Reviews & Ratings Policy

Last updated: February 27, 2026Version: 1.0

Summary

This policy explains how consumer reviews and ratings work on the Bubba platform. Reviews are verified (only users with completed bookings can review), moderated for content quality, and transparently ranked — in compliance with the Omnibus Directive (2019/2161), the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (2005/29/EC), and the Digital Services Act (2022/2065).

This policy should be read together with our Pet Owner Terms & Conditions and Business Terms & Conditions.

  1. Review Eligibility & Verification

1.1 Who Can Leave a Review

Only registered users who have completed a booking on the Bubba platform may submit a review. Specifically:

  • You must have a verified Bubba account.
  • You must have at least one order with a status of "completed" with the service provider you wish to review.
  • Reviews are linked to the provider where the service was delivered.

1.2 How Verification Works

When you submit a review, our system automatically:

  1. Verifies your identity — confirms you are an authenticated, registered user.
  2. Validates the booking — checks that you have at least one completed order with the provider being reviewed.
  3. Prevents duplicates — enforces a limit of one review per booking (per order). If you submit a review for a specific booking, you cannot submit another one for the same booking.

Reviews that pass all three checks are published on the provider's profile. Reviews that fail any check are rejected with a clear error message.

1.3 Verified Booking Badge

Reviews on Bubba are displayed with a "Verified Booking" indicator, signalling to other consumers that the reviewer completed an actual booking with the provider. This complies with the Omnibus Directive requirement to inform consumers about whether and how businesses ensure that published reviews originate from consumers who have actually used or purchased the product or service.

  1. Review Content

2.1 What You Can Include

Reviews should reflect your honest experience with the service. You may include:

  • A star rating from 1 to 5 (whole numbers).
  • A written comment describing your experience (optional but encouraged).
  • Information about the specific service received, staff member, or location.

2.2 Prohibited Content

The following content is not permitted in reviews:

  • Defamatory or libellous statements — false statements of fact that harm the reputation of the provider, staff, or other individuals.
  • Hate speech, discrimination, or threats — content targeting individuals based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or other protected characteristics.
  • Personal information — phone numbers, addresses, or other personal data of providers, staff, or third parties.
  • Spam or commercial content — advertising, promotional links, or irrelevant content unrelated to the service experience.
  • Competitor sabotage — reviews intended to harm a competitor rather than describe a genuine experience.
  • Obscene or violent content — content that is sexually explicit, graphically violent, or otherwise inappropriate.
  • Content unrelated to the service — complaints about platform issues, disputes about pricing or policies that should be raised through customer support.

  1. Review Moderation

3.1 How Moderation Works

Bubba employs the following content moderation approach:

  1. Pre-publication validation — All reviews are automatically checked for eligibility (verified booking, deduplication) before publication. Reviews that do not meet eligibility criteria are not published.
  2. Post-publication review — Published reviews may be reported by any user (consumers, providers, or third parties) through our content reporting mechanism (see our DSA Transparency page). Reported reviews are reviewed by our team.
  3. Human review — All moderation decisions about content removal or restriction are made or confirmed by a human member of our team. We do not rely solely on automated tools to remove reviews.

3.2 Moderation Timeframes

  • Reports are acknowledged within 2 business days.
  • A moderation decision is typically made within 5 business days of the report.
  • Complex cases may take up to 10 business days. We will keep you informed of progress.

3.3 Consequences of Violating Content Guidelines

If a review is found to violate our content guidelines:

  • The review may be removed or restricted (e.g., the comment portion removed while the rating is kept, or vice versa).
  • The reviewer will receive a statement of reasons explaining why the action was taken, the legal or terms basis, and how to appeal (per DSA Art. 17).
  • Repeated violations may result in account restrictions.

3.4 Appeals

If your review is removed or restricted, you can appeal the decision:

  1. Use the link in the statement of reasons notification.
  2. Email legal@bubba.pet with your review details and the reason you believe the moderation decision was incorrect.

Appeals are reviewed by a human team member who was not involved in the original decision. You will receive a response within 10 business days.

  1. Provider Replies

4.1 Replying to Reviews

Service providers may reply publicly to any review on their profile. Replies appear directly below the original review and are visible to all users.

