OpinionSeptember 9, 2026 — 5:00amI was berated by the owner of my local pizza shop a few weeks ago. “Mate, where was my Google review last time?”I tried to protest: I recommended you on my Instagram after our last visit! Who cares about a Google mention – I’ve got 20,000 followers. That’s worth far more than the sort of review any old punter could leave. Right? Right?Everyone’s a critic, including you.AlamyWell, wrong, at least according to Eli. Google reviews are his bread and butter, his 48-hour-proved pizza dough, if you will.A mention on Instagram is nice, but it lasts only a day or two. A five-star Google review will boost his visibility permanently, and will help push his business higher up the rankings any time someone searches for pizza or for a restaurant in that local area. But I didn’t do it.This is the thing consumers and particularly travellers should understand: you have power now. Tremendous power.Sign up for the Traveller newsletterThe latest travel news, tips and inspiration delivered to your inbox. Sign up now.Restaurant reviews, hotel reviews, tourist attraction reviews – these all used to be solely the domain of a select group of professionals, people who believed it was their divine right to judge while the masses would simply follow their advice.But the masses don’t follow any more. The masses decide fates, the masses hold the future of businesses and livelihoods and other people’s holidays in their hands.The Pyramids of Giza: a one-star experience?iStockReviewing has been democratised – any traveller can visit an attraction or venue and review it across numerous platforms, from Google to Tripadvisor to an hour-long rant on YouTube recorded while sitting in their car if they really feel like it. And these reviews matter; people see them, they take them into account, they have the power to boost or to destroy.I wonder if people think about that before they post that bad review.There are silly examples of this, of course. Look up the Great Pyramid of Giza on Google and you will see that literally thousands of people have given one of the undoubted wonders of the world a one-star review. “The biggest SCAM in Cairo,” someone said recently. “Doesn’t take cash, is crazy expensive,” another whined. “I would never visit this place again in my life,” said another.Yosemite: a big Luna Park?iStockYosemite National Park in the US, one of the world’s most beloved and popular tourist attractions, has also copped it from upset visitors who have awarded it a one-star rating. “Like a big Luna Park,” one reviewer stated. “We were greeted by giant boulders I was told were made by ancient glaciers – yeah right,” said another.The democratisation of reviewing is very much like the democratisation of politics, in that it inevitably leads to the airing of some viewpoints that you will think are extremely stupid. Literally anyone or anything can wind up with a terrible review. But this is the system we now find ourselves with, and it’s also ripe for gaming.A few Traveller readers wrote in recently to warn of hotels and restaurants in Vietnam with suspiciously sky-high reviews from a huge number of customers. When you read those reviews they sound legit, posted by accounts whose review history certainly makes them appear real. So everything is above board, right?Except readers reported that some of those hotels and restaurants were offering enticements, in the form of free drinks or gifts, in exchange for positive reviews on Google.One star should be reserved for something truly awful, abysmal, an absolute scam or the worst hotel you have ever stayed in.That’s a little dodgy, but it’s not the sort of outright cheating you might find from others, who engage click farms to artificially boost their reviews. There’s a newish bar in San Sebastian, for example, not a famous place at all, that has almost 3000 reviews at an average of 4.9 stars. That’s astronomical. Meanwhile, Casa Urola, a genuine San Sebastian legend that has been serving beautiful food for more than 70 years, has only 2500 reviews at 4.4. It’s suss.In both Vietnam and San Sebastian, it seems the system is being gamed, though how exactly we can’t be sure.So where does this leave you, the normal traveller who suddenly has the fate of livelihoods and indeed lives in their hands? Your review can make or break a business – if that wasn’t true then those Vietnamese venues wouldn’t be giving out free drinks, and Eli, my local pizza guy, wouldn’t be hassling me.With great power comes great responsibility. I would urge you to be cautious with your reviews, even if you’re frustrated with what looks like the system being gamed, and think about the consequences of a one-star rant.Some bad reviews can help other travellers avoid a scam or a tourist trap, though some will drag a business down unnecessarily, all because, say, the restaurant just happened to be busy that day and you couldn’t get a table.Consider the star rating you’re giving to a place. So many of us tend to review on a binary scale: I loved it or I hated it. So everything either gets five stars or it gets one star.But one star should be reserved for something truly awful, abysmal, an absolute scam or the worst hotel you have ever stayed in. Not just some mid-tier place where the cleaners forgot to service your room two days in a row.These reviews are important, they mean something, they have long-lasting effects that will either support someone or destroy them. They will influence other travellers to visit or to skip. They might even persuade someone to skip the Great Pyramid.Ben Groundwater is a Sydney-based travel writer, columnist, broadcaster, author and occasional tour guide with more than 25 years’ experience in media, and a lifetime of experience traversing the globe. He specialises in food and wine – writing about it, as well as consuming it – and at any given moment in time Ben is probably thinking about either ramen in Tokyo, pintxos in San Sebastian, or carbonara in Rome. Follow him on Instagram @bengroundwaterConnect via email.From our partners