1. Purpose of this policy
Reviews help customers understand the experiences of other guests and make informed decisions about Stay at Rock Mill by Peak Venues (“Stay at Rock Mill” for the purposes of this policy) and the holiday apartments we offer.
We are committed to publishing and using reviews responsibly. We do not allow fake reviews, concealed incentivised reviews or the misleading presentation of reviews, ratings, review counts or other review information.
This policy is in accordance with The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCC Act) that created a new banned practice relating to fake reviews, setting out behaviour that is automatically unfair and illegal.
It covers fake reviews, concealed incentivised reviews and requires us not to publish consumer reviews (and the information derived from them) in a misleading way.
This policy explains:
- Who may leave a review
- What may be reviewed
- How reviews may be submitted
- The standards that apply to reviews
- How reviews, ratings and testimonials may be displayed or used
- How to report a suspicious review or misleading review information
- How Stay at Rock Mill may handle a reported review
This policy applies to customer reviews, ratings and testimonials that Stay at Rock Mill
publishes or republishes on its website, apartment pages, social media, email
marketing, printed materials and other channels under our control.
Reviews published independently by an online travel agency or another external platform are also subject to that platform’s own rules and moderation procedures.
2. Fake reviews, incentivised reviews and review information
For the purposes of this policy:
- A fake review is a review that appears or claims to be based on a genuine experience but is not
- A concealed incentivised review is a review that does not make clear that the reviewer received or was promised money, a discount, refund, free stay, gift or another benefit in connection with the review
- Consumer review information includes information derived from reviews, such as overall ratings, property or service scores, review counts, rankings and review summaries
Fake reviews can be positive or negative. A review is not fake merely because it is critical of Stay at Rock Mill, a property or a service, or because Stay at Rock Mill disagrees with the reviewer’s opinion.
A fake review is a consumer review that purports to be, but is not, based on a person’s genuine experience.
3. Who may leave a review
Customers of Stay at Rock Mill are welcome to submit reviews any time via their platform of choice. We do not offer any incentive, financial or otherwise in exchange for customers leaving positive reviews.
You may leave a review where it reflects your own genuine experience of:
- The Stay at Rock Mill apartment in which you stayed
- The Stay at Rock Mill booking or enquiry process
- Communication or customer service provided by Stay at Rock Mill (as part of any service-related review)
Depending on the platform, a reviewer may be the lead booker or another guest who stayed at the apartment.
You do not necessarily have to be the person who paid for the booking. However, you must have a genuine connection to the experience being reviewed (e.g. service or apartment) and must comply with the rules of the platform on which you submit the review.
Customers via OTA platforms such as AirBnB and Booking.com are invited to leave feedback and a review following their stay. This process is handled by the platforms themselves.
4. What can be reviewed
You can review both your experience with our service and the experience of the apartment in which you stayed in.
An apartment review should only relate to the apartment in which you stayed in or that
you otherwise genuinely experienced. Please do not include opinions about other Stay
at Rock Mill apartments that you have not stayed in or experienced.
You may review Stay at Rock Mills’ booking, communication or customer service separately from your experience of a particular apartment.
5. How reviews can be submitted
5.1 Direct reviews
For direct bookings, Stay at Rock Mill automatically sends out review requests to the lead booker following their stay at an apartment.
This is an automated feature via our property management system (PMS) and is a closed invitation process based on booking information. Participation in this is voluntary, and customers are under no obligation to respond.
Included in this feedback request is also a request to leave a subsequent review via Google Reviews. Reviews submitted via Google Reviews are subject to their guidelines as referenced later in 5.3.
The process handled by the PMS controls the review-submission, verification, publication and moderation procedures.
Stay at Rock Mill does not claim to have independently verified every statement made in a review published via this method.
5.2 Online travel agency (OTA) reviews
Customers who book through an online travel agency (OTA), such as Airbnb or
Booking.com, may be invited by that platform to leave a review. The relevant platform
controls:
- Who is eligible to leave a review
- When the review may be submitted
- How the review is displayed
- How ratings are calculated
- How the review is moderated or reported
Stay at Rock Mill may display, link to or refer to reviews and ratings from these platforms. We will identify the source where appropriate and will not present an OTA review as having been independently verified by Stay at Rock Mill.
