Skip to main content
Legal Centre

Reviews and Content Guidelines

Version 2026-09-24 · effective 24 September 2026

Summary

This summary is here to help you. It does not replace the full guidelines below.

  • Only guests with a finished stay can review a hotel. Every review is linked to a real booking at that hotel.
  • One review per booking. Write about your own experience, honestly.
  • Nobody may offer or receive points, discounts or anything else in exchange for a review. We never pay for reviews, and our staff never pose as guests.
  • Reviews below 3 stars are held for up to 72 hours so the hotel can respond, then published. A reported review is held for at most 7 days while we decide. Hotels cannot hide a review; only Stayantra removes reviews, and only for breaking these guidelines. See section 6.
  • A hotel's rating is the average of its published reviews and of any held review waiting for our decision on a report.
  • Anyone can report a review or other content they think is illegal or breaks these guidelines. We explain our decisions and you can appeal.

1. About these guidelines

1.1 These guidelines apply to reviews, ratings, hotel replies, photos and other content posted on Stayantra: the marketplace, Stayantra Go and hotel websites built on Stayantra. They form part of our Terms of Service and, for hotels, the Hotel Agreement.

1.2 Our aim is simple: reviews on Stayantra should be written by real guests about real stays, and should give a fair picture of each hotel.

2. Who can write a review

2.1 Only guests with a stay. You can review a hotel only through a booking at that hotel. The review is linked to the booking, so every published review comes from someone who had a booking there.

2.2 How we verify. Before you can post a review, you must show that the booking is yours: by signing in to the account the booking belongs to, or with the booking reference and the email address on the booking. We then check that:

  • the booking is at the hotel you are reviewing;
  • the stay has finished: you have checked out, or the check-out date has passed; and
  • the booking was not cancelled and was not a no-show.

2.3 Any booking channel. The booking can have been made on the Stayantra marketplace, in Stayantra Go, on the hotel's own website, directly with the hotel, or through another channel that the hotel records in Stayantra. What matters is that the stay is recorded against a booking at that hotel. Reviews left on other websites, such as online travel agencies, are not shown as Stayantra reviews.

2.4 One review per booking. Each booking can have one review. If you submit the same review twice, we keep the first.

2.5 Feedback during your stay. During your stay you may be asked to rate a service, such as housekeeping. These ratings go privately to the hotel so it can fix problems. They are not published as reviews.

3. What a good review looks like

Your review should:

  • describe your own, first-hand experience of your stay;
  • be honest, fair and accurate;
  • be relevant to the hotel and the stay;
  • be written by you, even if you used a tool to help with spelling or translation.

4. What is not allowed

We do not publish, and will remove, content that:

  • is fake, or was not written by a real guest about their own stay;
  • was written by or for the hotel's owner, staff or their family, or by a competitor;
  • was written in exchange for a reward of any kind (see section 5);
  • is illegal, including defamatory statements presented as fact, threats, or content that breaks someone's privacy or intellectual property;
  • is hateful, harassing, or discriminates against people for who they are;
  • is sexually explicit or violent;
  • names, identifies or shares personal details of staff or other guests, beyond a first name used in praise or a fair complaint;
  • contains phone numbers, links, advertising or spam;
  • is about something unrelated to the stay, such as politics or a dispute with another business;
  • tries to pressure a hotel, for example a threat of a bad review unless the hotel gives a refund or upgrade.

Criticism is allowed. A negative review that is honest and follows these guidelines is exactly the kind of review we want to keep.

5. No incentives, no fake reviews

5.1 No reviews in exchange for rewards. Nobody may offer, give, ask for or accept anything of value in exchange for a review, or for a particular kind of review. This includes Stayantra Rewards points, discounts, upgrades, free services, refunds or cash.

5.2 Hotels must not offer incentives. Hotels must not offer guests anything in exchange for a review, must not ask only happy guests to review, and must not write, buy or commission reviews of their own or other hotels. A hotel may invite every guest to leave an honest review.

5.3 We do not pay for reviews. Stayantra does not pay for reviews, and no Stayantra points are earned for writing one.

5.4 Our staff never pose as guests. No one at Stayantra writes reviews posing as a guest.

5.5 These rules follow Nepal's E-Commerce Act 2081 (section 14), the UK Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 and the EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, which ban fake reviews and concealed incentivised reviews.

6. How reviews are published and moderated

6.1 Screening. Reviews are screened by automated rules, such as the hold on low ratings described below and the checks that a review belongs to a finished stay, and are reviewed by people where needed. A person decides before any review is removed for breaking these guidelines, unless it is plainly spam.

6.2 Reviews of 3 stars or more are published straight away.

6.3 Reviews below 3 stars. We want to be open with you about how these work:

  • a review below 3 stars is held for up to 72 hours and not shown straight away, so the hotel has a chance to contact the guest, put things right, and prepare a reply;
  • while a review is held for the hotel's reply, it does not count toward the hotel's published rating;
  • the hotel can publish it sooner, and if the guest changes their rating to 3 stars or more, it is published;
  • after 72 hours it is published automatically, whether or not the hotel has replied, unless it has been reported to us under section 10. A reported review stays held while we decide, for at most 7 days from the first report. If we have not decided by then, it is published and we still decide the report; if we later remove it, we tell you as section 6.4 says;
  • while a reported review is held, its star rating counts toward the hotel's rating and our featured ranking, so reporting a review never raises a hotel's rating.

