How do guest reviews work?

Verified guests leave star ratings and reviews from their own booking, order or ticket, and they show on your venue page — you reply publicly, report abuse to ResoFlow, and switch the whole thing on or off.

ResoFlow has its own reviews system: guests who booked, ordered or bought a ticket leave a star rating and a few words, and the reviews show on your venue page — and on your website's reviews section if you have one. No outside site involved, and no anonymous drive-by reviews: only verified guests can post.

Who can leave a review

Only a guest with a completed order, booking or event ticket:

• an order — once it's been delivered or collected (the "Leave a review" card appears on their order status page);
• a booking — once the visit is over: its booking time has ended (or you marked it finished), and it wasn't cancelled or marked a no-show — you don't need to seat or clear it (on their manage-booking page; if the page no longer shows their full details, the card emails a 6-digit code to the address on the booking to check it's them, so it works for the whole 30 days);
• an event ticket — from the day after the event (on their ticket page).

A review can be left for 30 days after the visit, order or event. After that the "Leave a review" card no longer appears — a review should describe a meal people still remember, and a venue shouldn't be surprised by one about a visit from last year. (That's separate from the 30 days a guest gets to edit a review they've already left, below.)

One review per order, booking or ticket — coming back to it edits the same review rather than adding another. Guests pick a star rating (1 to 5), can add a few words, and choose the name shown publicly (a first name works well). They can edit their review for 30 days; after that it stands as written. If they change their stars or words after you've replied, you're told (see Replying below). Strong language is refused automatically at the point of posting, with a polite ask to reword — slurs and swearing never reach your page, while ordinary criticism posts as normal (that's deliberate: reviews you simply don't like are handled by replying, or reporting — see below).

Why guests can't leave reviews — and switching them on

Three things must all be true before a guest can leave a review, and the first two are the usual reasons nobody can:

• Your venue has a paid plan or a paid product. Reviews are included with any paid plan or any paid product — the Free plan with no paid product, or the free Events tier alone, doesn't include them. If your venue later has no paid plan or product, reviews simply stop showing until one is active again — nothing is deleted.
• The switch is on. Your reviews live on the Reviews page (in the Grow group); the Show reviews to guests switch is in Settings → Reviews (/dashboard/settings/reviews, under Showing reviews) — the gear at the top right of the Reviews page (Reviews settings) opens it. It's off by default — nothing shows publicly and no reviews can be left until you turn it on.
• The guest booked, ordered or bought a ticket. Only a guest with a completed order, booking or event ticket (a ticket counts from the day after the event) is offered the "Leave a review" card (see "Who can leave a review" above), so a brand-new venue sees no reviews until those visits have happened.

What shows publicly

Your venue page gets a reviews section with the average and the most recent reviews; a venue with our website product gets a matching reviews section on its site. Each review carries a small badge saying where it came from — Dined in, Collection order, Delivery order or Event — and once there's more than one kind, filter buttons (All · Dining · Collection & delivery · Events) let visitors browse by kind. It's always ONE pool of reviews with one average — the badges are flavour, never separate scores.

Beside the stars, a line says Only people who booked, ordered or bought a ticket can review, with How reviews work opening ResoFlow's review policy.

What never shows publicly: the guest's email address, which exact order or booking a review came from, staff names on replies (a reply shows as "Reply from the venue"), or whether a review has been reported.

Replying and reporting

Once you have a review, two cards open the Reviews page. Your rating shows your average and how many reviews you have, with how many of each star and the change on last month once every review is on screen. Needs you counts the reviews waiting for a reply — new ones and ones changed since your reply — and Reply to the oldest opens the one that has waited longest (with a long list not all on screen yet, Show them lists every one waiting). A review's bell row (a new review, a review changed since your reply, a reported review showing again) opens that review on this page.

The Reviews page lists your reviews newest first — the newest 50, with Load more under the list for older ones — with a Show choice above the list — All, the kinds you have (Dining, Collection & delivery, Events) and Needs a reply — and a count of the reviews still waiting for your reply. The count, the kinds and the rating at the top always cover every review you have, not only the ones on screen — and choosing a kind or Needs a reply lists every review of that kind however far back it is, newest first, 50 at a time with its own Load more.

