Editorial Policy

We provide a review system because our mission is to help local communities get to know their local businesses. We want to encourage ratings and reviews and we don't want to remove a review (but we can if it doesn't comply with our rules). It is important to us that your review is accepted, so to make this possible, please ensure your review conforms to the following:

  • You are personally responsible and liable in relation to all comments made in your review.
  • Don't make it personal. You can talk about your experience with the business, but don't publish personal information about anyone associated with the business (like their name or phone number for example).
  • Your review should refer to one or more of the following elements in relation to the dealings you had with the business:
    1. Customer service received
    2. Quality of the product or service
    3. Punctuality or timeliness
    4. Value for money
    5. You can only provide a review of a local business if you have been a customer and you are not in any way otherwise connected with that local business;
    6. You can only provide a review about a local business once in a 12 month period;
    7. Business owners, employees or representatives are not allowed to provide reviews of their own or competing businesses.
    8. You must not receive any direct or indirect financial incentive to write a review.
    9. Your review must be honest and accurate. Remember the purpose is to provide information to other potential customers so the more detail you provide the more helpful your review will be.
    10. Your review should not make accusations that a business has broken any law. Whilst your complaint may be entirely legitimate, StartLocal is not the appropriate vehicle for such content. If a business has broken the law, please get in touch with the police, your lawyer or the department of fair trading in your city.
    11. Your review should only be about your dealings with that local business. Please don't use the review to make comments and comparisons with other businesses.
    12. Don't use defamatory, offensive, obscene, discriminatory or otherwise unacceptable, language. If you aren't sure if it will be any of the above, don't use it.
    13. Don't include any information that you aren't supposed to (check your contract, agreement and terms and conditions with the Local Business about what you can and can't disclose about your dealings with them).
    14. You may be asked to provide evidence that you have been a customer of the business .e.g. a receipt
    15. Don't use HTML tags or include any links to other websites in your review.
    16. Don't cut and paste comments, images or any other content from another site. If you didn't write it or create it yourself, please don't put it on our Site.
    17. And don't forget that, in the case of a public review, what you write will be made public and may be copied and republished elsewhere.
    18. Lastly, StartLocal reserves the right to remove any content (at any time) that violates our rules or is otherwise deemed defamatory, slanderous, otherwise inappropriate for this site or for any other reason.

    Please note that the above editorial policies are in addition to the Terms of Use.