Review guidelines

Writing a review

• Write about your own visit or purchase. One review per business; you can edit or delete it any time.
• You need a confirmed email address. Your review shows your first name and last initial only.
• A Verified visit label means you told us you visited ("Was it available?" on a deal) in the 60 days before writing. Other reviews are still welcome — they just don't carry the label.
• People who work for a business can't review it or vote on its deals.

For businesses

• Don't offer discounts, gifts or anything else for reviews, or for changing or removing one.
• Don't review yourself or a competitor, or ask staff, friends or agencies to.
• You can reply publicly to every review. Replies must not reveal a shopper's personal details.

What we remove — and what we don't

Anyone can report a review. A moderator reads it and removes it only for one of these reasons:

• Spam or advertising
• Abusive, hateful or threatening
• Not about a real experience at this business
• Shares someone's personal information
• Written by someone connected to the business or a competitor
• Written in exchange for a reward

We never remove a review because it is negative, and businesses can't pay to hide reviews. The author is told why their review was removed, and each business page shows how many reviews were removed.

Ratings

We always show how many reviews a business has, but only show an average star rating once there are at least 5 — two glowing reviews shouldn't look like a verdict.

Hot and cold votes

Voting hot or cold on a deal nudges its position in results (how we rank). Votes are weighted by each voter's track record, and accounts younger than 3 days or without a confirmed email count for nothing. Votes never make a deal "verified" — that only comes from checks.