Can you remove a Yelp review?
Not directly. Like Google, Yelp doesn't let businesses delete reviews. What you can do is report a review that violates Yelp's Content Guidelines and let Yelp's moderation team assess it.
A negative-but-genuine review won't be removed — only content that breaks the rules.
What Yelp will remove
Yelp's guidelines target things like conflicts of interest (a competitor or someone with a personal stake), content with no real consumer experience, threats, harassment, hate speech, and clearly irrelevant or promotional content.
Map the review to a specific guideline before reporting — a vague 'this is unfair' rarely succeeds.
How to report it
From your Yelp business account, find the review, open its options (the flag icon), and report it, selecting the guideline it violates and adding a short factual explanation.
Report once and keep it factual; Yelp's team reviews flagged content and decides whether it stays.
Yelp's recommendation filter
Separately, Yelp's recommendation software automatically decides which reviews are 'recommended' and which are hidden behind a 'not currently recommended' link. This is automated and not something you control directly.
It's why some reviews appear and others are tucked away — it's not the same as removal, and you can't manually force it.
Respond professionally
While moderation runs its course, you can reply publicly or send a polite direct message to the reviewer. Stay calm, acknowledge the issue, and offer to resolve it offline.
As with Google, future customers judge you on the response as much as the review.