Bad Weather Makes You Give Restaurants Bad Reviews Regardless Of Service, New Study Proves

It used to be that a restaurant got popular largely due to word of mouth or through food critics. Thanks to the Internet however, we now place a lot of stake in user reviews.

Unfortunately for the restaurants, these aren't necessarily always unbiased reviews.

According to a new study by Ohio State University, even bad weather can influence the reviews a restaurant receives on any given day. The researchers analysed the reviews given to 32 restaurants in Florida, and found that they received the most unfavourable comments on days when it was either raining, or uncomfortably hot.

"Restaurants can't control the weather, but it may affect how customers review them," study co-author Milos Bujisic said in a statement. Restaurant managers may see more than the usual bad reviews on certain days, and it may have nothing to do with the service or the quality of the food." Apparently, they found that the likelihood of a customer leaving a negative review was 2.9 times higher on a rainy day.

The researchers rated the comments on a scale of 1 to 5, one being the most negative, and compared them to the weather on the days the comments were left. They took into consideration 14 different variables, but only three seemed to correspond with negative reviews, namely rain, temperature, and barometric pressure (which can be linked to daytime temperature.

The idea is that people are more likely to leave a good review if they're enjoying themselves. After all, they're just leaving a comment, they're not getting paid to be unbiased. So when the weather is bringing them down, they're likely to be in a bad mood regardless of how good the restaurant may be.

Sure, the weather may not be the most important factor, and is certainly not under a restaurant's control, but its effects can't be ignored. "It may be a small factor, but it is something that managers should pay attention to," study co-author Vanja Bogicevic said.

Additionally, the team theorizes that bad weather may also affect the mood of the wait staff. So if your waiter had to hoof it through the rain or heat to get to work, they may not have the biggest smile while serving you, and that will make you downgrade the restaurant.

So if you have a bad experience at a restaurant on a bad weather day, maybe give it another shot when things are nicer outside. You never know, you might be pleasantly surprised.