Tripadvisor removals

Remove Tripadvisor reviews that break its review guidelines

We file the Tripadvisor reviews you choose under the guideline each one breaks, such as Blackmail, Vandalism or Second-Hand Experiences, and Tripadvisor decides. You pay for the ones that come down. Tripadvisor is a small part of our work, so this page also shows how to report a review yourself.

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2.7M

Fraudulent reviews Tripadvisor blocked or removed in 2024

814

Reviews Tripadvisor removed over blackmail and threats in 2024

Why one bad Tripadvisor review matters.

Tripadvisor ranks each hotel, restaurant and attraction against similar businesses in the same place with its Popularity Index. Tripadvisor says the index measures the quality, quantity and recency of a listing’s reviews, and the bubble rating also weighs each review’s age (Popularity Index versus overall bubble rating). A review that Tripadvisor removes stops counting toward both.

Most Tripadvisor reviews are good ones. About 75% of the 31.1 million reviews posted in 2024 gave five bubbles, and the average rating was 4.42 (Tripadvisor 2025 Transparency Report). A Travelers’ Choice award also needs a minimum bubble rating (Tripadvisor help), so a run of one-bubble reviews can cost a listing its award.

Tripadvisor has a name for a competitor’s fake review: vandalism, “a false, damaging review to discredit a business”. Most fraud it catches runs the other way: 54% of the 2.7 million fraudulent reviews in 2024 were businesses boosting their own rankings (Tripadvisor press release). A business caught at it can drop in the Popularity Index and get a red penalty notice on its listing (Review Fraud Consequences). For the short answer, read can you remove Tripadvisor reviews.

What we file under Tripadvisor’s own rules.

Tripadvisor removes Tripadvisor reviews that break these rules. A Tripadvisor review that breaks none of them usually stays up.

Second-Hand Experiences

Tripadvisor’s Review Guidelines require a first-hand experience: a stay, a meal, a booking or another service interaction. Tripadvisor will not post a review that only relays a brief phone conversation, or one written for someone outside the reviewer’s traveling party. The exceptions are a family member after a death and a parent after a serious safety incident involving a child.

Biased Content and Vandalism

No one affiliated with a business may review it: current or past employees, their friends and relatives, and suppliers. Owners and staff of a business in the same category, in the same municipality or within 10 miles (16 km), may not review it either. Tripadvisor calls a negative review from someone tied to a competing business Vandalism.

Blackmail

Tripadvisor defines blackmail as a bad-faith demand for something the guest is not owed, such as a free upgrade, cash or a discount, backed by a threat that names Tripadvisor or reviews. A guest who mentions a review while asking you to fix a real problem, such as a broken pipe, is not blackmailing you.

Second-Hand Information

Tripadvisor removes a review that quotes or describes what the media, the internet or a person outside the traveling party said, however small the mention. Its examples are excerpts of laws, quotes from government agencies, food ratings and news stories. Reviews posted because of news or social media coverage, not a visit, fall under its Review Bombing Events rule.

Ineligible Experience and Recent Experience

Tripadvisor does not post a review that only disagrees with a stated policy, such as no refunds or no dogs, only complains about opening hours, or describes unanswered calls or emails. Every review must also be submitted within one year of the experience.

Private Information and Discriminatory Language

Tripadvisor’s Content & Community Guidelines bar the full names of other people, except owners, managers, executives and staff known by their surname. They also bar non-public email addresses, threats of harm, discriminatory language, personal insults, profanity and AI-generated review text.

What stays up, and what we do not do

We file the Tripadvisor reviews you choose, and Tripadvisor decides each one. Its help page says that simply disagreeing with a review is not enough for removal, so a real guest’s review that breaks none of these guidelines usually stays up, however harsh it is. No one can guarantee every review comes down, because Tripadvisor makes the final decision on each one. We do not contact reviewers, ask Tripadvisor who wrote a review, offer guests anything to remove a review, or post or buy reviews. We do not use methods that break Tripadvisor’s rules, because removals won that way get reversed later.

How to report Tripadvisor reviews yourself.

A business owner reports a Tripadvisor review from the Management Center, and Tripadvisor’s moderators check it against the guidelines and decide. Blackmail has its own route through chat. Whatever the outcome, you can post one public management response to each review.

1Log in to the Management Center, click the Reviews tab, click the review, and select Report Review on the right side (Owners Reporting a Review).
2In the form, give the reason for your dispute. In the comment, name the rule the review breaks in the words of the Review Guidelines, such as Biased Content or Second-Hand Information, and click Submit.
3Tripadvisor’s moderators assess the review and tell you the outcome and your options for appeal. EU residents can appeal a decision to keep a review up (Tripadvisor help).
4Without Management Center access, anyone can report a review from the listing. On a restaurant, click the Problem with this review? flag at the bottom right of the review. On a hotel or attraction, click the ellipsis at the top right, then Report this (Travelers Reporting a Review).
5For blackmail, do not use the form. Click Help at the bottom right of the Management Center to open chat, and send the complete, unedited correspondence from its first message. Tripadvisor accepts .eml or .msg email files, full screenshots or PDFs that show the guest’s name or email address and the date (Owners reporting blackmail by traveler).
6Tripadvisor does not act on a blackmail report before a review is reported or published, or on a threat made by voice. It also refuses receipts, booking confirmations, police reports, videos and copied text as evidence.
7If you think a competitor or a review seller is behind several reviews, the Review Guidelines ask you to email contentintegrity@tripadvisor.com.
8Post a management response from the same Reviews tab: click the review, type in the response box and click Submit (Write a Management Response). Leave out the guest’s full name and booking details. Tripadvisor removes responses that identify a reviewer (Content & Community Guidelines).

