I am in a small town and some of the frequent hangout locations are fast food restaurants. I submitted requests for Arby’s that was declined, so I tried Burger King, also declined and then I tried Dairy Queen - declined. I also submitted one for a local burger joint that is not a chain and it was also declined. I appealed one of them and the appeal was declined. I am confused why these are being declined. Please explain so that I have a chance at submitting one and having it accepted.
Fast food chains are usually rejected as a “Generic business”. You can read about that in this clarification:
You really need to demonstrate how important the business is to your community, or some other significance about it, to get one accepted. These are extremely difficult nominations, and very hard to convince that they meet the core criteria of a great place for exercise, exploration, or being social. Not just a place you can be social.
This topic might have some good suggestions for you: Tips for Rural Nominators
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if you want to share screenshots of your nomination, we can try to help you workshop this one. but if you would rather not reveal your location, that is understandable.
As you can see in the link provided above, generic business and restaurants are actually two separate categories, but unfortunately due to lack of enforcement, reviewers and even appeal staff sometimes equate the two.
Nevertheless, if you read the text under the Restaurant section, you will see that one condition to validate its “greatness” is the restaurant’s popularity and it suggests that using reviews can demonstrate the popularity.
So try resubmitting and adding links to show how highly rated it is. And when it inevitably gets rejected again. Appeal and show its popularity again while also linking to that Restaurant section reminding them that popularity (demonstrated by reviews) is an accepting condition.
Good luck.
Thank you very much for your feedback. This is helpful!
I would not appeal, especially as you only get 2 appeals every 15 days. The appeals team knows about generic chain businesses, and it’s going to be a hard sell to even them for any of these restaurants.
These are all generic chain businesses, and to have 3 of them in the same town doesn’t sound like it’s that small. My hometown only has 1 chain restaurant, a Subway, and I would never nominate it.
I’d really encourage you to look at the tips for rural nominations, as you most likely won’t get these restaurants approved, even on appeal. Look at that list to see if there is anything else that may be eligible; you may also want to look at the Criteria Clarification Collection to see if there is anything from there that may be in your town. I would also review the Wayspot Criteria section to better understand what may or may not be eligible,