One of the world’s most trusted sources of food reviews is teaming up with one of the most-dissed to blend professional restaurant reviews with traveler comments—and quite possibly with some fake news.
Reviews from the Michelin Guide, the bible for high-end foodies, will now appear as part of TripAdvisor’s listings, giving Michelin and its rated and starred restaurants more visibility. Whether it will help their image, or Michelin’s, is an unresolved question.
While that’s taking place upfront, behind the scenes the two companies have another deal. Michelin has operated Bookatable, a restaurant reservation system open to the 14,000 restaurants its inspectors have rated; that company will now be sold to TripAdvisor’s restaurant booking operation, TheFork, making the Fork the world’s largest online restaurant booker, and adding five new countries.
Unlike TripAdvisor’s own platform, which is notorious for fake reviews and even listings that anyone can post, The Fork only allows reviews by users who have made, and kept, reservations at the restaurants they review.
