As a small business owner
As a small business owner, my experience with Yelp has been extremely disappointing. Our company has been serving our community since 1948, and we've worked hard to earn our reputation through honest service and customer satisfaction. We recently discovered that more than 20 legitimate 5-star reviews from actual customers have been placed in Yelp's "Not Currently Recommended" section and do not count toward our public rating. When I contacted Yelp Support, I was told the review recommendation system is fully automated and cannot be changed or reviewed manually. While I understand the need to prevent fake reviews, a system that hides genuine positive reviews while leaving negative reviews visible creates a misleading representation of a business's reputation. As a result, potential customers—and even AI-powered recommendation tools—may see an inaccurate picture of our business despite hundreds of positive reviews on other platforms. I believe Yelp should provide business owners with greater transparency about why reviews are filtered and offer a meaningful process for appealing legitimate customer reviews. Until then, I have little confidence that the rating shown on Yelp accurately reflects the quality of many businesses.