Collect Customer Ratings and Reviews After Bookings

Collect customer ratings and reviews in TidyCal on every plan: ask by email after bookings, share a review link, and manage feedback from Reviews in the sidebar.

Overview

TidyCal's reviews system lets your customers rate their booking experience with 1-5 stars and leave optional written feedback. You can collect reviews automatically after bookings end, or share direct review links with anyone -- no prior booking required. Reviews appear on your public booking pages and help future customers decide to book with you.

Prerequisites

• TidyCal account on any plan (Free, Individual, Agency, or Pro)
• At least one booking type created

Showing Reviews on Your Booking Page

Customers can always leave a review — there is no per-booking-type setting to switch reviews on. What you control is whether the reviews you collect are displayed publicly:

1. Go to Booking types and click on a booking type to open the editor.
2. In the editor sidebar, click Advanced then Visibility.
3. Toggle on Show reviews on booking page to display reviews publicly on that booking type.
4. Click Save.

Showing reviews is on by default for new booking types, so in most cases there is nothing to change here.

Asking for reviews is separate. TidyCal only emails customers for a review if the “How did your… booking go?” automated email is switched on. On new accounts the three default post-booking emails start turned off, so you need to enable that one first — see Automated Post-Booking Emails.

Reviews Page

Go to Reviews in the sidebar to open your Reviews page. It shows:

• Average rating and total review count
• Rating distribution -- bar chart showing how many 5-star, 4-star, 3-star, 2-star, and 1-star reviews you have
• Review list -- all reviews with reviewer name, star rating, review text, and date
• Filter by booking type -- use the dropdown to view reviews for a specific booking type
• Get reviews button -- opens a drawer with shareable review links (see below)

Collecting Reviews

There are two ways to collect reviews:

1. Automatic Review Emails

Once the “How did your {{booking_type.title}} booking go?” automated email is switched on under Emails in the sidebar, TidyCal sends it to the customer after each booking that ends from then on (by default right after the booking ends). Bookings that ended before you switched it on are not emailed. The default email contains a Leave a review link to the review form.

• Once enabled, the emails send automatically — no per-booking action needed.
• Each customer can submit one review per booking.
• Review emails are only sent for bookings that took place: not for cancelled bookings, bookings you marked as a no-show, bookings still awaiting approval, or contacts who unsubscribed from your automated emails.

2. Shareable Review Links (No Booking Required)

You can share direct links to collect reviews from anyone — they do not need to have booked with you. This is useful for collecting testimonials from existing clients.

There are two types of shareable review links:

• Your review link — A single link for your entire profile (tidycal.com/your-username/review). Reviews submitted here are not tied to any specific booking type. Share this when you want general feedback.
• Per booking type links — A link for each booking type (tidycal.com/your-username/booking-type-slug/review). Reviews submitted here are associated with that specific booking type.

To find your review links:

1. Go to Reviews in the sidebar.
2. Click the Get reviews button.
3. Copy Your review link at the top of the drawer for a general review link, or copy a per booking type link below it.
4. Share the link via email, social media, or messaging.
5. You can also copy a booking type's review link from Booking types: open its three-dot menu and click Share review link, or click Reviews to see that booking type's reviews.

The review form asks for the reviewer's name, email, star rating (1-5), and an optional written review (up to 1,000 characters).

Note: Each email address can only submit one review per booking type via per-booking-type links, or one general review via your user-level review link. People who leave a review through a shareable link are added to your Contacts.

Reviews on Your Booking Page

When Show reviews on booking page is on for a booking type, that booking type's page shows your reviews: every general review plus the reviews of all your booking types that also have the toggle on, each labelled with its booking type name. The star average and count cover your whole account, not just that booking type:

• Star summary in the booking type header -- shows average rating and review count. Visitors can click the count to scroll to the full reviews section.
• Reviews section below the booking type description -- shows each reviewer's first name, the month and year, the star rating, the booking type it was left for, the review text and any host response.
• Reviews load 5 at a time; visitors click Load more reviews to see more.

