# Reviews and feedback — and the two meanings of "anonymous"

> Two add-ons that look alike and behave oppositely. Reviews are public and you always know who wrote them; anonymous feedback is private and genuinely untraceable, including to you.

_Last verified: 2026-09-05. Source: https://bookodile.com/docs/reviews-and-feedback_

Bookodile has two ways for customers to tell you how it went, and they are not
variations on one idea. They differ in the one place it matters most.

## The difference in one table

| | Reviews | Feedback |
|---|---|---|
| Who it is hidden from | The public | **Everyone, including you** |
| Do you see who wrote it | **Yes, always** | No, when marked anonymous |
| Can you reply | Yes | **No** |
| What "anonymous" changes | How it is displayed | What is stored at all |

**A review marked anonymous** still records the customer. It is displayed on
your public page without their name, and you can still see who it was and reply
to them. The promise to the customer is "hidden from the booking page, not from
the shop".

**Feedback marked anonymous** stores no customer, no booking and no token. There
is nothing to trace back, by anyone, ever. That is enforced in the database
rather than by a setting someone could change. The promise is "we won't see who
this is from — and won't be able to reply".

That second promise is the entire point of the feature. It is why the trade for
honesty is that you cannot answer.

## Reviews

**Collecting and publishing are separate settings.** Gathering reviews without
showing them anywhere is a supported state, and it is the default. You can run
the add-on for months and publish later.

**Turning publishing on publishes everything you have.** Every review collected
so far becomes public at once, so the settings flow shows you the full list,
worst first, before you confirm. Read it.

**The rating badge needs at least three published reviews** before it appears on
your booking page. Below that there is not enough to be meaningful.

**Turning publishing back off leaves the page in place** with a short note
rather than a dead link, because the URL may already be indexed and a missing
page reads as "this business is gone".

### Removing a review

There is no hide toggle and no approve-before-publishing, deliberately —
hand-picking which reviews the world sees is advertising, and customers work it
out.

What exists is **removal**, for spam, a competitor, or a review naming somebody
else. It requires a written reason, which is kept and shown beside the review.
The review disappears from your public page and stops counting toward your
rating immediately, stays visible to you under Reviews → Removed with who
removed it and why, and is permanently deleted after **30 days**.

Two things removal does not do: **nothing is reported to us** — there is no
abuse queue and no adjudication, and the dialog says so — and **the customer is
not emailed**.

## Feedback

Private by construction. There is no public feedback page, no rating badge and
no publishing setting.

There is also **no delete button on anonymous feedback**, and that is not an
oversight. Removal exists for reviews because the harm is "this is in front of
my customers". Feedback has no public surface, so the equivalent is marking it
done — and a delete button on the one channel promised to be safe would undo the
promise.

## When they are sent

Both are requested after a visit, and a customer who had one visit receives
**one email** — not one per add-on. If reviews, feedback and Google reviews are
all switched on, that single email carries a block for each.

## Worked example

A customer finishes an appointment. That evening they get one follow-up email.

They leave a 5-star review, ticking "post anonymously". Your booking page shows
the review without their name. In your dashboard you can see it was them, and
you reply — the reply appears publicly under the review.

The same email also invites private feedback. They mention the waiting area was
cold, and tick anonymous. You see the comment, the service and the team member
it is about. You do not see who sent it, and there is no reply button.

## Limits

- **Anonymous feedback cannot be answered.** No workaround exists, by design.
- **No per-review hiding.** Publishing is all or nothing; removal is deletion
  with a grace period.
- **Removed reviews are gone after 30 days**, along with any conversation on
  them.
- **Bookodile does not post to Google for you.** The Google review add-on asks
  the customer and links them there; the review lives on Google.