Reviews Policy

This Reviews Policy explains how we at Low Costa Mill Holiday Cottages collect and monitor consumer reviews.

Consumer Reviews Policy

1. Definitions

The following defined terms apply to this Consumer Reviews Policy:

2. Who can submit a review

1. We welcome reviews about your experience with us and your stay at the Property, directly and via Third Party Review Platforms.
2. We send all our customers who have made a direct Booking with us an invitation to submit a review. For more information about leaving reviews, please see the How to leave a review section.
3. We also welcome reviews about your experience by submitting a review via Third Party Review Platforms.
4. You can leave a review about a recent experience with us even if you haven’t made a Booking. You can review the Service provided by us (for example, you can review how we handled your enquiry). These reviews need to be placed on either Google or Facebook as the FreetoBook platform is exclusively for guests who have paid and stayed.
5. You must be over 18 to leave a review.

3. We do not incentivise reviews

1. We do not offer any incentives for reviews (whether positive or negative).

4. How to leave a review

1. To leave a review with us directly about your stay at the Property, you need to complete the feedback request provided via email at the end of your stay at the Property (for direct bookings only). If you have any questions, please contact us via the contact details on the Website.
2. We also use Third Party Review Platforms to collect reviews about the Service. Information about the Third Party Review Platforms we use, including links to guidance produced by the Third Party Review Platforms on submitting reviews, can be found at the end of this policy.
3. If you booked your stay via an OTA, the OTA may request your feedback directly. The OTA’s review collection process and policies will apply. Links to guidance produced by the OTAs we use on submitting reviews can be found at the end of this policy.
4. You can also leave feedback via publicly available websites such as social media channels and Google’s public review function.

5. Review Standards

Your review must:

1. Reflect your genuine experience (both positives and negatives).
2. Not be incentivised in any way.
3. Not relate to a product or service you are connected with (for example, because you, or someone in your family, has a financial interest in or works for the business that provides it).
4. Not manipulate ratings (for example, you cannot submit multiple reviews for the same product or service).

6. Where and how we display reviews

1. We publish all reviews that comply with our Review Standards (whether positive or negative). Sometimes we remove old reviews and make clear the time period of review information being displayed.
2. Reviews for our Service or Properties made via Third Party Review Platforms or directly with OTAs may appear on the Third Party Review Platforms/OTAs website.
3. We may display review information such as an overall rating by averaging the ratings received.
4. We reserve the right to hide all reviews (whether genuine or fake) and cease taking reviews at any time.

7. We may use your review in our marketing

1. We may include all (or a representative part) of your review in our marketing material in any media (for example, on our website, in a brochure or in advertising). Your identity will not be revealed.

8. Please report suspicious reviews

1. All reviews must comply with clause 5: Review Standards.
2. If you think any review is fake or otherwise does not comply with clause 5, please report this to us via the contact details on our Website.
3. If you think any review submitted to a Third Party Review Platform is fake or otherwise does not comply with clause 5, please report this to the Third Party Review Platform via the Third Party Review Platform’s website. Please see the end of this policy for useful links.

9. How we investigate and deal with suspicious reviews

1. If our own monitoring, or a report from you or someone else, suggests that a direct review does not comply with the Review Standards, we will promptly investigate.
2. Our investigation shall commence on notification (clause 9.1) and we will use reasonable endeavours to complete the investigation within 60-90 days. Investigations shall be conducted by Dave and Tracy Goodfellow.
3. We may:
   1. immediately remove it (or not publish it, where it has been detected before publication). We will do this where we are certain it is non-compliant.
   2. investigate it further (which may involve contacting the reviewer for evidence that it is compliant) and flag it as a possibly fake review until our investigation is complete, or remove the possibly fake review until our investigation is complete. If we then determine the review is non-compliant we will permanently remove it.
4. If we identify one review as non-compliant we may remove all reviews submitted by the same reviewer and refuse to publish any further reviews from the same reviewer.
5. If we remove a review or are investigating it, we will not include that review in any aggregated review score.
6. If you disagree with our decision as to whether a review is compliant, you can contact us via the contact details on our Website. We will deal with the issue you raise in accordance with our customer complaints procedure.
7. Where we host reviews regarding the products or services of other traders (e.g. reviews about the Owner and/or the Owner’s Property) and, on assessment, deem the trader responsible for banned reviews, we may take the following additional steps if we deem it necessary on an assessment of the facts:
   1. notify consumers that the trader has benefited from banned reviews by putting a clear notice on the website;
   2. terminate the commercial relationship with the trader; and/or
   3. notify the CMA of the trader’s breaches of the banned practices.
8. For information on how the Third Party Review Platforms sanction people who submit fake reviews, please see the Third Party Review Platform’s website.
9. If a review is removed from a Third Party Review Platform or otherwise does not comply with our Review Standards, we will remove it from our website.

Schedule 1 – Third Party Review Platforms