed at Dulwich is ranked 10,000 in London, UK ***
Oobah kept saying that The Shed is fully booked each time somebody called for a reservation. He even said that a movie shooting was going on. 3 months in, a (fake) review was up saying The Shed was worth the wait.
*** At this point, The Shed at Dulwich is ranked 1,456 in London, UK ***
The flood of messages and voicemails received have spiked enormously. People started using work emails for reservations. But he did not stop yet. He took help from Instagram influencers to spread a word about The Shed. 5 Months in,
*** The Shed at Dulwich is ranked 121 in London, UK ***
Things started going a little messy at this point. People started applying for jobs at a non-existent restaurant. They started using Google maps as an estimated location to send packages. Oobah could not reveal his address because, obviously, that would be dangerous.
*** 6 Months in, The Shed at Dulwich is No.1 in London, UK ***
Mission accomplished – or at least, he thought so. A non-existent restaurant with fake reviews is ranked number 1 on TripAdvisor. This is similar to acing an exam when the answers deserve a less-mediocre grade but more-than-fail grade.
7 months in, the buzz did not stop. Oobah decided to open the restaurant as it was portrayed. People started showing up and the mood-based food served was delicious and also mentioned to recommend it (real review). The “restaurant” was open only for a night in November, 2017.
Pretty cool experiment. Isn’t it? This experiment confirmed my opinion of not taking reviews and rankings seriously. Only if a person has the product or been there, I pose questions to know more. Else, I’d leave it with a ‘Oh. That’s nice!’ and carry on with my work.
Did you do anything based on reviews and rankings?
~Adios!
Mischief Managed 