Reviews Policy

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, review 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 Knockerdown Cottages, a stay or event with us, or because Knockerdown Cottages 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.

Customers of Knockerdown Cottages 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 Knockerdown Cottages stay or event you experienced

• The Knockerdown Cottages booking or enquiry process

• Communication or customer service provided by Knockerdown Cottages

Depending on the platform, a reviewer may be the lead booker of a stay or event with us or another guest who experienced this stay or event.

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 the stay / event with us) 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.

You are welcome to review both your experience with our service and/or the experience of the stay or event with us as part of your review.

5.1 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 may be submitted

• How ratings are calculated

• How the review is moderated or reported

Knockerdown Cottages 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 Knockerdown Cottages.

Where Knockerdown Cottages displays the reviews from these platforms on the website it will be via an Elfsight reviews widget. This widget simply pulls the review information, review counts and star rating from the platform to display on the website and does not in any way alter the original review submitted to that platform.

5.2 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.

Knockerdown Cottages does not control whether an independent platform publishes or removes a review.

Knockerdown Cottages 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 Knockerdown Cottages.

Where Knockerdown Cottages displays the reviews from these platforms on the website it will be via an Elfsight reviews widget. This widget simply pulls the review information, review counts and star rating from the platform to display on the website and does not in any way alter the original review submitted to that platform.

Where Knockerdown Cottages republishes an external review on a channel under our control, this policy apples to our use of that review.

5.3 Direct feedback and testimonials

Customers may provide feedback directly to Knockerdown Cottages by email, via a JotForm, in-person guestbook, or social media. Direct feedback is not automatically treated as a public review.

Knockerdown Cottages may publish direct feedback as a review or testimonial where we have reasonable basis for believing that it relates to a genuine experience, it meets our rules for publication, and we have permission to use it where required.

We aim to present reviews and testimonials accurately and with sufficient context for customers to understand the stay, event or service they relate to. We will not select, edit or present feedback in a way that gives a misleading impression of customer experiences. Where selected feedback is presented specifically as a testimonial, it will be identifiable as such.

We may shorten an extract or correct an obvious typographical error, but we will not edit feedback in a way that changes its meaning or makes it more favourable or less critical.

We may also redact personal information where necessary. Any privacy redaction will not be used to change the meaning of the review or testimonial.

Review invitations sent or arranged by Knockerdown Cottages 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.

Knockerdown Cottages 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 Knockerdown Cottages 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

When submitting a review, it should:

• Reflect the reviewer’s genuine experience

• Be honest and accurate to the reviewer’s knowledge

• Relate to a stay, event 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 Knockerdown Cottages, an employee, a supplier or another relevant party

• Comply with the rules of the platform in which it is submitted

• Not contain unlawful content, threats, hate speech, discrimination, targeted harassment or personal information that should not be made public

Knockerdown Cottages employees, suppliers, and people 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 Knockerdown Cottages disagrees.

Critical comments about a service or interaction are permitted. Threats, targeted abuse or harassment are not. Abuse of Knockerdown Cottages staff or local stakeholders will not be tolerated.

Knockerdown Cottages may display reviews and review information on the Knockerdown Cottages website, 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 Website pages

Where relevant, pages on the Knockerdown Cottages website may include third-party review widgets displaying reviews submitted through external platforms, such as Airbnb, Booking.com, Google and Tripadvisor, as well as reviews submitted directly to Knockerdown Cottages.

We use different review widgets across the website and, where appropriate, display reviews that are relevant to the type of stay or event featured on that page. For example, a widget displaying wedding-related reviews may be used on pages relating to weddings, while holiday-related reviews may be displayed on pages about our holiday stays.

Some widgets may contain a combination of reviews from external platforms and reviews submitted directly to Knockerdown Cottages.

Where reviews are grouped or displayed according to a particular stay or event, this is based on their relevance to the content of the page and not whether the review is positive or negative. We aim to ensure the reviews are presented accurately and do not give customers a misleading impression of the experiences of our guests.

9.2 Guestbook

On our website we also have an online guestbook page containing a selection of reviews and feedback that we have manually added to the Knockerdown Cottages website. These may include reviews originally submitted through third-party platforms, such as Airbnb, as well as feedback submitted directly to Knockerdown Cottages.

The guestbook does not contain every review or piece of feedback we receive. Where known and available, newer testimonials added to the guestbook will identify their original source, for example “Source: Airbnb” or “Source: Direct”. Some older testimonials may not display their original source.

Reviews and feedback added to the guestbook will be reproduced accurately. We may shorten an extract, correct an obvious typographical error or redact personal information where necessary, but we will not make changes that alter the meaning of the feedback or make it more favourable or less critical.

Where testimonials are selected for inclusion in the guestbook, we aim to ensure that they are presented transparently and do not give a misleading impression of the experiences of our guests.

9.3 Ratings, review counts and summaries

Where reasonably practical, a rating, review count or summary published by Knockerdown Cottages will make clear its source, what stay or event it relates to, the number of reviews on which it is based on and the date of the review or when it was last updated.

Knockerdown Cottages 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.

9.4 Selected testimonials and marketing extracts

Knockerdown Cottages 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 stay, event 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.

9.5 Older reviews

Genuine older reviews may remain relevant. Where stay or event 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.

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 Knockerdown Cottages or a stay or event without that connection being disclosed

• Attributed to a wrong property, stay, event or location

• Inaccurate in a way that materially mislead customers

• Inappropriate or unlawful

• Otherwise inconsistent with this policy

A report may be made directly to Knockerdown Cottages even where the review originally appeared on an OTA or another platform.

Where possible, please provide a link or screenshot, the name of the platform or page, the stay or event concerned, the reason you believe the content is suspicious and any relevant supporting information.

Reports should be sent to:

Email: hello@knockerdowncottages.co.uk

Telephone: 01629 540525

Online: Through our enquiry form on the Knockerdown Cottages website.

A report does not automatically mean that a review is fake or that it will be reported. Knockerdown Cottages will consider the available information and where appropriate may:

• Check relevant booking, enquiry, stay or service records from our property management system or event management system

• Consider the information supplied by the person making the report

• Ask the reviewer or 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, Knockerdown Cottages 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.

Knockerdown Cottages 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 Knockerdown Cottages to reconsider a decision by contacting us and providing any additional relevant information.

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 Knockerdown Cottages to consider and respond to a problem.

You may make a complaint and leave an honest review about the same experience. Knockerdown Cottages 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.

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 on our site

Knockerdown Cottages 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 Knockerdown Cottages Privacy Policy and GDPR.

Knockerdown Cottages is the trading name of Lenton Developments Limited.

Questions about this policy or reports concerning reviews may be sent to:

Email: hello@knockerdowncottages.co.uk

Telephone: 01629 540525

Online: Through our enquiry form on the Knockerdown Cottages website.

This policy may be updated where our review arrangements, applicable law or relevant regulatory guidance change.