Reviews Policy

The Royal Oak Reviews Policy

Last updated: August 2026.

1. Purpose of this policy

Reviews help customers understand the experiences of others and make informed decisions about The Royal Oak, including our pub and dining experience, bunk barn and campsite.

We are committed to publishing and using reviews responsibly. We do not allow fake reviews, concealed incentivised reviews or the misleading presentation of reviews, ratings, review counts or other review information.

This policy is in accordance with The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCC Act) that created a new banned practice relating to fake reviews, setting out behaviour that is automatically unfair and illegal.

It covers fake reviews, concealed incentivised reviews and requires us not to publish consumer reviews (and the information derived from them) in a misleading way.

This policy explains:

• ​Who may leave a review
• What may be reviewed
• How reviews may be submitted
• The standards that apply to reviews
• How reviews, ratings and testimonials may be displayed or used
• How to report a suspicious review or misleading review information
• How The Royal Oak may handle a reported review

This policy applies to customer reviews, ratings and testimonials that The Royal Oak publishes or republishes on its website, social media, email marketing, printed materials and other channels under our control.

Reviews published independently by booking platforms or any another external platform are also subject to that platform’s own rules and moderation procedures.

2. Fake reviews, incentivised reviews and review information

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 score, review counts, rankings and review summaries

Fake reviews can be positive or negative. A review is not fake merely because it is critical of The Royal Oak or because The Royal Oak 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.

3. Who may leave a review

Customers of The Royal Oak 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 Royal Oak pub, bunk barn or campsite
• The Royal Oak booking or enquiry process
• Communication or customer service provided by The Royal Oak

Depending on the platform, a reviewer may be the lead booker or another person who has genuinely visited or used The Royal Oak, our pub, bunk barn or campsite.

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 that book via booking platforms ResDiary, Pitchup and QBook are invited to leave feedback and a review following their booking. This process is handled by the platforms themselves.

4. What can be reviewed

You are welcome to review your experience(s) of The Royal Oak pub, campsite or bunk barn in your review.

5. How can reviews be submitted

5.1 Booking platform reviews (ResDiary, Pitchup and QBook)

Customers who place a reservation or booking through ResDiary, Pitchup, or QBook for our pub, campsite and bunk barn will be asked to leave a review following their booking or reservation.

These reviews and their requests are handled by the booking platforms themselves and therefore any reviews submitted need to adhere to that platform’s terms and conditions.

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

The Royal Oak may display, link to or refer to reviews and ratings from these platforms. We will identify the source where appropriate and will not present a booking platform review as having been independently verified by The Royal Oak.

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.

The Royal Oak does not control whether an independent platform publishes or removes a review.

Where The Royal Oak 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 The Royal Oak by email, in-person guestbook, or social media. Direct feedback is not automatically treated as a public review.

The Royal Oak 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.

 6. How The Royal Oak invites reviews

Review invitations sent or arranged by The Royal Oak 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.

7. Our approach to incentives

The Royal Oak 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 The Royal Oak 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

8. Review Standards

When submitting a review, it should:

• Reflect the reviewer’s genuine experience

• Be honest and accurate to the reviewer’s knowledge

• Relate to a experience of our pub, campsite or bunk barn

• 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 The Royal Oak, 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

The Royal Oak employees, 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 The Royal Oak disagrees.

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

9. How reviews and ratings are displayed

The Royal Oak may display reviews and review information on The Royal Oak 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 Royal Oak website may include third-party review widgets from booking platforms (ResDiary, Pitchup and Qbook) displaying reviews submitted through these booking platforms. These reviews have been submitted in accordance with the relevant guidelines of that platform.

Third-party review widgets are also used to display reviews submitted through external platforms, such as Google, TripAdvisor and Facebook.

We use these different third-party review widgets across the website and, where appropriate, display reviews that are relevant to the type of experience featured on that page. For example, a widget displaying reviews related to the pub experience may be used on pages related to booking a table reservation with the pub, while reviews related to the camping experience may be displayed on pages about our campsite.

We aim to ensure the reviews are presented accurately and do not give customers a misleading impression of the experience of our guests.

9.2 Ratings, review counts and summaries

Where reasonably practical, a rating, review count or summary published by The Royal Oak 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.

The Royal Oak 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

The Royal Oak 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 pub, campsite, bunk barn 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.

9.4 Older reviews

Genuine older reviews may remain relevant. Where the pub, campsite or bunk barn 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.

10. Reporting suspicious reviews

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 The Royal Oak or an experience without that connection being disclosed

• Attributed to the wrong pub, campsite stay, bunk barn stay 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 The Royal Oak even where the review originally appeared on another platform.

Where possible, please provide a link or screenshot, the name of the platform or page, the experience type(s) concerned, the reason you believe the content is suspicious and any relevant supporting information.

Reports should be sent to:

Email: hello@peakpub.co.uk

Telephone: 01298 83288

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

11. How we handle reported reviews

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

• Check relevant booking, enquiry, stay or service records from our systems

• 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, The Royal Oak 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.

The Royal Oak 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 The Royal Oak to reconsider a decision by contacting us and providing any additional relevant information.

12. Reviews and complaints

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 The Royal Oak to consider and respond to a problem.

You may make a complaint and leave an honest review about the same experience. The Royal Oak 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.

13. Privacy guidelines

Please do not include information in a public review that should remain private. Information you should keep private includes:

• Booking and reservation 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 the pub and its campsite or bunk barn

The Royal Oak 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 Royal Oak Privacy Policy and GDPR.

14. About The Royal Oak

The Royal oak is the trading name of The Hesdev Oak Limited.

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

Email: hello@peakpub.co.uk

Telephone: 01298 83288

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