6.4 Our rule. Hotels cannot hide or dismiss a review. A hotel may only report a review to us because it breaks these guidelines, choosing the guideline it breaks, and that decision is ours, not the hotel's. A person at Stayantra decides. If we keep the review, it is published. If we remove it, we tell the reviewer and the hotel what we decided and why, and how to appeal. Reviews that hotels dismissed before this rule took effect on 19 September 2026 remain unpublished; if one of them was yours and followed these guidelines, tell us under 6.5 and we will review it.

6.5 If you think your review was not published. If you left a review that follows these guidelines and it does not appear, tell us at info@stayantra.com with your booking reference. We will look into it and tell you what we find.

7. Hotel replies

7.1 A hotel can post one public reply to each review. Replies must follow these guidelines. In particular, a reply must not reveal the guest's personal details or stay details beyond what the guest wrote, and must not threaten or pressure the guest.

7.2 Hotels may draft replies with help from Exubee, our AI, but a person at the hotel reads and approves every reply before it is published. A hotel can withdraw its reply.

7.3 The hotel is responsible for what it writes in its replies.

8. How ratings are calculated and shown

8.1 A hotel's rating is the average of the star ratings (1 to 5) of its published reviews, rounded to one decimal place, shown with the number of published reviews. Reviews held for the hotel's reply, removed reviews and private service ratings are not counted. A held review that has been reported and is waiting for our decision is counted.

8.2 Which rating counts. The rating a guest first gave is the one used in the average.

8.3 What we show with a review. A published review shows the guest's first name and the first letter of their last name, the rating, the text, the date and any hotel reply. Reviews are listed newest first.

8.4 Ranking. Unless you choose another order, search results are sorted by the hotel's official star rating and then by name. Our featured hotels list uses a merit score, in which the review average is adjusted for hotels with few reviews. How this works, and what a "Sponsored" label means, is explained at https://marketplace.stayantra.com/ranking.

9. Photos and other content

9.1 Hotel photos and descriptions are supplied by the hotel. They must show the actual property and rooms, fairly and currently. They must not be misleadingly edited or show another property.

9.2 Guest reviews are currently text and a star rating. Photos you send a hotel, for example as evidence with a complaint, go privately to the hotel and are not published with reviews.

9.3 If we allow photos with reviews in future, the same guidelines will apply, and photos must not show other people's faces without their consent.

9.4 AI-generated images must not be used to misrepresent a hotel. Hotels are responsible for images they publish, including applying any AI label the law or the platform requires, as our Acceptable Use Policy sets out.

10. Reporting content (notice and action)

10.1 Anyone can report. If you believe a review, reply, photo or other content on Stayantra is illegal or breaks these guidelines, you can tell us, whether or not you have an account. Use the "Report" link shown under each published review on the marketplace, or email info@stayantra.com.

10.2 What to include. To help us act quickly, please include:

  • where the content is (the hotel page and a link, or a description that lets us find it);
  • why you believe it is illegal or breaks these guidelines, and, for illegal content, which law you think it breaks;
  • your name and email address (you may leave these out if you are reporting certain serious offences, such as child sexual abuse material); and
  • a statement that you believe in good faith that your report is accurate and complete.

10.3 What we do. We confirm that we have received your report, review it carefully and objectively, and decide without undue delay. We tell you our decision and how you can challenge it. If we use automated tools to handle a report, we say so.

10.4 Statement of reasons. If we remove content, restrict it, or suspend an account, we tell the person affected what we did and why, including the facts, the rule or law relied on, whether automated means were used, and how to challenge the decision. We do this unless the law prevents it, or the content was spam.

10.5 Appeals. If you disagree with a decision we made on a report, or about your own content or account, you can appeal within 6 months by replying to our decision or emailing info@stayantra.com. Your appeal is free. We acknowledge it and give it a reference number within 1 business day (and never later than 48 hours). A person who was not involved in the original decision reviews it, and we send you a written, reasoned decision within 15 days. If you are in the EU, you may also use a certified out-of-court dispute settlement body. You may also use our grievance process at Complaints, wherever you are.

10.6 Repeat abuse. If someone often posts content that is clearly illegal or breaks these guidelines, or often sends reports that are clearly unfounded, we may suspend their account or stop processing their reports for a reasonable period, after warning them first.

10.7 Law enforcement. If content suggests a threat to someone's life or safety, we may tell the relevant authorities.

These steps follow the EU Digital Services Act (Articles 16, 17 and 20 to 23) and Nepal's E-Commerce Act 2081 (section 33).

11. Your content and our licence

You keep ownership of your review. The licence you give us to publish it is set out in our Terms of Service. You can ask us to delete your review at any time by emailing info@stayantra.com. If you delete your account, your published reviews stay on the marketplace but are no longer linked to your name, as described in our Privacy Policy. If you want a review removed as well, ask us to delete it before you delete your account.

12. Contact