4.2 Reply Guidelines

Provider replies are subject to the same content guidelines as reviews (see Section 2.2). In particular:

  • Replies should be professional, constructive, and relevant to the reviewer's feedback.
  • Providers must not threaten, harass, or retaliate against reviewers.
  • Providers must not disclose the reviewer's personal information in a reply beyond what the reviewer made public in the review.

4.3 No Retaliation

Providers are prohibited from retaliating against reviewers in any way, including:

  • Refusing future bookings based on review content.
  • Providing degraded service to customers who left negative reviews.
  • Contacting reviewers directly to pressure them to change or remove a review.

  1. Rating Calculation

5.1 How Ratings Are Calculated

Provider ratings displayed on the Bubba platform are calculated as follows:

  • Location rating: The arithmetic mean (average) of all review ratings for that location, rounded to one decimal place.
  • Business-level rating: A weighted average across all locations belonging to the business, weighted by the number of reviews at each location.
  • Specialist rating: If a review is linked to a specific team member or specialist, the specialist's average rating is calculated independently.

5.2 How Ratings Affect Search Ranking

Ratings are a factor in how service providers are ranked in search results on the Bubba platform. Specifically:

  • Providers with ratings are shown before providers without ratings.
  • Among rated providers, those with higher average ratings appear first.

For full details on ranking parameters, see Section 2 of our Business Terms & Conditions.

5.3 No Manipulation of Ratings

Bubba does not:

  • Alter, suppress, or artificially boost any provider's rating.
  • Allow providers to pay to remove, hide, or modify negative reviews.
  • Apply different moderation standards based on a provider's commercial relationship with Bubba.

  1. Anti-Fraud Measures

6.1 Verified Bookings Only

The primary anti-fraud measure is that reviews can only be submitted by users who have completed a verified booking with the provider. This eliminates the majority of fake review scenarios.

6.2 Deduplication

Our system enforces one review per booking (order). If a review for a specific order already exists, a second review for the same order is rejected. This prevents review stacking and manipulation.

6.3 No Paid or Incentivised Reviews

Bubba does not:

  • Commission, solicit, or pay for reviews.
  • Offer incentives (discounts, credits, free services) in exchange for reviews.
  • Outsource review generation to third parties.
  • Allow providers to offer incentives for positive reviews.

6.4 No Self-Reviews

Providers, their staff, and their affiliates are prohibited from leaving reviews for their own business. Self-reviews detected through our verification system (matching user accounts to provider accounts) will be removed.

6.5 Investigation of Suspicious Activity

Patterns suggestive of review fraud (e.g., sudden spikes in positive reviews, reviews from accounts with no other activity) may be flagged for investigation. We will take appropriate action, which may include removing suspicious reviews and notifying affected parties.

  1. Specialist and Team Member Reviews

7.1 Linking Reviews to Staff

When a review is submitted for a booking that was assigned to a specific team member or specialist, the review may be linked to that individual. This allows consumers to see ratings for specific staff members.

7.2 Rating Portability

Specialist ratings are calculated independently from the business rating. If a specialist moves between businesses on the Bubba platform, their individual rating history may travel with them as part of their professional profile (when the specialist accounts feature is fully available).

  1. Transparency Statement

In compliance with the Omnibus Directive (EU) 2019/2161, we confirm that:

  1. We verify reviews — All reviews on Bubba come from consumers who have completed a verified booking with the provider being reviewed.
  2. We do not filter reviews — We do not selectively publish, suppress, or emphasise positive or negative reviews.
  3. We moderate for content quality — Reviews are moderated only for violations of our content guidelines (Section 2.2), not based on whether they are positive or negative.
  4. We disclose our process — This policy transparently describes our review verification, moderation, and anti-fraud processes.
  5. We display all valid reviews — Reviews that pass our verification and content checks are published regardless of rating.

  1. Contact

If you have questions about our reviews system, need to report a review, or wish to appeal a moderation decision:

Emaillegal@bubba.pet
PostMB Bubba, Žirmūnų g. 57-50, LT-09110 Vilnius, Lithuania

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