This policy explains how reviews work on the Guest Pages of restaurants that use Orion: who can write them, how they are checked and shown, how restaurants may reply, and how Orion moderates them. It is part of the Orion Terms of Service, whose definitions apply here. How we handle the personal information involved is described in the Privacy Policy. “Orion”, “we” and “us” mean Valentyna Schaslyva, a sole proprietor registered in British Columbia, Canada, doing business as Orion.
Reviews are user content. Reviews, ratings and replies are written by guests and restaurants and express their authors’ views, not Orion’s. Visits are not verified. Orion does not guarantee that any review is accurate, genuine or complete, and does not endorse any review. Orion moderates reviews only under the rules published in this policy.
1. Two kinds of reviews
- Orion reviews are written on a restaurant’s Guest Page and are covered by this policy.
- Google reviews. If the restaurant has added its Google review link, every guest sees a “Review us on Google” button. That review is written on Google, under Google’s own policies; Orion does not collect, show or moderate it.
Guests are offered both options the same way, whatever their experience. A restaurant cannot ask only satisfied guests for a review.
2. Who can write a review
Anyone who visits a Guest Page can rate the restaurant, or a dish on its menu, from 1 to 5 stars. A comment (up to 1,000 characters) and a name (up to 40 characters) are optional. No account is needed. Visits are not verified: Orion cannot confirm that the person writing a review ate at the restaurant, and Guest Pages say so.
3. Rules for reviewers
By posting a review you confirm that:
- it is based on your own genuine experience with the restaurant or dish, and is written in your own words;
- you have no conflict of interest: you are not the owner, an employee or a relative of someone working at the restaurant or a competitor, and you were not paid, rewarded or offered anything to write it or to change it;
- it does not contain threats, harassment, insults, hate or discrimination, sexual content, or content that is illegal or encourages illegal acts;
- it does not contain anyone’s personal information, such as a staff member’s full name together with accusations, a phone number or an address;
- it is not advertising or spam, and is about this restaurant.
Comments and names containing a link, an email address or a phone number are refused automatically. From the same browser, you can review the restaurant and each of its dishes once every 30 days, and there are daily limits per browser and per network.
4. What happens after you post
Automatic checks. Every review goes through rate limits per browser and per network, using pseudonymous identifiers described in the Privacy Policy, and a screening of the comment and name by OpenAI’s moderation model, which looks for abusive, hateful, sexual or violent content.
Most reviews are published immediately. A review is held — not shown and not counted in ratings — when:
| Reason | When | How the hold ends |
|---|---|---|
| Many reviews at once | The restaurant received 15 or more reviews within the last hour | Published automatically 7 days after it was written, or earlier by the restaurant or by Orion |
| Many reviews from one network | 5 or more reviews of the restaurant came from the same network within 24 hours | Published automatically after 7 days, or earlier by Orion only |
| Automated screening | The moderation model flagged the text | Published automatically after 7 days, or earlier by the restaurant or by Orion |
| Signs of serious illegal content | The model found, for example, threats or content sexualising minors | Only Orion decides; never published automatically |
| Orion’s check | Orion placed the review on hold while it checks a suspected problem | On the date Orion set, at most 30 days later; a hold for suspected illegal content or personal data lasts until Orion decides |
Whether a review is published or held never depends on its rating.
5. How reviews are shown
Each restaurant has one setting, “Show reviews publicly”:
- On: guests see every published review of the restaurant and its dishes, newest first, and the ratings. Each published review counts the same, positive or negative.
- Off: guests see no reviews, ratings or star counts. Guests can still write reviews; they are collected and shown to the restaurant’s team.
The setting applies to all reviews at once; a restaurant cannot show some reviews and hide others. New restaurants start with it on. A rating is shown once there are at least 3 published reviews. The restaurant’s home page shows its three latest published reviews, of the restaurant or of its dishes (a dish review names the dish), and all of them are on the restaurant’s reviews page.
