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Good afternoon, I’m trying to build up the new apartment commercial zone where I currently live. A lot of new restaurants are beginning to open now. I’d like to submit them as pokestops, but my rejections state they aren’t culturally relevant or unique.
What does this even mean, in layman terms? There is a coffee shop on the other side of my area that has been approved, but I cannot discern the difference between the two for why one was approved and one was not. I’d love to hear some feedback for what I can change to be approved, if possible.
Restaurants are often difficult. I actually like to make the distinction based upon the type of restaurant. We have lot of restaurants where you would go to, to have a nice evening with good food, so the social aspect is as much important as getting something nice to eat. You also have the other restaurants, where the main goal is to eat something and leave (the fastfood restaurants).
So I tend to look at the reviews, basically would it be a place where I would like to take my wife (in that case approve), or is a place to take the kids (reject)
Edit: naturally there are exceptions, we went to an amazing fastfood restaurant in Canada in the middle of nowhere with exceptional reviews, and we had the same experience in California, so those I would approve.
This makes sense. I’ll make sure to call out that it is a sit down, family style restaurant with an attached bar. This is definitely a spot for congregating and socializing, so it should fit the bill.
It just does not have any real uniqueness (it’s a pizza place, after all) and there’s no cultural significance since it’s brand new.
This means that reviewers selected “Generic Business” as a rejection reason. For some reason some reviewers are more willing to accept coffee shops - maybe since they see so many Starbucks in game? Or maybe since coffee shops expect you to meet someone and linger?
Internal Niantic reviewers seem to have an extremely high bar for restaurants, too. I just had one I thought was a home run with the featured article I attached pulled into Niantic review and rejected. The wording on rejected appeals of restaurants is something like
We are unable to verify as per the nomination context how this shop is a locally longstanding/hyperlocal hangout/cultural hotspot significant to your community. We suggest that you add more information explaining why this shop is important for the local community in a new nomination. This can greatly increase the odds of this nomination getting approved.
So I agree that I would try a new submission, point out any special reason to come to this restaurant specifically (besides just a place to eat), and anything else you can think of that genuinely makes it special.
There’s obviously a spectrum of cafes, restaurants, etc. You have the small local gems on one end, very easy accept, and the generic businesses that are all over the place - very easy reject.
If something is in the middle, it’s subjective - but I think reviewers are quick to reject anything that might be any sort of business. I know I struggle reviewing anything like this (though I try to be careful and think about it for a minute rather than instantly rejecting)
And even if it is a “small local gem”, does a reviewer actually know that? Just because I don’t recognise a business doesn’t mean it’s not generic/uninteresting/etc. I feel like the #1 thing here is making sure your supporting information really sells what it is, and how it’s unique/interesting compared to the average place that people might eat/drink at. I like what you’ve put, it shows the significance to some locals, I just think you need to expand on it more.
Summary of my point: I think reviewers are just harsh on the line between generic business and local gem that a wayspot will help people discover. Supporting information needs to really nail home that it’s the latter, but it’s still hard.
You can always try to improve your nomination and resubmit. Anyway over time, google review for certain restaurant might increase(more review, foto, tmrating, etc) and what got rejected today might got approved later
One way to think about it is that an average restaurant lifespan is 3-5 years. If you can show the place isn’t a chain and that it’s been around for a while and its value to the community, you can certainly increase your chances of getting it approved.