• Reply — anyone with the reviews permission can reply publicly from the Reviews page; staff can also reply from the staff portal's own Reviews page mid-service. Click a review (or Reply on its row) and it opens beside the list with what they wrote and a box for your reply; Post reply puts it under the review. One reply per review, editable any time (Edit reply). To take a reply back — posted to the wrong review, say — open the review and press Remove reply: it asks first, then the reply comes off your public page straight away and the review goes back to Needs a reply; you can write a new one any time. The Activity log records who removed it. If the guest changes their stars or words after you've replied, you're told the way you're told about a new review — a bell row, "A review you replied to has changed" (quiet, like new reviews) — and the review is marked Changed since your reply and counts in Needs a reply (and Home's "reviews need a reply") until you post your reply again, edited or as it was.
• Rezo drafts a reply (Pro and Complete) — in an open review, choose the Tone for Rezo’s draft (Warm, Brief or Formal) and press Rezo drafts a reply; the button says its price, 1 Rezo credit. Rezo writes a first reply from the review's own stars and words — never the guest's name, email, phone or booking — and puts it in the reply box for you to read and change. Nothing is posted until you press Post reply. If Rezo can't draft it, the credit comes straight back; if the box already had your own words, Put my words back restores them. How many you have left shows on the Marketing page's Rezo credits figure and in Account → Plan and usage. See What are Rezo credits?
• Report — if a review is abusive or fake, open it and use Report (owner dashboard only), say what's wrong with it and click Report review. Reporting reaches ResoFlow's operator straight away by direct message and email (a report made overnight, 11pm–7am UK, arrives at 7am) and lands the review in ResoFlow's own review queue, so it is always seen by a person. The review comes off your public page and out of your rating straight away while ResoFlow looks at it — nobody is told it was reported, and the guest can still see their own review. It stays off for up to 7 days: ResoFlow either removes it or puts it back, and you get an email with the outcome either way — and if ResoFlow hasn't removed it within 7 days, it comes back on its own and your notifications and Activity log say why. A review that has come back once can be reported again, but it then stays on your page while ResoFlow looks.

Deleting or removing a review

You can't delete a guest's review yourself: only ResoFlow can remove a review, and only one your venue has reported. Venues can never delete reviews — that's what keeps them meaningful.

If a guest asks to be erased under GDPR, their reviews are deleted outright.

Sharing your reviews page

The Reviews page carries a Your reviews page card with the address of the reviews section on your venue page — share it anywhere you ask for reviews (a card with the bill, your email footer, your social bios). Copy link copies it (so does Copy your reviews page link at the top of the page) and Open shows it in a new tab. While reviews are switched off, the card says the page is closed to guests until you switch reviews on. The card also points at the QR codes page, where a Reviews code ("Scan to read our reviews") lands guests on that same section to read your reviews — ready for a card by the door or with the bill. The section shows your newest reviews first; a guest who opens the full list sees 30 at a time, with Load more reviews until every review showing on your page is on screen. Guests leave their own review from their booking, order or ticket page after a visit — or from that section: once you have a review showing, it carries Been here? Leave a review, where a guest types the email they booked or ordered with, gets a 6-digit code (only if that email has a visit to review), and picks their visit. The same rules apply either way — only real visits in the last 30 days can be reviewed.

Asking guests for reviews

Asking for reviews, in Settings → Reviews (the gear at the top right of the Reviews page), switches the automatic review-request email on — Email guests asking for a review — and sets when it sends, the tone, where guests leave reviews (Google, Tripadvisor or somewhere else) and your review link. These are the same settings as the review request on Marketing → Automations, so a change in either place shows in both; the email's wording and preview stay on the Automations tab. The review request is Available on Plus plan and above.

The email can also ask for a review here: switch on Also ask on your ResoFlow reviews page (in Settings → Reviews or in the review request's settings) and the email (and the thank-you email) gains a Leave a review button that opens the guest's own booking at the step where they leave their review — for any booking that has ended and wasn't cancelled or marked a no-show. It works alongside — or instead of — the Google/Tripadvisor ask; with both on, the outside-site button comes first. A guest who has already left their review here for that visit (from the thank-you email or their booking page) isn't asked for it again — the review request then carries only your Google/Tripadvisor button, or isn't sent if that's all it had. See How do I send thank-yous and ask for reviews?.

When you've saved a review link, a guest who leaves a review here is then invited to share it there too — Would you share it on Google too? (or Tripadvisor, or "our review site", following your choice), with Copy my review so they can paste their words. Every reviewer sees the same invitation whatever their stars, because Google doesn't allow asking only happy guests.

From the search: "reply to the 1-star review" in Search or do anything opens Reviews on Needs a reply — and the review itself when it's the only one needing a reply with 1 star. Nothing is posted until you press Post reply. See What can I type into the search?.

Related: How do I send thank-yous and ask for reviews? · Collection and delivery · How do I set up and run Order & Pay?