During my experience as a Local Guide I have also tried to look at how a perfect review should look. People generally review places by highlighting what they liked of a place and what they didn’t like. A review is obviously based on a personal experience, but is it right to write a review completely basing on your personal opinion? The answer is no, as you are not writing a simple opinion, but you are also trying to see what is objectively good or bad about a place.
If a vegetarian reviews with 1 star a steak house by writing “it’s a *** which only serves meat”, is their review something good to take in consideration? The same: if a huge fan of meat (on the model of Gordon Ramsay) reviews a vegetarian restaurant by saying “it doesn’t serve meat”, is it a good review?
If an American/European reviews a Sichuanese restaurant by writing “he was too spicy for me, don’t go here”, is the review good, or maybe that dude should have understood in advance Sichuanese cuisine is very spicy? Maybe it is more or less like writing “it was too hot” when reviewing a sauna.
That’s why I came to the conclusion of the importance of writing neutral reviews, by first of all highlighting what are the things everyone can easily spot (if staff is rude, they will be rude both for a vegetarian and a meat lovers; if service is slow, it will be slow for everyone, and so on). Adding a piece of personal opinion to a review may be good as long as it is a piece and it doesn’t influence the overall rating.
And you, what do you think about neutrality of reviews?