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, 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 Peak Venues, a property or a service, or because Peak Venues 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 Peak Venues 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 Peak Venues property in which you stayed

• The Peak Venues booking or enquiry process

• Communication or customer service provided by Peak Venues (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 property.

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 property) 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 can review both your experience with our service and the experience of the property in which you stayed in.

A property review should only relate to the property in which you stayed in or that you otherwise genuinely experienced. Please do not include opinions about other Peak Venues properties that you have not stayed in or experienced.

You may review Peak Venues’ booking, communication or customer service separately from your experience of a particular property.

5.1 Feefo Reviews

For eligible direct bookings, Peak Venues provides booking information to Feefo so that Feefo can invite the lead booking contact to leave a review after the stay.

This is a closed invitation process based on booking information. Participation in this is voluntary, and customers are under no obligation to respond. A single reminder is sent if no response is received.

Feefo controls its own review-submission, verification, publication and moderation procedures. Reviews and ratings displayed through a Feefo widget are also subject to Feefo’s applicable policies.

Peak Venues does not claim to have independently verified every statement made in a review published by Feefo.

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

Peak Venues 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 Peak Venues.

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.

Peak Venues does not control whether an independent platform publishes or removes a review.

Where Peak Venues 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 Peak Venues by email, our website form, in-person guestbook, or social media. Direct feedback is not automatically treated as a public review.

Peak Venues 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.

Review invitations sent or arranged by Peak Venues 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 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.

Peak Venues 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 Peak Venues 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 property 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 Peak Venues, a property 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

Peak Venues employees, property 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 Peak Venues or the property owner disagrees.

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

Peak Venues may display reviews and review information on the Peak Venues websites, including its property pages and review 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 Property and service reviews

Property-specific reviews should contain reviews relevant to the property concern.

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 Peak Venues’ 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 Peak Venues’ 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 Peak Venues 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.

Peak Venues 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 extracts

Peak Venues 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 property, service or campaign in which it appears

• Will not have its meaning or 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 a property 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.

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 Peak Venues 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 Peak Venues even where the review originally appeared on Feefo, an OTA or another platform.

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

Reports should be sent to:

Email: hello@peakvenues.co.uk

Online: Through the enquiry form on the Peak Venues website

You may also use the reporting procedure provided by the platform on which the review appears.

A report does not automatically mean that a review is fake or that it will be reported. Peak Venues 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, Peak Venues 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.

Peak Venues 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 Peak Venues 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 Peak Venues to consider and respond to a problem.

You may make a complaint and leave an honest review about the same experience. Peak Venues 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

Peak Venues 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 Peak Venues Privacy Policy and GDPR.

Peak Venues is the trading name of Derwent Venue Limited.

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

Email: hello@peakvenues.co.uk

Telephone: 01629 888666

Online: Through the enquiry form on the Peak Venues website

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