I come from Nigeria and I do loads of travelling every month. Most of my journeys are for business so it is very important I get food and hotel right just for the comfort.
I love sharing each experiences on gmaps because we really do have some very bad hotels in Nigeria! Being a country with a very poor service history, Gmaps and ratings was a sure thing to get small businesses and hotels to improve overall how they serve their clients. For me if I paid for the service, I sure deserve the best and if I cannot get the best, I have to share my bad experiences. Sharing these sort of experiences was my main motivation for using google maps. I also realised if I could share the bad experiences, then the good places that gave value for my money also deserved a shout and a good rating just to encourage them to keep doing and improving their services.
It feels more like a game for me and because of this, I usually try my best to seek new experiences just for the sake of filing a google review.
A staff of a particular hotel told me I could not receive guest in my room, it was the worst experience I ever had for a hotel, according to this staff, it was a decision taken based on security concerns by the hotel management. I did them a one star rating and am happy my review has helped so many others.