Why Are Google Reviews Disappearing from a Music School’s Two Locations?

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Hello everyone,

I would like to ask the community for some help regarding an unusual situation happening at a music school in my city, which I attend. The school director asked me to check with the Local Guides community to understand why Google seems to be removing a large number of old reviews from their two locations on Google Maps.

The school has two separate locations, and all their reviews were collected over many years, not in a single month or short period of time.

:check_mark: Main location

This location had around 115 reviews accumulated over the years.

Now only 94 reviews are visible — meaning that more than 20 reviews have suddenly disappeared.

:check_mark: Second location

This location used to have 28–30 reviews.

Now only 14 reviews remain visible.

All these reviews were gained organically, through real experiences from students and parents. None of them were generated artificially. Because of this, seeing so many long-standing reviews disappear in such a short time is difficult to understand.

:red_question_mark: My questions for the community:

:backhand_index_pointing_right: Does anyone know why Google might remove older reviews that were collected over many years?

:backhand_index_pointing_right: Could this be related to a new automated filter, an update, or possibly a bug?

:backhand_index_pointing_right: Has anyone experienced something similar with businesses that have multiple locations?

:red_question_mark: And most importantly:

:backhand_index_pointing_right: Is there any way for the removed reviews to be restored or reactivated?

The school wants to handle everything correctly and transparently, so any guidance—such as recommended steps or whether contacting Google Business Profile Support helps—would be extremely appreciated.

I’m simply trying to help the school understand what happened and what they can do to fix the situation.

Thank you very much to everyone in the community for any advice or shared experience!

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It is not easy to know for sure.

Here is the Maps link to the branch with more reviews
https://maps.app.goo.gl/FaTHXbBweJhUZ369A

While browsing the reviews I noticed that most reviews are posted by users with very few contributions. This is normally a sign that the business has been soliciting reviews and hence the reviews could be fake. But I have not further evidence to support this, but the AI spamfilter might have detected it.

Soliciting reviews is okay as long as there are no incentives offered and no expectations expressed for the reviews to by positive/lots of stars.

Seeking help in the Google Maps Business Profil support is likely the best option.

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Ciao @BennyLungu
ovviamente è difficile commentare su quello che non possiamo vedere (le recensioni rimosse) ma dando uno sguardo a quelle visibili non posso che essere d’accordo con @MortenCopenhagen . Molte sembrano scritte su richiesta, e non mostrano nessuna reale esperienza della scuola. Altre sono una palese violazione delle regole e anche se visibili dovrebbero essere assolutamente rimosse, in quanto è vietato dalle regole scrivere recensioni identiche per più di un luogo.
Qui sotto un esempio di palesi violazione: stessa (o quasi identica) recensione in entrambi i luoghi da parte dello stesso utente.

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Molte provengono da utenti con lo stesso cognome, tutti con solo una o due recensioni.
Sinceramente se io fossi il responsabile della scheda in Maps delle due scuole inizierei a preoccuparmi, perché di solito il passo successivo è il blocco delle recensioni e un messaggio che indica che le recensioni potrebbero essere false.
Non c’è niente di male nel chiedere una recensione ai clienti, ma molte di queste veramente non dicono nulla