People who write bad reviews tend to return later to admire their work. If they find the review has been removed, they may start writing reviews in many places accusing your business of “whitewashing” your reviews. It’s therefore our advice that unless you are certain the review is phony, the best course of action is to leave the review and write a professional response. Then solicit happy customers to provide feedback, so that the review is pushed down in recency and appears in the context of a mix of reviews.
That said, you do have the option to “turn off” reviews for your Business Profile. If you choose to do so, the best time to do it is before you receive unwanted reviews, but you can do it any time.
Choose Inbox from the navigation bar in your Business Control Panel. Then click the Reviews link or the Reviews & Feedback panel. At the bottom of your Reviews page on the left side is the Allow Reviews checkbox. Uncheck the box to turn off reviews for your profile.
Related article: Tips for Responding to Bad Reviews
Related article: Reading and Responding to Reviews & Feedback