5.3 External review platforms
Customers may leave reviews on independent platforms such as Google or TripAdvisor.
These reviews are publicly submitted and are managed by the relevant platform.
Stay at Rock Mill does not control whether an independent platform publishes or removes a review.
Where Stay at Rock Mill republishes an external review on a channel under our control, this policy apples to our use of that review.
5.4 Direct feedback and testimonials
Customers may provide feedback directly to Stay at Rock Mill by email, our website or
social media. Direct feedback is not automatically treated as a public review.
Stay at Rock Mill will only publish direct feedback as a testimonial where we have a reasonable basis for believing that it relates to a genuine experience, the feedback is suitable for publication, and we have permission to use it where permission is required.
A selected testimonial is not automatically included in an overall rating or review count.
6. How Stay at Rock Mill invites reviews
Review invitations sent or arranged by Stay at Rock Mill are intended to be neutral. We will not:
- Ask customers to leave only a positive or 5-star review
- Discourage customers from leaving an honest negative review
- Make complaint resolution, compensation or another remedy conditional on a customer not leaving a review
- Ask a customer to remove or change an honest review in exchange for a refund, gift or other benefit
- Place pressure on a customer to change the sentiment of their review
Resolving a complaint does not prevent a customer from leaving an honest review of their experience.
7. Our approach to incentives
Stay at Rock Mill does not offer money, discounts, refunds, gifts, free stays, competition entries or other benefits in exchange for customers leaving, changing or removing ordinary customer reviews.
We will not publish or republish a concealed incentivised review.
Where Stay at Rock Mill separately publishes paid, gifted, or otherwise incentivised advertising or endorsements, it will:
- Be based on a genuine experience
- Be clearly identified as advertising or incentivised content
- Not be presented as an ordinary customer review
8. Review standards
When submitting a review, it should:
- Reflect the reviewer’s genuine experience
- Be honest and accurate to the reviewer’s knowledge
- Relate to an apartment or service experienced
- Not be submitted using a false identity or another person's account
- Not be generated or submitted using a bot or another automated method intended to mislead
- Not be duplicated or submitted through multiple accounts to manipulate a rating or review count
- Not conceal an incentive or material connection with Stay at Rock Mill, an apartment owner, an employee, a supplier or another relevant party
- Comply with the rules of the platform on which it is submitted
- Not contain unlawful content, threats, hate speech, discrimination, targeted harassment or personal information that should not be made public
Stay at Rock Mill employees, apartment owners, suppliers, and people closely connected with them must not pose as independent customers.
A genuine negative review will not be removed merely because it is critical, gives a low rating or contains an opinion with which Stay at Rock Mill or the apartment owner disagrees.
Critical comments about a service or interaction are permitted. Threats, targeted abuse or harassment are not. Abuse of Stay at Rock Mill staff or local stakeholders will not be tolerated.
9. How reviews and ratings are displayed
Stay at Rock Mill may display reviews and review information on the Stay at Rock Mill website, including its apartment pages, social media, email marketing, digital advertising, printed marketing materials and press or public-relations materials.
We aim to present reviews and review information accurately and with sufficient context for customers to understand what they relate to.
9.1 Apartment and service reviews
Apartment-specific reviews should contain reviews relevant to the apartment concerned.
Reviews for materially different properties will not be transferred or combined in a way that could misleadingly increase a property’s rating or review count.
A rating relating to Stay at Rock Mills’ booking or customer service will be distinguished from a rating relating to a particular property where this distinction is relevant.
Where a displayed score combines more than one type of review, we will aim to make it clear to whether it relates to a particular property or to Stay at Rock Mill’ service. Some widgets on our site can be a combination of both.
9.2 Ratings, review counts and summaries
Where reasonably practical, a rating, review count or summary published by Stay at
Rock Mill will make clear its source, whether it relates to a service or property, the
number of reviews on which it is based on and the date of the review or when it was last
updated.
Stay at Rock Mill will not knowingly use a rating, review count, ranking or summary that is false or misleading.
Where a review is removed because it is found to be fake, concealed incentivised or otherwise misleading, we will take the reasonable steps to correct the claim on channels under our control.
