Botto Bistro in Richmond is not very concerned about its Yelp rating. In fact, in an effort to undermine the reliability of its Yelp page, the five-year-old Italian restaurant is on a mission to be the worst-rated restaurant in the Bay Area.

To achieve this end, Botto Bistro is encouraging all of its customers to leave one-star Yelp reviews; it is even offering deals for anyone who pens a crummy review: 25% off any pizza and a chance to win a cooking class. (Hat-tip to Richmond Standard.)

Chefs and co-owners Davide Cerretini and Michele Massimo are veterans of the local dining scene, and say that their food is excellent and they run a busy restaurant. According to Cerretini, they simply grew tired of the constant advertising inquiries from Yelp and what he dubs “blackmailing” and review manipulation. (Sidenote: A judge recently ruled that Yelp has the power to manipulate reviews.)

“I don’t have anything against Yelp. The idea is fantastic, but the blackmailing thing is ferocious,” says Cerretini. “I think I should be the one deciding if I’m on the site or not. At least I can be there on my terms. The only power they have is they make you reliable to them. So, I’m going to be one of the most unreliable restaurants.”

“I want to be the worst restaurant there is in the Bay Area,” he says. “I think this is the best business move I have made in years.”

Cerretini says that business has increased since he began waging this campaign against Yelp, though he notes that it’s also attracted better customers who are more loyal and end up spending more. “We are getting not just customers, but new friends who they like this.”

Cerretini says he’d be happy to have Botto Bistro removed completely from Yelp’s listings, though so far, the only response from Yelp has been a letter (in full below) that politely asked Cerretini to cease his promotions. He wrote back a clever letter, tongue firmly in cheek (also in full below).

“We got a threatening letter saying that we buy Yelp reviews — and we do. We buy bad reviews,” laughs Cerretini.

Some of the “bad” reviews currently up on the Botto Bistro page, followed by the Yelp customer service email exchange:

——————————————————————————–

Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 18:28:59 +0000

From: feedback@yelp.com

To: [Redacted]

Subject: Message from Yelp HQ [ 2800338 ] __________________________________

SEP 15, 2014 | 11:28AM PDT

Hi Michele, I’m contacting you from the Yelp User Support Team because we’ve received complaints from the community that you may be offering incentives in exchange for reviews. To be clear, this violates our Terms of Service (http://www.yelp.com/static?p=tos&country=US), and reviews written under such circumstances violate Yelp’s Content Guidelines (http://www.yelp.com/guidelines). We also often find from user feedback that such practices do more harm than good, as the practice creates distrust amongst customers and users who now eye all reviews on a listing with suspicion. If you are offering incentives in exchange for reviews, we ask that you immediately discontinue such activity. If we learn that this type of behavior has continued, we may take action on your Business Account which could include suspending access to your listing. It may also result in a Consumer Alert being placed on your listing: http://officialblog.yelp.com/2012/10/consumer-alerts-because-you-might-like-to-know.html Regards,

Marvin

Yelp Support

San Francisco, California Yelp Official Blog | http://officialblog.yelp.com

Yelp Support Center | http://www.yelp-support.com

Yelp for Business Owners | https://biz.yelp.com ————————- From: [Redacted]

To: feedback@yelp.com

Subject: RE: Message from Yelp HQ [ 2800338 ]

Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 08:43:36 -0700 Hi marvin, I’m contacting you from the Botto User Support Team because we’ve received complaints from the community that you may be removing reviews in exchange of vague explanations to loyal customers. To be clear, this violates our Terms of Service (http://www.bottobistro.com/FAQ.html), and reviews removed under such circumstances violate Botto’s Content Guidelines (http://www.bottobistro.com/FAQ.html). We also often find from loyal customers feedback that such practices do more harm than good, as the practice creates distrust amongst loyal customers and users who now eye your site with suspicion. If you are offering this explanations in exchange of removed reviews, we ask that you immediately discontinue such activity. If we learn that this type of behavior has continued, we may take action on our Business Account which could include suspending all activity to our listing. It may also result on adding a Yelp Customer Alert page on our website and in our Newsletters. Botto User Support Team

Botto Bistro: 2171 Meeker Avenue, Richmond. (510) 232-3100 or bottobistro.com

· Previously: Yelp can manipulate ratings, court rules [San Francisco Chronicle]