Our Community Guidelines
A shared commitment to creating a trustworthy and helpful resource for everyone.
Our mission is built on the belief that everyone deserves to live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest. These guidelines are designed to protect that mission and ensure every review on ShelterTree is helpful, honest, and safe.
Our Guiding Principles for Approved Reviews
Write from First-Hand Experience
Your review must be based on your own personal experience living at or dealing directly with the property. We do not allow hearsay, rumors, or quoting others' opinions.
Be Helpfully Specific
Instead of just 'good security,' tell us *why* it's good: '24/7 guard patrols and keycard access at all gates.' Instead of 'bad management,' describe the issue: 'Maintenance requests often take weeks to resolve.' The details are what make a review valuable.
Be Balanced & Honest
Even the best properties can have drawbacks, and challenging situations can have silver linings. Highlighting both pros and cons provides a realistic picture and builds immense trust.
Be Respectful
Focus on describing the property, its management, and your experience. It is acceptable to criticize a situation, but not to launch personal attacks, insults, or threats. We are a community of neighbors.
Content We Will Remove
To protect our community, content that falls into the following categories will be rejected or removed. Repeat violations may result in account suspension.
Safety & Privacy
Personal Information
For your safety and the privacy of others, do not include full names, phone numbers, email addresses, or any other private, identifying information.
Hate Speech & Discrimination
Content that promotes discrimination, bigotry, or harm against any group or individual based on race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender, age, or sexual orientation will be removed immediately.
Authenticity & Trust
Conflict of Interest
You may not review your own property, a property owned by a friend or relative, or a direct competitor's property. All reviews must be from the perspective of a genuine resident or prospective resident.
Spam & Advertising
Promotional content, commercial links, affiliate codes, or repetitive, off-topic messages are not allowed. Reviews must be your genuine personal experience.
Relevance & Clarity
Off-Topic Content
Reviews must be about the living experience at the property. Commentary on broader political or religious topics that are not directly related to living in the residence is not permitted.
Unhelpful, Vague Content
Reviews that are overly simplistic (e.g., 'This place is great!') or ranting without providing specific, actionable details do not meet our quality standards.
Our Moderation & Enforcement Philosophy
Our goal is to help you share your valuable experience while keeping the platform safe and trustworthy. Our process is as follows:
- Review: All submissions are reviewed by our moderation team against these guidelines before being published.
- Flagging: We empower our community to flag content that may violate these guidelines for a secondary review.
- Notification: If a submission doesn't meet our standards, we will notify you with the specific reason and, where possible, provide an opportunity to resubmit.