Hello, friends. I am a local guide and I’m well-acquainted with a guest house in my area, including the owners of the accommodation—a knowledgeable and kind couple who prioritize ethics and hospitality.
Three weeks ago, they hosted a group of guests, coinciding with the unfortunate disappearance of a piece of jewelry belonging to the host. The matter wasn’t openly discussed until the guests’ check-out, at which point it was privately addressed with the group leader.
However, the situation took an unfortunate turn. The group leader reacted with immoral behavior, shouting and falsely claiming that the host had accused them of stealing the jewelry. This caused tension, with the leader turning the group members against the host.
Although the group members were not involved in the alleged incident, the leader is threatening to tarnish the host’s Google Maps account with negative comments, leveraging group reciprocity.
The couple who owns the residence is deeply upset about this unwarranted attack and is actively seeking a resolution to prevent these negative points and insulting comments from harming the reputation and positive standing they have carefully built over the years.
PS It is unclear if any negative reviews have already been posted. If so there is a process to report such reviews should they not follow the guidelines issues by Google.
@Eajazi notified me about this problem. This guest house is placed in Iran and you know the business profile isn’t available here. So as this spam activity is about reviews, I think Connect is a suitable place to discuss.
I think reporting reviews one one is good but may not be enough because this spam activity is continuing. I found at least 20 reviews from one month ago that seem to be posted by one team. Although the owners also did the same action on opposite sides (and asked the other guests to review) to increase again the rating, those should be removed and @Eajazi told them about it.
So, it would be good if you could check deeper and help more in this case. I could provide more specific details if needed.
I don’t know, whether the owners of the guest house did claim their ownership to Google Maps. If they did, they should have more possibilities. Specially small businesses such as B&Bs many times hesitate to identify themselves as owners in Google Maps.
As I know while GBP help center resources are available to read, in its community they need a specific GBP profile to help a business. I experienced this one time.
On the other hand, I remember a similar case on (most probably) Connect that Googlers helped to remove such an attack on a POI where GBP where available. So, based on your suggestion I tag @DeniGu so she can help to solve the issue.
@Amiran@Eajazi@WilfriedB@MortenCopenhagen The easiest way is to bury the negative reviews with positive reviews. Also marking the negative reviews as “Not helpful” is a good idea.
It is good to report wrong reviews, but this is not true activity to add positive reviews in opposition to spam reviewing attacks. Adding targeted positive reviews is totally against the rules. The review should be written only to describe the place from people who experienced it and it is totally optional for them.
For such attacks, due to the case, reporting the issue in the right forum is the best activity.
I’m happy to share that the policy-violating reviews have been removed from the Maps listing! The team will continue to monitor the situation for a while to prevent further inappropriate activity.
Hi @RaduD , I echo @Amiran and @MortenCopenhagen 's comment that any reviews (including positive ones), which do not reflect an authentic experience, go against the Maps policies and will be removed.