6. What restaurants can and cannot do
Restaurants can:
- read every review of their restaurant and its dishes in the dashboard, including held and removed ones;
- reply publicly to each review (see section 7);
- publish early a review held because of many reviews at once or because of the automated screening;
- report a review to Orion as spam, offensive, not written by a guest, or for another reason — a reported review stays visible until Orion decides;
- turn “Show reviews publicly” on or off for all reviews.
Restaurants cannot:
- edit, delete or hide an individual review, or change a guest’s text or rating;
- write reviews of their own restaurant or a competitor’s, or have anyone else do so;
- offer anything in return for a review, or for changing or removing one;
- invite only guests they expect to be satisfied.
Restaurants are responsible for following the laws on reviews and advertising that apply to them, including Canada’s Competition Act and, where it applies, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials (16 C.F.R. Part 465).
7. Restaurants’ replies
- A restaurant can publish one public reply per review; it appears under the review in the restaurant’s name.
- 15-minute window. For 15 minutes after a reply is first published, the restaurant can correct it, or delete it and write it again. The 15 minutes are measured by Orion’s server and are never extended: a correction or a new reply after a deletion keeps the original publication time. After that, the reply stays as it is.
- A guest’s report locks the reply at once, even within the 15 minutes.
- When a reply is changed after it was first published, guests see “Edited”. Orion keeps every earlier and deleted version; only Orion’s moderators can see them.
- Replies published before the 15-minute rule came into force cannot be changed by the restaurant.
- Replies must follow the same rules as reviews; in particular, they must not reveal a guest’s personal information or threaten anyone.
8. Reporting
- Reports on replies. Below each reply, guests can report it as offensive, as sharing someone’s personal information, as spam, or for another reason, with optional details of up to 300 characters. Orion keeps an exact copy of the version that was reported. From one browser a reply can be reported once, and one network can send at most 10 reports a day.
- Reports on reviews. Restaurants report reviews from their dashboard; Guest Pages have no report button for reviews. Anyone else who believes a review breaks this policy or the law, including a person named in it, can email support@orionrestaurants.com with the link to the restaurant’s reviews page, the review’s date and text, and the reason.
- Legal requests, such as an allegation of defamation or a court order, should be sent to support@orionrestaurants.com.
9. How Orion moderates
Moderation decisions are made by Orion’s team, not by restaurants.
Decisions on a review: publish (a held or removed review is shown again); keep (a reported review stays and the report is dismissed); remove (the review is taken off Guest Pages and out of the ratings) — only for one of these reasons:
- spam or advertising;
- fake, or a confirmed conflict of interest;
- threats, harassment, insults or discrimination;
- illegal content;
- someone else’s personal information;
- a duplicate;
- not about this restaurant.
A low rating, or criticism of the food, prices or service, is never a reason to remove a review. Orion may also hold a review while it checks a suspected reason, for at most 30 days.
Decisions on a reply: keep (the reports are dismissed); hide (the reply is taken off Guest Pages for one of the reasons above; the review and its rating stay); show again; correct — only to fix a substantial error, such as false facts or someone’s personal information, never just because a restaurant asks. The earlier text is kept, guests see “Edited”, and the restaurant can no longer change the reply.
A removed review stays in our records; the restaurant sees it marked as removed, with the reason, and we can restore it. Every step — holds, publication, reports and decisions — is recorded with its date and, for Orion’s and the restaurant’s actions, the person who took it. Restaurants see a review’s status and the reason for a removal, not Orion’s internal notes. Because reviews are anonymous, we cannot tell a reviewer about decisions on their review.
10. Your own review
You cannot edit or delete a review after posting it, because there is no account to sign in to. If you want your review removed, email support@orionrestaurants.com with the restaurant, the date, the rating and the text. Orion cannot verify who wrote an anonymous review, so we may ask for details and may decline a request that does not appear to come from the author. A restaurant cannot have a review removed this way.
11. Records, changes and contact
Orion keeps reviews, earlier versions of replies, reports and each review’s history for as long as described in the Privacy Policy. We may update this policy; the current version is always on this page, and significant changes are announced to restaurants in advance as described in the Terms of Service. Questions: support@orionrestaurants.com.