Another thing they apparently do is let business owners (e.g. hotels) remove negative reviews because they're "defamatory".
I had a very factual 3-star review on a hotel that was supposedly very quiet, but was super noisy and the AC was not working. And there was literally nobody at the reception at the time of check-out and nobody picked up the phone either. All in all, nothing serious, but worth a review. Purely factual stuff, nothing bad-mouthed, just my experience and three stars.
A few months later the review was removed because it was "defamatory". I was able to get it reinstated by sending them proof of payment to the hotel and proof that I was there. A few months later, it was removed again! That same dance was repeated six times..... What a weird system.
I'm surprised you knew it was removed. All my negative reviews appear visible to me when logged in and disappear when logged out.
Only sure fire way I've found is to leave a two star review with no body. One star without a body is also shadowbanned for me.
Yeah they sent an official looking mail saying that someone took action against my review and that it was therefore removed.
MBAs, consultants and accountants have taken control of the company. All are in it to move up and cash out. They will optimize for profit and not much else. Loosing (or even defending) a defamation case is expensive. Spiking your review is free.
This is not the old Google run by engineers. Stop expecting that and you will experience less frustration.
This depends on local defamation laws. It's an issue with all online reviews in countries like Germany where the onus is on Google to establish a review isn't defamatory.
Not just Google but many others. A big travel tech company in Asia removed my review of a shack that I once stayed in, since it mentioned things that the business felt were negative.
After all, there are many customers like you and me. If we’re gone, someone else can fill the gap. Not saying I condone it. I dislike it. But I understand.
Yet another example of how the incentives work when the platform makes its money with ad revenue. The hotel pays Google for ads and gets favorable search results. If Google then hosts a negative review, the hotel might be less inclined to advertise there. So, only positive reviews get published.
The reviewer isn't contributing to Google's revenue at all, so his honest review is only worth something if it makes the advertisers happy.
> The reviewer isn't contributing to Google's revenue at all,
In theory, good reviews drive traffic to Google because people come to trust it as a dependable source of important information. In reality, Google is big enough that they don't have to care. They figure that people will keep using Google no matter how many times Google lies to you. Seems like they're right because their AI overviews lie constantly. https://arstechnica.com/google/2026/04/analysis-finds-google...