Sources

How Tripadvisor removal works, step by step.

one

Send us the links

Paste the link to each Tripadvisor review into the chat. Our monitoring reads Google profiles, not Tripadvisor, so we work from the links you send. If a guest threatened you by email, keep the original emails.

two

Agree the price first

Your account manager confirms the price and the terms for each review with you before anything is filed. You pay for the ones that come down.

three

We file each one with Tripadvisor

We keep a screenshot of each review from before work starts. Our filing team files each one with Tripadvisor under the guideline it breaks, and Tripadvisor’s moderators decide.

four

A person confirms each removal

A person checks the listing before we count a review removed. We email you the review and its before-removal screenshot. If a removed review comes back, we file it again at no charge.

We file all your bad reviews.

You pay for the ones that come down. On Google, you see the price and accept the terms in the app before anything is filed. For other sites, your account manager agrees the price with you first. No one can guarantee every review comes down, because the platform makes the final decision on each one.

Price first

You see it before anything is filed

No subscription

No monthly fee for removals

Monitoring included

Daily Google review alerts with your first removal

Tripadvisor removal, an example.

Seafood restaurant, Charleston

A guest demanded a free dinner for a table of eight and posted a one-bubble review when the manager said no. Two more one-bubble reviews followed from accounts with no history. The restaurant fell from 9th to 31st in its city.

We filed the first review under Tripadvisor’s Blackmail guideline and the other two under Second-Hand Experiences, as reviews from people who had never dined there. Tripadvisor removed all three.

#31 → #9

City rank

Real Google reviews we’ve had removed.

Each one now reads “This review is no longer available.” Business names are blurred for privacy.

A Google review that now reads: This review is no longer available

What every client gets.

Every review tracked

The TrustOS portal shows each review as Waiting to be sent, Being worked on, Removed, Could not be removed, or Stopped.

An email before any charge

Before we charge for a removal, we email you the review and the amount. If something looks wrong, reply to that email.

Refiled if it comes back

A platform can restore a review it removed. If that happens, we file it again at no charge, and we never bill you twice for the same review.

Daily monitoring

We read every Google profile you connect about once a day. One email lists the new 1 and 2 star reviews across all your profiles. It comes with your first removal.

A named account manager

One person looks after your account and answers your emails and texts, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm ET.

A planning call for 10 or more

If you have 10 or more bad reviews, the app offers a free 15-minute planning call with your account manager.

Our clients, in their own words.

Screenshots of messages clients sent us. We keep every client’s work confidential.

Chat message from a client saying their Trustpilot score has climbed since the fake reviews stopped

Client message saying the team removed fake reviews that were dragging down their Trustpilot page

Chat where a client thanks the team for getting fake reviews off Trustpilot, with the score up from 3.2 to 4.7

Client message saying fake Trustpilot reviews that hurt their business were removed

Message from an online store owner whose fake Google reviews were cleared, marked successfully removed

Trustpilot rating before and after, 3.3 and 4.5 stars, with the client chat about the new score

Client messages saying a video was removed and the YouTube videos hurting their business no longer show

Client message about a fake Google review the team removed, marked successfully removed

Chat where a client says their fake Trustpilot reviews are gone and the score went from 3.5 to 4.5

Chat where a client thanks the team for removing unfair reviews

Client message saying fake guest reviews on Airbnb were removed, marked successfully removed

Chat where a client thanks the team for removing irrelevant Trustpilot reviews, with the score up from 4.0 to 4.7

Client message saying a two-year-old Reddit thread about their company was removed, marked successfully removed

Chat where a client thanks the team for sorting out fake Trustpilot reviews from competitors

Message from a salon owner whose two fake Google reviews were removed, marked successfully removed

Client message saying their Trustpilot score rose above 4 and their support team gets fewer questions

Questions about removing Tripadvisor reviews

What counts as blackmail on Tripadvisor?

Tripadvisor needs three things: bad faith, a demand for something the guest is not owed, such as a free upgrade, cash or a discount, and a threat that names Tripadvisor or reviews. A guest who mentions a review while asking you to fix a real problem is not blackmailing you. Report it through chat in the Management Center with the full, unedited emails. Tripadvisor does not act on a threat made by voice.

Can a competitor’s Tripadvisor review be removed?

Yes, when the reviewer is tied to a competing business. Tripadvisor’s Review Guidelines bar reviews from anyone who owns or works at a business in the same category in the same municipality or within 10 miles (16 km). Tripadvisor calls a competitor’s negative review Vandalism. If you think one business is behind several reviews, the guidelines ask you to email contentintegrity@tripadvisor.com.

Does Tripadvisor tell the reviewer their review was removed?

Tripadvisor’s appeal page describes an email to the member about a decision on their content, and EU residents can appeal from it. Its help pages do not say that Tripadvisor tells the member who reported the review, and Tripadvisor does not pass contact details between owners and travelers. We never contact reviewers or ask Tripadvisor who they are.

What can I do if Tripadvisor keeps the review up?

Tripadvisor’s moderators send the outcome with your options for appeal, and EU residents have a formal appeal. Tripadvisor’s 2025 Transparency Report notes that an owner who disagrees with a decision may report the review a second time. Either way, post a calm management response, because travelers read it beside the review.

Can I ask a guest to delete their Tripadvisor review?

Only with no offer and no pressure. A guest can delete their own review from their profile. Tripadvisor’s Review Guidelines penalize a business that offers anything for removing a published review, or that pressures, threatens or coerces a reviewer to remove one. Tripadvisor does not give owners a reviewer’s contact details, so the management response is the reply most owners can make.

What if nothing comes down?

You pay for the ones that come down. The platform decides on each review, and a review it keeps up shows as Could not be removed in your TrustOS portal.

What if nothing comes down?