I work with a group that recently acquired a community that had been mismanaged for years. Low/no screening criteria, deferred maintenance and LOTS of resident complaints. The online reviews were/are terrible on sites like ApartmentRatings.com and Yelp.
The new owners have rebranded / renamed the community and completed major renovations. Deferred maintenance is resolved and a new management team has the property completely turned around. New residents are happy and old residents are happy with the changes.
The problem? There are years (literally hundreds) of old negative reviews from before the takeover.
Question: Is there a way to "wipe the slate clean" and start over with a new listing on ApartmentRatings.com and Yelp?
It seems Google accommodates this scenario by marking the old listing as "permanently closed" and setting up a new listing. Unfortunately, it looks like both ApartmentRatings and Yelp simply updated the name on the old listing(s) and the old reviews remain.
Anyone have experience with this?
Your insight is greatly appreciated!