There is something to be said about people that use TripAdvisor going to a restaurant that exists and then posting non-5-star reviews. Also, TripAdvisor might a

There is something to be said about people that use TripAdvisor going to a restaurant that exists and then posting non-5-star reviews. Also, TripAdvisor might actually employ undercover test eaters to check the quality of restaurants and those just never managed to book in his fake restaurant for obvious reasons. But yeah, even if it's true what they say, they still also need to prevent fake restaurants from going up the rankings. Otherwise people will do what the author did, push their fake restaurant to the top and then open it up one day. The initial publicity boost will be enough to stay in the spotlight for a long time, especially with people falling for group think and perceiving things there to be a lot better than they actually are, just because other people supposedly thought so.