Review Guidelines

How we became Canada's largest and most-trusted source for connecting with home professionals.

Write A Review

HomeStars’ Reviews Are Authentic, Reliable and Local


What sets our reviews apart from other websites is the fact that we have an entire team dedicated to ensuring the integrity of homeowners’ honest reviews posted on site. All reviews, positive, negative or somewhere in between undergoing the exact same moderation process. We know 98% of Canadian homeowners read reviews before hiring so we take our guidelines seriously so that you can feel confident hiring based on the reviews you read.


We encourage you to Write A Review after the completion of any home improvement project, no matter how big or small, to contribute to our community and empower homeowners using your experiences with pros. Before you begin writing, please take a moment to read through our Homeowner Review Guidelines to ensure that your review will be approved and published.


Who Can Homeowners Review?


HomeStars believes in empowering homeowners by sharing their hiring experiences with their neighbours online through reviews. Whether you’re looking for a handyman or a general contractor, the reviews written by homeowners are essential in helping you find the right pro for your project. Here are some things to keep in mind to ensure your next review is published to HomeStars.

  • You can review any company listed on HomeStars so long as there has been a financial transaction between the review writer and the company. A financial transaction is defined as a transfer of funds between the homeowner and the company and/or an agreement of work. The review must relate to the repair, improvement, purchase, or construction undertaking, completed by an agreement of work. A financial transaction can also include refunds, partial payments, or disputed payments.
  • A company can be reviewed up to 3 times by the same homeowner in a lifetime. Each review must focus on a different project, with at least 6 months between each review.
  • All reviews must be submitted with a valid email address and postal code of where the work was completed.
  • Any incentive or discount promised in exchange for a review will lead to review removal
  • All reviews must be written by past customers who are unrelated and/or unaffiliated with the company. Family members, current or past employees cannot write reviews.
  • All reviews for companies should be written using a homeowner account. This includes companies hired to assist with a job at your home or place of work, or sub-contracting companies.
  • Anyone writing a review must be over the age of 18.

What to Include in Your Review


Here’s what to include in your review to ensure it’s approved and can help your neighbours hire better.

  • All reviews must be a minimum of 30 words long and written in English.
  • All reviews must focus on the project completed by the company you had a contractual agreement with.
  • All reviews must be original. Do not directly copy and paste a review you wrote on another website to HomeStars.
  • Homeowners must edit their original review in order to respond to the company’s response.
  • All reviews must be constructive and avoid accusatory and vulgar language and must abide by Canadian Defamation laws.

What Not to Include in Your Review


Remember that the companies you are reviewing are owned and operated by humans. Please be considerate in your feedback even if you had a very negative experience. The goal of your review is to explain your experience and how the project turned out.

  • Do not include competing company names or additional company names in the review
  • Do not disclose full names or personal, private details of the company’s employees (phone numbers, email address, home address, etc.)
  • Accusatory, defamatory, or vulgar language
  • All reviews must be non-commercial, meaning they cannot include promotional material or links to other websites

HomeStars Will Only Remove Reviews


  • At the request of the homeowner/review writer
  • During a company requested investigation
  • If written by an unverified homeowner

It is important that Homeowners report any review anomalies, such as discounts offered in exchange for a review or other contractual agreements that may impact the integrity of a review. These anomalies prohibit the review author from leaving their honest and factual experience with a company. If you come across one of these, contact reviewverification@homestars.com


Companies listed on HomeStars have the opportunity to provide a company response for each review that is submitted on their listing. Company responses must adhere to the HomeStars Review Response Guidelines. For information about the HomeStars Review Response Guidelines, click here. If a company response does not meet the review guidelines listed above, please contact reviewverification@homestars.com.


*HomeStars will not post – or once posted, will remove or redact – any defamatory or accusatory language, profanity, threats, prejudiced comments, hate speech, personal attacks, or other content considered objectionable.


*A company can challenge the validity of any review posted on their profile with regards to whether or not the reviewer is a legitimate customer. A review can be investigated up to 60 days after it has been posted.


For more information on our Terms of Use, please click here.

HomeStars Review Response Guidelines for Service Professionals


All companies that receive reviews on HomeStars are encouraged to respond to them. Please follow the below guidelines to ensure your response meets our requirements.

  1. Responses can not be used to intimidate or threaten a homeowner.
  2. All responses must be constructive and avoid accusatory and vulgar language and must abide by Canadian Defamation laws.
  3. All responses cannot contain any personal and/or identifiable information of the customer. Examples include, but are not limited to, using full names, name initials, phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses, and private correspondences. a. A response to an anonymous review or where a reviewer uses an alias' cannot include the actual names or other identifiable information of the reviewer.
  4. All responses must focus on the project completed with the homeowner you had a contractual agreement with. Do not mention competing company names or additional company names in the response.
  5. All responses must be written in English.
  6. All responses must be non-commercial, meaning they cannot include promotional material or links to other websites.
  7. Anyone responding to a review on behalf of a company must be over the age of 18.
  8. HomeStars may redact information in a company response to ensure the content meets the above guidelines.

If a company response does not meet the criteria above, please contact reviewverification@homestars.com.


HomeStars will not post – or once posted, will remove or redact – any defamatory or accusatory language, profanity, threats, prejudiced comments, hate speech, personal attacks, or other content considered objectionable.


A company can challenge the validity of any review posted on their profile with regards to whether or not the reviewer is a legitimate customer. A review can be investigated up to 60 days after it has been posted.