9.3 Selected testimonials and marketing extras
Stay at Rock Mill may select individual reviews or extracts for use as testimonials in its marketing. A selected testimonial or extract:
- Will be based on a genuine review or genuine customer feedback
- Will be relevant to the apartment, service or campaign in which it appears
- Will not have its meaning or overall sentiment changed
- Will be identified as a selected review or testimonial where the context could otherwise be clear
- Will not be presented as a complete or statistically representative account of all customer feedback unless we have the necessary evidence to support that statement
We may shorten an extract or correct an obvious typographical error, but we will not edit it in a way that makes the review more favourable or less critical.
We may redact personal information where necessary. A privacy redaction will not be used to change the meaning of the review.
9.4 Older reviews
Genuine older reviews may remain relevant. Where an apartment or service has
changed materially, we will consider whether continuing to display older reviews
without explanation could mislead customers.
Depending on the circumstances, we may decide to add explanatory context, separate reviews from different periods, stop republishing an older review or update the relevant review information.
10. Reporting suspicious reviews
You may report a review, rating, review count, summary or testimonial that you believe is:
- Fake
- Based on an experience that did not take place
- Concealed incentivised
- Submitted through a false identity
- Duplicated or intended to manipulate a rating
- Connected to Stay at Rock Mill or a property without that connection being disclosed
- Attributed to the wrong property
- Inaccurate in a way that materially mislead customers
- Inappropriate or unlawful
- Otherwise inconsistent with this policy
A report may be made directly to Stay at Rock Mill even where the review originally appeared another platform or OTA.
Where possible, please provide a link or screenshot, the name of the platform or page, the apartment or service concerned, the reason you believe the content is suspicious and any relevant supporting information.
Reports should be sent to:
Email: hello@stayatrockmill.co.uk
You may also use the reporting procedure provided by the platform on which the review appears.
11. How we handle reported views
A report does not automatically that a review is fake or that it will be reported. Stay at Rock Mill will consider the available information and where appropriate may:
- Check relevant booking, enquiry, stay or service records from our property management system
- Consider the information supplied by the person making the report
- Ask the reviewer or platform for clarification
- Temporarily stop republishing the review while it is considered
- Ask the relevant platform to investigate the review
- Take no further action where the review appears to be genuine and compliant
Positive and negative reviews will be considered using the same standards.
Where a review is found to be fake, concealed incentivised or otherwise misleading, Stay at Rock Mill may choose a range of actions they deem to be relevant. This may include removing it from channels under our control, stop using or republishing it, report it to the platform, request that the platform removes or corrects it, and correct any affected ratings, review count, summary, testimonial or marketing claim.
Stay at Rock Mill cannot guarantee that an independent platform will remove content from a channel controlled by that platform.
A reviewer or person who reported a review may ask Stay at Rock Mill to reconsider a decision by contacting us and providing any additional relevant information.
12. Reviews and complaints
A review and a complaint serve different purposes. A review is feedback intended to be published or shared with other customers. A compliant is a request for Stay at Rock Mill to consider and respond to a problem.
You may make a complaint and leave an honest review about the same experience. Stay at Rock Mill will not require you to choose between the two.
Submitting a complaint, receiving a response or accepting an appropriate remedy does not prevent you leaving a genuine review.
13. Privacy guidelines
Please do not include information in a public review that should remain private. Information you should keep private includes:
- Booking references
- Home addresses
- Telephone numbers
- Email addresses
- Payment references
- Access codes
- Sensitive personal information about another person
- Information that could compromise the safety or security of a property
Stay at Rock Mill may redact personal information from a review or testimonial where reasonably necessary. Any redaction will be limited and will not be used to change the substance or sentiment of the review.
Personal information used to consider a reported review will be handled in accordance with the Stay at Rock Mill Privacy Policy and GDPR.
14. About Stay at Rock Mill
Stay at Rock Mill by Peak Venues is the trading name of Lenton Developments Limited.
Questions about this policy or reports concerning reviews may be sent to:
Email: hello@stayatrockmill.co.uk
Telephone: 01629 888666
This policy may be updated where our review arrangements, applicable law or relevant regulatory guidance change.