The short version
- Review businesses you’ve actually used, honestly.
- Good and bad reviews are both welcome.
- We never remove a review because it’s negative, and paying for Verified doesn’t change that.
1. Who can review
Anyone with a Bowie Local account can review a business they’ve used. You can leave one review per business. If your experience changes, email us and we’ll update or remove it.
You can’t review a business you own, work for, or compete with, or one owned by a close friend or family member.
2. What belongs in a review
Please do
- Describe what happened and when.
- Mention service, price, timing, and whether you’d go back.
- Keep it about this business.
Please don’t
- Post a review you were paid or rewarded for.
- Include phone numbers, addresses or other private details about anyone.
- Use threats, slurs or hateful language.
3. What we remove
Reviews go live straight away. We may remove a review, or ask you to edit it, if it:
- Is fake, or was written by someone with a conflict of interest.
- Was paid for, rewarded, or asked for in exchange for something.
- Is about a different business, or isn’t based on a real experience.
- Contains private information, threats, harassment or hate speech.
- Is spam, or mostly advertising.
If we remove your review, we’ll email you to explain why.
4. What we never do
- Remove or hide a review because it’s negative.
- Let a business pay to remove, hide or reorder reviews. Verified businesses get the same review rules as everyone else.
- Edit the words of your review.
Businesses must not offer anything in return for a review, or only ask happy customers for reviews. If we find a business doing that, we may mark its listing or remove the reviews involved.
5. Owner replies
Business owners can post one public reply to each review. Replies follow the same rules: no threats, no private details, and no offers in exchange for changing a review.
6. Questions and answers
Anyone signed in can ask a business a question on its page. The owner and other residents can answer. Answers from the owner are labeled. The same rules apply.
7. Reporting a review
Business owners can report a review from their dashboard. Anyone else can email us with a link to it. We read every report and check it against these guidelines, usually within 2 business days.
Report a review: info@localbowie.com
