By the way, Sandy, what did she say in her review of you? Just curious.
Ah! So glad you asked! Here it is:
After a few days in NYC it was lovely to spend 3 nights in …and the surrounding area . On arrival, I had a chat and a cup of tea with Sandy and was introduced to Mr. Sandy. As the only guest that night, I had been given the largest room with private bathroom, rather than the smaller one I had booked, which was great. The house is amazing and the French linen bedding so nice to sleep in. Without a car, I struggled a little to get around, but there are several taxi firms in the area. The historic … area is only a short walk away and I ate there on a couple of occasions. This was the first leg of a week-long trip to the lovely … and was a very special place to start my journey and to introduce me to Airbnb ! This is a very special house.
A few details changed so I can retain privacy. Although positive, and five stars like almost every other review we have had except for three 4 star reviews in all the time we have hosted, most notable are her remarks that she was only upgraded because she was the only one there the first night. I’d upgraded her for her comfort, don’t make it a habit to upgrade just because no one is there on a particular night, and as I mentioned earlier , I turned away paying customers very soon after her arrival. It’s a backhanded complement, kind of like saying ‘they gave me a lovely apple because they were about to throw it away in the trash’.
Also her remarks on difficulty getting around, were disappointing, as the distances she was hoping to travel were clearly written about on our description, and I also tried to dissuade her from staying here and trying to visit all the places she intended if she didn’t mean to hire a car.
It’s all well and good making little complaints in the reviews about things the description or host didn’t prepare you for, but I think a bit bad natured to do it when you have been prepared in every possible way, yet you choose to ignore good advice. It seems like the home is in a bad position, rather than you were just trying to get to places nowhere near where you were staying.
So, all in all not too bad, kind of what we expected.
I left our first ‘bad’ review for her. It simply said ‘So and So was not the most pleasant guest we have hosted.’ And I feel just as strongly that it was the right thing to do still.
She wrote me just today, claiming to have had no idea how generous we had been with our upgrade (despite walking past the small room she booked to her large suite with bathroom every day), or how her remarks that she now realizes were insensitive had come across. She said things like ‘no wonder you had your husband serving me breakfast - who was very charming under the circumstances’, when it was nothing to do with her, simply due to my health issues that make it difficult for me to get moving in the morning. She also claimed that she was surprised about the distances, which seemed different to how they looked on the maps - which as I mentioned, I gave her the amount of time it took in minutes to travel to, and had advised against her using taxis. I guess she just wants to believe that she’s really as nice as she thinks she is, and that she had excuses for the way she behaved towards us. I’m just glad it’s over with, and upgrades are too.
As everyone seems to say, it’s a pity some people just ruin it for everyone. On airbnb, you really have no way of knowing who those people are going to be. Some guests are thrilled with the what they get, and rave about it, even when you think everything went all wrong, yet others you bend over backwards for, and they still have to get in a jab.
That’s why I rarely do it anymore. When someone complained I didn’t have coffee, I went out and bought coffee for the next guest, who complained about something else I had never thought of. Nit-picking guests have almost driven me out of this business. Just over it. On the bright side I had two adorable guests check out this morning who loved everything and GOT IT. And no, they like all the others had zero problem paying tax in person.
By the way, I just sent you a PM.
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