Bad Weather Affects Customer Evaluations.

• Position: RESTAURANTS

There are a few things that usually will result in poor customer reviews of a restaurant: bad service, bad food, and... bad weather. A study of restaurants in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research found that customers left more-negative remarks on comment cards on rainy days than dry ones.

The odds of patrons leaving very negative comments versus very positive ones were 2.9 times greater on rainy days, suggesting that unpleasant weather leaves people in bad moods, which then was linked to them having less-positive views about the restaurants they visited.

"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," says study coauthor Milos Bujisic, assistant professor of hospitality management at Ohio State University...