Help! Local Restaurant has been taken down by someone, losing all reviews and photos! What now??

[thelazydesigner]

Hi there I need your help!

I'm a local guide and just found out my favorite place (small restaurant in my hometown in Tuscany, Italy) literally disappeared from Maps, being replaced by a totally empty entry with no reviews, no photos and no data. This place was on the top 10 restaurants in town, had collected dozens of incredibly good reviews and photos from several users, personally I uploaded at least 20 photos with avg. 20.000 views each. 

Current listing is this one and as you can see it's literally empty.

The place is owned by a rather old family with no experience in Google and they never officially reclaimed the ownership. So someone thought to delete everything.

I'm sure this is a deliberate attack as the same has been done on TripAdvisor, by reporting the place as "definitely closed".

I really need Google to help up restore all the data and previous reviews if possible, and maybe have some info in order to help the owners protect their place.

What do you think I should do, who to contact? 

Many thanks!

L.

[VijayDesai]

Hi @thelazydesigner

I hope you must have "Reported" it through Google Maps first, From Top Left Side Three Line Menu select "Send Feedback" and send details.

Then you may contact Google Moderator @GeorgesHR in this forum, he will guide you.

Hope it helps.

Vijay Desai.

[GeorgesHR]

Hi @thelazydesigner,

Thanks for reaching out.

Unfortunately from a Local Guide point of view, there is not much we can do. This business should have been claimed on Google Maps, through Google My Business. I understand that some business owners do not have the ability to claim businesses, but then we as Local Guides can try to help.

What you can try is to suggest an edit to the current place and close it. After the place is closed you can add a new place with the right name and photos.This will not restore any reviews or photos, but it is a way to put the legit place back on Google Maps.

My other suggestion is to reach out to the Google My Business Community so the team from Google My Business can advise you better.

[thelazydesigner]

Hello GeorgesHR, thanks for your feedback.

So you're saying it's rather impossible to restore the incredible reviews this place collected in 5+ years?

I know it was not reclaimed and that's important.. but... really? no way? 

[GeorgesHR]

Hey @thelazydesigner,

I will check internally and get back to you on this.

[thelazydesigner]

Thanks so much. Meanwhile I reported the issue via feedback. Anyway someone answering yes/no to "can google restore deleted data" would be essential to plan what's next...