Privacy: Only the reviewer's first name (the first word of the name they gave, or Guest) is shown on the public booking page. Full names and email addresses are never displayed publicly.

Reviews from Your review link are not tied to a booking type, so they show on every booking type that has Show reviews on booking page on. You cannot hide a single review; to remove one, delete it. Your average rating and review count also show on your main booking page and on your TidyCal Directory listings.

Responding to Reviews

You can post a public response to any review from the Reviews page:

1. Go to Reviews in the sidebar.
2. Find the review you want to respond to.
3. Click the Respond button below the review.
4. Write your response (up to 1,000 characters).
5. Click Send response.

Your response is:

• Publicly visible on your booking page under Response from host (when Show reviews on booking page is on)
• Emailed to the reviewer so they know you responded
• One response per review -- you cannot edit or add a second response

Deleting Reviews

To delete a review:

1. Go to Reviews in the sidebar.
2. Find the review you want to remove.
3. Click the trash icon on the review.
4. Confirm the deletion. This cannot be undone.

Email Notifications

TidyCal sends the following emails related to reviews:

• Review invitation (your “How did your {{booking_type.title}} booking go?” automated email) -- sent to the customer after their booking ends, once you switch that email on
• New review received -- sent to you (the host) when a customer submits a review
• Response notification -- sent to the reviewer when you post a response

You also receive an in-app notification when a new review is submitted. Open Notifications in the sidebar — the review card shows the customer's star rating as a badge, labeled New review (yellow badge). Click the card to jump to the response page where you can reply.

Troubleshooting

Customer did not receive a review email

• Review emails are sent after the booking ends, not immediately after booking.
• Check that the “How did your {{booking_type.title}} booking go?” email is switched on under Emails, and that it is not switched off for this booking type (booking type editor → Advanced → Notifications → Automated emails). Only bookings that end after you switch the email on are emailed. See Automated Post-Booking Emails.
• Cancelled bookings, bookings marked as a no-show, bookings still awaiting approval, and contacts who unsubscribed from your automated emails do not get review emails.
• Ask the customer to check their spam/junk folder.

Reviews not showing on booking page

• Make sure Show reviews on booking page is toggled on in the booking type editor (Advanced → Visibility).
• Reviews appear once your account has at least one visible review (a general review, or a review on any booking type that has Show reviews on booking page on), even if this booking type has none of its own.

Shareable review link shows 404

• Check that the username and booking type slug are spelled exactly as in your booking link. Per booking type review links work for your personal booking types only, not team booking types.
• Check that the URL matches one of these formats:
  • User-level: tidycal.com/your-username/review
  • Per booking type: tidycal.com/your-username/booking-type-slug/review
• The booking type must not have been deleted (review links for disabled booking types still work).

reCAPTCHA not working on custom domain review form

• reCAPTCHA is automatically skipped on custom domains because the site key is registered for tidycal.com only.
• This is expected behavior -- review forms still work on custom domains without reCAPTCHA. See How to Enable Bot Protection with reCAPTCHA.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I disable reviews after enabling them?

Yes. Go to the booking type editor → Advanced → Visibility and toggle off Show reviews on booking page to hide that booking type's reviews from your public pages. Existing reviews are kept, and customers can still leave reviews. To stop asking for reviews, switch off the “How did your {{booking_type.title}} booking go?” email under Emails.

Can I moderate reviews before they appear?

Reviews appear immediately after submission -- there is no approval queue. However, you can delete any review from the Reviews page at any time.

Can a customer leave multiple reviews?

Each customer can leave one review per booking (for automatic post-booking reviews) or one review per email address per booking type (for per-booking-type links), or one general review per email address (for your user-level review link).

How do reviews work with team booking types?

For team booking types, the new-review email and notification go to the host(s) assigned to that booking, who can respond from the link in it; the review is listed on the team owner's Reviews page. Team booking types have no per booking type review link: their reviews come from the review email.

Need more help? Contact us at support@tidycal.com.

Related Articles

• Automated Post-Booking Emails
• How to Create and Manage Booking Types in TidyCal
• TidyCal Directory - List Your Booking Types Publicly