I am sorry if Paul and Steve's posts don't quite make sense, but two posts have been hidden pending further investigation.
The two posts concerned are ‘rave’ reviews of a restaurant. They were posted by A.Lall and Bertram Hänger. I was highly suspicious of these reports for several reasons. Firstly, they were exceptionally detailed. Secondly, they could well have been written by the same person. This was particularly noticeable because English was clearly not the author’s first language (A.Lall claims to by British, Bertram German). A third and highly significant point was that both user accounts were registered on the same day – a month before the post – and both posts were made only a few hours apart. Coincidences? I think not!
Most convincing of all, however, was the fact that these users claimed to be from the UK and Germany. However, both reports were filed in the Caribbean – one in Tobago.
Suspicions aroused, I wrote to both users asking them to confirm that they had no association with the restaurant or anyone working their. My emails received no reply. Neither did my follow ups. Neither user has filed any other reports, but they have periodically logged into the forum and checked this thread, presumably to see whether their posts are still here and whether I have taken any action.
I know and highly respect the owners of the restaurant concerned. I would find it hard to believe that he would be involved in any attempt to manipulate public opinion through false reports. However, the new chef is another matter. For that reason I have been in a quandary on how to handle this matter. As a result, I took the cowards way out and did nothing. However I today received a private email from someone currently holidaying on Tobago and asking me to jog their memory with the name of this “new restaurant that everyone is raving about? German chef and his wife I think?”. It made me realise that leaving the posts is also possibly creating a very wrong impression.
There is a final twist in the story. One that in many ways made the decision for me. Readers may remember my 2007 Trip Report, posted in this forum back in March. In that report I said…
Restaurant disasters? Well there were a couple. One was down to bad timing and bad luck and so it would be unfair to name them. However, I am keeping a close watch on that restaurant to make sure that our rating is still valid.
Well, it pains me to report that that disaster was this very restaurant. We had gone there to see how this new chef was working out. Well, the evening was a disaster. The half-empty plates of other diners were clear evidence of how others felt. I felt so embarrassed for the owner, who arrived shortly before we left. He was terribly apologetic and I felt so sorry for him. Despite no charge for the meal being made, we did not feel inclined to return and check it out later in the trip. I had no choice but to remove the restaurant from our list of personal favourites, listed in the Restaurant section.
It is naturally only understandable that owners, staff and friends and relatives associated with restaurants and other businesses may sometimes try to “help” and sometimes go overboard in so doing. I do not know if this is the case here. All I can say is that I do not believe that these two reports were genuine visitor comment and have therefore removed them from the forum.
We have just come home from Tobago! We lived at Surfside Hotel in Crownn Point.
rating - good idea.
