Review Policy

Why this policy exists

Guests rely on reviews to choose where to eat, drink and stay. Fake, bought or cherry-picked reviews mislead them and are unfair to honest businesses. Monty is built to help venues hear from every guest and win reviews the right way, and this policy sets out the rules that make that possible.

It forms part of our Terms of Service, so every business using Monty agrees to it.

The law and the platforms’ rules

Since 6 April 2025, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 has banned the following practices in the UK:

• writing or publishing fake consumer reviews, or commissioning or helping someone else to;
• publishing reviews that were incentivised without making that clear;
• presenting reviews in a misleading way, for example by suppressing negative ones or giving positive ones more prominence.

The Competition and Markets Authority can enforce these rules directly, including with fines. Review platforms have their own rules too. Google, for example, does not allow businesses to offer incentives for reviews or to selectively ask for positive ones, and Tripadvisor and Trustpilot have similar guidelines. Venues must follow the rules of every platform they send guests to.

How Monty asks for feedback

Monty lets a venue ask every guest how their visit went, at the table, in the room, at the counter or by message, with one tap and in the guest’s own language. There is no app to download and no account to create.

After a guest rates their visit:

• a guest who is happy is taken to the public review platform the venue has chosen, such as Google or Tripadvisor;
• a guest who reports a problem can tell the venue privately, so the team can put it right while the guest is still there, and is still shown the link to leave a public review if they want to.

Monty never hides or removes the link to leave a public review because of the rating a guest gives. Guests are always free to post a review anywhere, at any time.

No review gating

Review gating means asking only the guests you expect to be happy, or putting obstacles in front of unhappy ones. Venues using Monty must not:

• choose which guests are asked for a review based on how they seem to feel;
• ask only after a positive conversation, or avoid asking after a complaint;
• discourage a guest from leaving a negative review, or ask them to wait until a problem is fixed;
• change their Monty settings, touchpoints or messages in a way that stops unhappy guests from seeing the public review link.

No rewards for reviews

Venues must never offer anything in return for a review, or for a particular rating, including discounts, free items, prize draws or loyalty points. Welcome gifts and offers in Monty must be available to guests whether or not they leave a public review, and whatever rating they give.

No fake reviews

Venues must not write, buy, commission or post fake reviews, whether of their own business or a competitor’s. Owners, staff, their families and anyone else connected to a venue must not review it. Staff may invite every guest to give feedback, but must never pressure a guest, ask only happy guests, or leave reviews themselves.

Presenting reviews honestly

If a venue shows reviews or ratings on its website, menus or marketing, it must show them fairly: not only the best ones, not edited, and not in a way that makes its rating look better than it is.

Replying to reviews

Monty drafts a reply to every review in the venue’s voice. The venue decides whether to publish it, and is responsible for what it publishes. Replies must be honest and polite, must not reveal a guest’s personal information, and must not threaten or pressure a guest who left a negative review.

Handling negative reviews

The right response to a negative review is to fix the problem and reply honestly. Venues must never offer something in exchange for a review being removed or changed. A venue may report a review to the platform if it breaks that platform’s rules, for example if it is fake or abusive, but not simply because it is negative.

What we do if these rules are broken

If we find that a venue is breaking this policy, we may ask it to stop, change or remove the settings or content involved, suspend its ability to ask for reviews, or suspend or close its account, as set out in our Terms of Service. Where the law requires it, we may also report what we have found to the relevant authority or platform.

Reporting a concern

If you think a venue is using Monty in a way that breaks this policy, tell us at help@monty.reviews. We will look into every report.