The five-star review is a lie. The 4.9-star rating is a greater lie. We look at the number on the screen. We believe the number. We think the number describes the hotel. We think the number describes the experience. The number does not describe these things. The number describes the person who wrote the review. Most of those people are not you. Most of those people do not live your life.

The Cold Reality of the Stone

Carmen stands in the hallway. The hallway is at the top of the lodge. The lodge is in the mountains. The hallway is dark. The stairs are stone. The stone is cold. The stairs are narrow. There is no railing.

Grandma holds the hand of the toddler. Grandma is seventy-two years old. The toddler is three years old. Grandma looks at the stairs. She is afraid. She does not want to fall. The toddler wants to run.

Carmen holds her phone. The screen of the phone is bright. The screen shows the rating for the lodge. The rating is 4.8 stars. There are two thousand reviews. Carmen read the reviews. The reviews said the lodge was perfect. The reviews said the lodge was authentic.

The teenagers are gone. The teenagers are looking for wifi. The teenagers want to talk to friends. There is no wifi in the rooms. There is no wifi in the hallway. The teenagers are angry.

Carmen is tired. She spent ten hours on a plane. She spent four hours in a car. She trusted the number. She trusted the average.

The average is a mathematical result. The platform takes every rating. The platform adds the ratings together. The platform divides the total by the number of reviewers. This is how the average is made. This process removes the person. It removes the age. It removes the need.

The Statistical Median Trap

A twenty-year-old man stayed here in June. He had a backpack. He slept in the bed. He drank beer in the bar. He liked the stairs. He thought the stairs were cool. He gave the lodge five stars. A group of friends stayed here in July. They liked the noise. They liked the dark hallways. They gave the lodge five stars.

The platform does not separate these people from Carmen. The platform treats the backpacker and the grandmother as the same data point. This is the Statistical Median Trap. The platform wants the booking. The platform makes money when Carmen clicks the button.

The platform knows that a high number helps the click. If the platform showed the truth, Carmen would not click. The truth is that the lodge is for young people. The truth is that the lodge is for people without children. The truth is that the lodge is for people who do not mind the dark.

Looking in the Corners

Carter J.-M. is a court sketch artist. He sits in the back of the room. He looks at faces. He draws the lines on the faces. He draws the fear. He draws the anger. He does not draw an average face. An average face has no character. An average face has no truth.

“The truth is in the corners. The truth is in the small details.”

– Carter J.-M., Court Sketch Artist

He told me once that the truth is in the corners. The truth is in the small details. A review platform hides the corners. It hides the details. It smooths the lines. It turns the fear of a grandmother into a 0.2-point drop in the score. That drop is not enough to warn Carmen.

The process of the platform is simple. It uses sentiment analysis. Sentiment analysis is a piece of software. The software reads the text of the reviews. It looks for words like “amazing” or “beautiful” or “great.” It assigns a value to these words.

It does not understand context. It does not know that “amazing views” for a backpacker means “three miles of hiking.” It does not know that “beautiful rustic charm” means “no elevator.” The software turns the human experience into a digital value. The value is then sold to the user. The user is Carmen.

The lodge is not a bad lodge. The lodge is a good lodge for the right person. The problem is the match. The average destroys the match. It makes every place look like it is for every person. This is good for the owner of the lodge. The owner wants the rooms full. This is good for the platform. The platform wants the commission. It is only bad for Carmen. It is bad for the grandmother. It is bad for the toddler.

We are taught to trust the crowd. We think the crowd is wise. The crowd is only wise when the crowd is like us. If the crowd is different, the crowd is a distraction. A thousand backpackers cannot tell you if a hotel is good for your mother. They can only tell you if the hotel is good for a backpacker.

When we look at the 4.8-star rating, we are looking at a mirror. But the mirror is showing someone else. We see the reflection of a stranger. We think it is our own face.

Carmen walks down the stairs. She goes first. She holds the hand of the toddler. The grandmother follows. The grandmother holds the wall. The wall is rough. The wall hurts her hand. There is no railing. Carmen feels the weight of the mistake. The mistake cost five thousand dollars. The mistake cost a week of time. The mistake happened because she believed the number.

The Trip to the Coast

I stopped believing the number after the trip to the coast. I went to a hotel with high ratings. The ratings were perfect. The hotel was for couples. I was with my brothers. We wanted to fish. We wanted to be loud. The hotel wanted silence. The hotel wanted romance. We were the wrong people.

The hotel was the wrong place. The rating was a 4.9. The rating lied because the rating did not know who we were. The travel industry thrives on the average. It thrives on the generic. It wants us to be interchangeable. If we are interchangeable, the logistics are easy. The marketing is easy. The booking is fast.

But humans are not interchangeable. A family is a complex unit. It has different speeds. It has different fears. It has different needs for light and food and sleep.

A database cannot feel the fear of a woman on a stone staircase. A database cannot hear the frustration of a teenager without a signal. The database only knows the star. It only knows the click. We must look past the star. We must find the people who know the stairs. We must find the people who have seen the railing. We must find the people who know us.

The grandmother reaches the bottom of the stairs. She breathes. She is safe for now. But there are more stairs tomorrow. There are more hallways. There are more days in the trip. Carmen puts her phone in her pocket. She does not look at the rating anymore. The rating does not matter now.

The stone matters. The dark matters. The reality of the room matters. We seek the truth in the wrong places. We seek the truth in the aggregate. We seek the truth in the noise of the thousands.

The truth is smaller than that. The truth is specific. The truth is found in the conversation between two people. It is found in the understanding of a specific life. The average is the enemy of the individual. The star is the enemy of the family.

The stone staircase is steep regardless of the number on the phone.

The Witness and the Artist

I remember a sketch Carter J.-M. made of a witness. The witness was lying. Carter did not draw the words. He drew the way the witness gripped the edge of the wooden chair. The knuckles were white.

The white knuckles were the truth. The words were the average. Most people believe the words. The artist looks at the hands. When we plan a journey, we should look at the hands. We should look at the stairs.

We should ignore the star. The star is a light that does not illuminate the path. It only illuminates the screen. The screen is not the world. The world is made of stone. The world is made of people.

The people are nothing like the average. Carmen knows this now. She will not forget it. She will look for the railing next time. She will look for the truth.