Update 09/09/19: Edited various sections in this post for clarity! It’s almost a rewrite!
Ever found yourself wanting to write a review but then feeling unsure about what to cover? Or perhaps, you started writing out your review and then realised that you’d forgotten to check if the venue had good accessibility, and you’ve already left the place? Well, fret no more! I’ve done all the worrying for you and came up with this simple guide that is easy to remember and also, to follow! This guide will provide you with a reasonably robust structure that should cover almost anything that you would want to review or comment on!
Before we begin, let me remind you that Google provides a guide (see below as well) to how you should rate a place! In my version, I will be tweaking that slightly to match up with the specific categories.
- Loved it- - Liked it
- - It was OK
- - Disliked it
- - Hated it
My guide is super easy; all you have to remember is to just stick to the FAACTS, which stands for:
F – Food/Drinks 
- What this is: Describe your experience with the food/drinks served.
- Things you can mention: What type of food do they serve? Is it a speciality cocktail bar? Is the food authentic or traditional? Is it tasty? Do they have great vegan options? Gluten-free? Kids/Golden Years (60+) portions? Is the quality high or low? Do they use good ingredients? Are the meals prepared fresh?
- - Your taste buds are in heaven; - It was okay, nothing memorable; - One to avoid
A – Accessibility 
- What this is: Describe how accessible the venue is for someone having issues with mobility, sight or sound. Sight and sound are important but can sometimes be secondary because they can be overcome with assistance from staff/public. Mobility, however, can be tricky if there isn’t a proper infrastructure in place!
- Things to look out for: Is the entrance wide enough for a wheelchair/pram? Do the doors open automatically? Are the doors heavy to open? Is there a ramp leading to the door? What about a chairlift? Are the tables/chairs arranged far away enough to easily walk through? Are there accessible toilets? Menus with braille letterings? Do the staff know how to sign?
- - All areas are fully accessible; - The main areas are accessible but there are still restrictions in other areas; - Someone with mobility issues will not be able to enter the venue
A – Ambiance 
- What this is: Describe how the environment looks and feels! Use all your senses, look around you and observe!
- Things you can mention: Is it cosy/cramped or sparse/open-planned? Is the dress code casual or is it more of a fine dining experience? Is the venue suitable for big groups, kids or even pets? Is the crowd lively and noisy? Is there an open kitchen? Is there proper ventilation for the cooking smells? Air conditioning? What’s the interior decoration like? Is there a bar area? Have you checked out the toilets? Is it clean? Is there sufficient lighting?
- - It’s clean, beautiful and very welcoming; - Some areas could be improved but generally it’s passable; - Your body keeps telling you to leave…immediately!
C – Cost 
- What this is: Describe how much it is for the service and whether it is worth paying for.
- Things you can mention: Is it cheap? How much would an average meal for two people cost? Are the drinks expensive? Is it good value for money? Are there concessions for kids/students/senior citizens? Do they have a happy hour or special discounts?
- - It is cheap or it could be expensive but still worth every single penny; - It is an average cost; - It is expensive or not worth spending your hard earned money on!
T – Tips 
- What this is: Sometimes you have a nugget of information that you’re dying to share to the world, so now’s the time to add it to your review!
- Things you can mention: Your tips could cover stuff like when’s the regular promotion (e.g. 10% off mains every Wednesday evening) or perhaps there’s a dish that you think that everyone should try or perhaps there’s a secret spot that looks out into the most stunning vista!
- No ratings needed.
S – Service 
- What this is: Describe the service that you received from staff members!
- Things you can mention: Were they quick? Attentive or did you have to wave your hands like a lunatic? Did they greet you with big smiles and a warm welcome?
- - Staff felt like family and made your experience amazing; - Service was okay, nothing to write home about; - You left feeling upset/angry/dumbfounded!
So now that you know and remember this simple guide, how do you put it to practise? Well, at the start, in the middle or at the end of your visit to your venue, keep running through the checklist of points in the guide and jot down notes (or make mental ones). Try, if you can, to cover every point so you know you have not missed anything out!
Of course, you don’t have to write about everything and maybe some stuff are not applicable; pick and choose what’s suitable! Personally, I use any free time I have (waiting for friends to choose what they are ordering, waiting for food to arrive, waiting for the bill etc) to do a quick exploration of the venue, take photos and make my notes.
Similarly, when it comes to rating the venue, I use the FAACTS guide and give each point (except Tips) a star rating out of five! And then calculate the average and round up/down appropriately! If you get an average rating that’s bang in the middle, then you have the power to decide whether you want to round up or down!
In the example above (image of the review is cropped, as it’s really long…you can read it here) I gave the following rating:
Food - 5/5
Ambiance - 3/5
Accessibility - 2/5
Cost - 4/5
Service - 5/5
The total rating is 19/25. And the average is 3.8/5. In this instance, I round it up to 4/5 which is reflected in the Summary rating as well as the final rating that I gave on the app. Rating a venue is always going to be very subjective, but now I feel a bit more confident since I have a structure in place! And most of the times, the final rating (Summary rating) matches up to how I would have normally done my rating!
As a side note, what makes a good review? Again, this is quite subjective since different cultures or people may prefer different things. I would say:
- Keep it simple and brief; long reviews can be off putting.
- Keep it detailed and personal; ten reviews saying “good” is not as helpful as one review that goes into detail about why their experience was good!
You may have noticed that I’ve said to keep it brief but also detailed! Yes, it’s about getting the right balance. For myself, I’ve decided that moving forward, I should only write 1-2 sentences for each point in my FAACTS guide. Indeed, the overall review is still going to be long, but it’s as detailed and brief as I can possibly make it. You can also find out some great reviewing tips here from Google!
As my review can end up longer than the average review, I also started to play with different formatting. I’ve tried different styles of star ratings, single vs multiple paragraphs, topic headings etc. Here are some examples:
Full review of In Flanders Fields Museum
All this experimenting is still new (I started a few months back) and I’ve yet to settle on one particular style but I think I like the visual emoji stars and structured paragraphs the best because it makes it easy for the reader to pick and choose what information they want to read up on. Like 'em or hate 'em, emojis in a review can be quite effective and I need to remember to use hashtags too!
I hope you will find this guide to be useful! I’m sure everyone has their own ways and if you have any tips or advice, please do share them! I’m still learning and refining my methods and hopefully, one day, I will nail it! Until then, I’m keen to know how you write your reviews so fire away in the comments below! If you can, please include a link or screenshots to your review so that we can all easily see how you’re writing them! Thanks for reading and sharing!!
#ConnectWritingChallenge
