Yelp can be a very useful tool. Whether you’re looking for high-quality restaurants while visiting an unfamiliar area or simply trying to find reliable businesses near you, the reviews customers leave on the platform are often helpful resources.
That said, for various reasons, you may decide to delete your Yelp account one day. Or, perhaps a close loved one has passed away, and you’re responsible for managing their digital afterlife. This may involve deleting accounts on platforms such as Yelp.
Jump ahead to these sections:
- How to Delete Your Personal Yelp Account
- How to Close a Deceased Loved One's Yelp Account
- How to Delete Your Yelp Business Account
Regardless, don’t worry if you’re not sure how to delete a Yelp account, whether for yourself or someone who’s passed on. This guide will explain all the steps in the process. It also explains how to relinquish ownership of a Yelp business page.
How to Delete Your Personal Yelp Account
Deleting a personal Yelp account is a very simple process. It involves the following basic steps:
Step 1: Head to the account closure page
Start by visiting the relevant Yelp page. Yelp will ask you to sign in to your account if you haven’t already done so.
Step 2: Submit a request
Deleting your Yelp account involves sending a brief message explaining why you wish to. Once you’ve signed in, you’ll find the form you need to submit.
Step 3: Wait
Yelp operates like any business. After you’ve submitted the request to close your account, a representative might get in touch with you offering reasons to stay. However, you should generally expect them to honor your request relatively promptly. Contact Customer Support if they don’t.
Keep in mind that deleting your personal Yelp account will also remove any content you’ve posted on Yelp. This includes photos and reviews. Additionally, once you’ve permanently deleted your Yelp account, you can’t restore it. You’ll have to create an entirely new account if you wish to start using Yelp again.
How to Close a Deceased Loved One’s Yelp Account
Is deleting a deceased loved one or friend’s Yelp account among your executor duties? If it is, you should know that depending on the circumstances, removing their account may not be as easy as you wish, or it may be extremely simple. You have two options:
Option 1: Follow the steps above
If a loved one knew they were going to rely on you to delete their Yelp account after they passed on, they may have planned accordingly by giving your access to the account while they were still alive.
If they’ve done so, you can simply delete the account by following the same steps you would follow if you were deleting your own personal account. If you’ve skipped to this section of the blog, the section above describes the process.
Tip: Use a password manager tool to keep track of passwords for all accounts you may need to delete after someone passes on.
Option 2: Contact Yelp
If you don’t have access to the account of the deceased, Yelp advises you to report the account. From a desktop computer, you can navigate to the user’s account, then click “Report this profile” below their user information. On the Yelp app, navigate to the user’s profile, tap the three dots in the upper right corner of the page, and select “Report.”
Yelp users don’t merely report accounts when someone has passed on. They may also report accounts when users are violating Yelp’s policies or Terms of Service. Thus, you’ll need to explain why you’re reporting an account when doing so. Yelp will also require you to provide some documentation proving the user has died, such as a link to an obituary.
If there’s any reason why it’s important to you for a deceased loved one’s Yelp account to be permanently deleted, you may wish to explain your reasoning when reporting the account. Yelp doesn’t necessarily delete a user’s account simply because they’ve passed on. However, if you provide your reasoning, they may be more inclined to remove the account.
How to Delete Your Yelp Business Account
Are you the owner of a Yelp business account for which you no longer have any use? Unclaim it by following these steps:
Step 1: Consider your options
There are many reasons business owners sometimes choose to unclaim their Yelp pages. Often, they do so because they no longer own the businesses the pages represent.
However, sometimes a Yelp user retains some ownership of their business, but they’re no longer as actively involved in running it as they once were. If that’s the case in your situation, you don’t necessarily need to unclaim your Yelp business page entirely. You also have the option to transfer ownership or share it with another user. These are options to consider if you still wish to have access to your Yelp account.
Step 2: Contact Customer Support
After weighing your options, you may still decide that unclaiming your Yelp business page is the best choice in your circumstances. Head to the “Business page unclaiming request page” if so. You’ll have to search for your business by its name and location.
Select your business once you find it. Yelp will prompt you to contact Customer Support to formally unclaim your page. If there’s any question about whether you’re genuinely who you say you are, Yelp may ask for more information to ensure you’re not pretending to own the business you’re unclaiming.
An important note
You may have numerous potential reasons for choosing to delete your online presence on a platform such as Yelp. Business owners in particular sometimes choose to do so because they want to “start fresh” and distance their businesses from any negative reviews customers have left.
Unclaiming your Yelp business page won’t achieve this goal. Generally, Yelp doesn’t delete business pages, even when owners unclaim them.
Deleting a Yelp Account: Removing a Digital Presence
Whether you’re a Yelp user, business owner, or responsible for deleting the online accounts of someone who recently passed away, deleting a Yelp account essentially involves contacting Yelp’s Customer Support directly. That said, this was a general overview, and if you have more questions, you should reach out to Yelp for answers.
Sources:
- “How do I close my account?” Yelp, www.yelp-support.com/article/How-do-I-close-my-account?l=en_US
- “How do I relinquish ownership of my business page?” Yelp, www.yelp-support.com/article/How-do-I-relinquish-ownership-of-my-business-page?l=en_US
- “How do I report a deceased user?” Yelp, www.yelp-support.com/article/How-do-I-report-a-deceased-user?l=en_US
- “How do I report a user account?” Yelp, www.yelp-support.com/article/How-do-I-report-a-user-account?l=en_US