We are not miracle workers.

Sometimes it seems that way - when we get a client a great clip in the New York Times, Departures, or similar high-flying publications - but let me let you in on a secret. We cannot work miracles for properties with shoddy operations.

Let's say a resort wants major publication exposure for its premium restaurant, but the hundreds of reviews on TripAdvisor are mediocre. The reviewers - who complain about lacking service, food served at the wrong temperatures, food that is consistently over-salted, and sometimes a whole table just seems to have been forgotten by servers - are not lying because you've eaten in the restaurant and know the reviews are spot on.

Picture this. I call an editor whom I know well over two decades. I pitch the restaurant. I hear soft sounds in the background. Tapping keys. He/she is calling up crowdsourced review pages, probably TripAdvisor.

He won't hang up on me - we have that long relationship - but he will say no because no editor is going to ignore what a majority of reviewers are saying on the major crowdsourced review sites.

If I made that call - I wouldn't - I would lose credibility. If the editor ran a story that was favorable, he/she would lose credibility.

Drop it.

It's not just restaurants of course. What if the specialty cocktails in the hotel bar are horrifyingly sweet to the point where the only safe bet is to order a straight drink like gin and tonic. Such stories get around. And they get around at warp speed in an Internet-connected, social world. That's the power of crowdsourced reviews.

Is there nothing PR can do? What I would tell a client in these situations is that, barring substantial operational changes, there is not much we can do because the people have spoken and they don't like you. Yes, the power of crowdsourced opinion is new but it is fact. Accept it.

But note the wiggle - "barring substantial operational changes." It most definitely is not PR's role to propose operational changes. Our skill is reputation management, not running a hotel restaurant or making beds or hiring masseuses. We know our limits and our place.

But

if the restaurants, say, were to bring in a new chef, with new menus and new energy, I could take that storyline to the press and definitely would get a hearing. It's news and news still sells.

If the bar brought in a Tales of the Cocktail level mixologist who reinvented the menu, PR has a goldmine to work with.

If the spa brought in passionate spa leadership, ditto.

It is not PR's role to recommend such operational changes. But we can say: if XYZ were to happen, that is grounds for us to seek to change perception of us.

What we do in PR is take the news we have, we arrange the pieces as felicitously as possible, and if we have been at this a while, we know which media to bring what to, when, for optimal results.

But what we cannot do is wave a magic wand and change reality and sadly that is what some - by no means all and never the smart executives - expect from PR.

They will be disappointed.

In many ways this has always been so. Some years ago a New York restaurant with which I had a tangential involvement was blistered in an excoriating review by the principal New York Times restaurant critic. That restaurant - despite a big publicity push and big marketing budgets - was done. There was nothing that could save it. Its potential clientele was exactly the sorts of people who read the NY Times reviewer and agreed with him.

Certain statements of reality trump the wishful thinking of hotel executives.

Good PR is rooted in reality. It starts with the facts.

Once we know those, it's our job to put a gloss on them for maximum impact - but we cannot create new, alternative realities.

Where operations are failing it is up to management to call the shots. And it is up to PR to support that management by spreading the word about positive, forward steps taken by the property to improve its services.

That is our job.

Babs Harrison
Babs Harrison + Partners
Babs Harrison + Partners