About to post a negative review, maybe

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EDIT. I had nearly 10 days to cool off after my experience with these guests. Now I’m angry again. I’ve decided I am going to really blast them with my review.
I’m not reading any more replies, I’m too irritated, so please, feel free to chat amongst yourselves xx

Sigh.

I rent a private whole home rental and had a young couple rent while I was out of town over Christmas.

The house is really nice I have all 5 star reviews on it and I had every expectation that things would run smoothly while I was away.

However, the couple that booked it had a few minor issues that I was able to get my cleaner to rectify (new batteries for the remote for eg) but then on the 5th night rang me at 11pm to extremely rudely tell me they saw a cockroach.

Terrible news for me, we haven’t had roaches before and I hate them too. So I am rudely awaken on Christmas Eve to this news, I feel upset firstly at the hostility from my guest, secondly from the nature of the complaint and thirdly because I was woken on at 11pm and couldn’t get back to sleep from the anxiety!

Christmas Eve people. 11pm.

I messaged them the next day (he had DEMANDED a phone call) but I explained that I wanted everything on platform.

I said that I would contact an exterminator after Boxing Day and if they were uncomfortable in the meantime they could cancel and relocate (hint hint) I promised to refund their unused nights as I have a strict cancellation policy.

Then they are backpeddlling, apologising. Everything is perfect, they love the place and don’t want to leave. Sorry for being rude, sorry for waking you blah blah…

Truthfully, I was still REALLY CROSS.

The next night Christmas Night 11PM AGAIN, they message me and wake me up again to tell me they saw 3 more roaches and how they killed them.

Holy shiit, you serious?

Their apologies meant nothing, clearly.

What do they expect me to do? I already promised to get the exterminator out and they already agreed that it was fine.

So I asked them to leave again, after telling them off for waking me again.

This time they did (thank god)

I gave them their refund for unused nights, Airbnb called to confirm I was ok with this. But they amended their booking so I can leave a review.

What do you guys think?

How would you feel about guests like these?

Personally, I think they were rude, entitled and abused my hospitality. But feel free to tell me if you think I’m wrong.

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I’d be hesitant to say you’re wrong, but given the situation I understand their view as well.

Take into account that different people have different sleeping schedules and patterns, in their eyes , and in this case they clearly were wrong, messaging someone late at night either means the get a response right away or the person just answers in the morning, it’s upsetting that you were not able to go back to sleep of course. But it would also be close to impossible for someone else to account for that.

Would we at UpHost advise you to leave a bad review? No, however having a clear set of rules as to hours you’d like to be contacted as well as making sure you really overkill any possibilities of something such as vermin occurring would be our advice.

To answer the 3 points you made at the end:

were they rude? In your eyes yes, in their perhaps not but a bad review won’t change that now.

where they entitled? again perhaps but this is a situation in which they are paying for a service, so it’s more your responsibility to make it absolutely clear what that service entails. As in you may pay your Financial Advisor a lot of fees but banking hours are very strict regardless of how much money you have in the bank.

Did they Abused your hospitality? Once again same answer, it’s perception but you’re not wrong for feeling this way! just ensure future guests are aware of the guidelines you’d like them to follow regarding contacting you.

Lastly check to see if a service such as UpHost is available in your area, we do provide for our clients in Montreal 24/7 front desk service to their guests so whether is 11pm or 4:30 am the guests will receive an answer in line to the host’s preferences and the hosts can rest easy.

I hope this helps.

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@ Uphost, it seems like your reply is a thinly veiled advertisement.

I’m not interested.

Please take note of my username and do not reply to my topics or posts in the future.

Thank you.

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Unless you’re a hosts living in Montreal I’m sorry but we do not offer any services outside of this city for the foreseeable future.

My apologies if you felt that way, I will take note and refrain from further advice.

Best of luck.

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You mentioned a few times that it was Christmas. This makes me wonder if your reaction would have been different at any other time of year? I wouldn’t freak out about a roach but I’m in Florida so they are a way of life. (In fact, this is in our house manual plus the fact that there is roach spray in the cupboard under the sink).

But if your guests were a) the type of people who don’t celebrate Christmas and b) are squeamish about insects then I don’t think they were too bad. That’s because the occasional roach in no big deal but even here in Florida it’s unusual to see four within a couple of days.

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Oh boy, @Uphost.ca…that was crap advice. In my eyes only, of course.

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I’m sorry, but I think you’re wrong. It sounds like your listing is not in the tropics, where one would expect to see cockroaches, as you stated that you’ve never seen them. 11:00 P.M. is when people will see cockroaches because it’s when many turn off the lights to go to bed. Many people, including some who post on this board, see cockroaches as an emergency. I believe that if you host, you must be available at all hours if there is an emergency.

It sounds like Christmas Eve and Christmas are special to you. I would suggest that you don’t host on those days so you won’t feel that guests are being rude, entitled and abusive by calling your attention to a problem.

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I agree with you, Ellen. It’s impossible to forecast when a blocked toilet, blown lightbulb or similar might happen. If hosts don’t provide a plunger, spare lightbulbs (as per the example - or bug spray) then they can expect to be contacted at any time.

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In my view, most guests believe property maintenance to be the job of the hosts. Even if a plunger, spare lightbulbs, pesticide, etc. are provided; if you host you should expect guests to get in touch with you when something goes wrong.

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I think it’s an unfortunate coincidence that it happened on Christmas Eve, but I can definitely see why they’d still want it dealt with and might be unhappy about waiting 3 days. Also I know you offered them a refund to leave, but would they have been likely to find alternative accommodation at Christmas?
A tricky situation to deal with on both sides, but it did get sorted.
I wouldn’t leave them a bad review for the phone call - to them it was an emergency and as their host you are expected to deal with such things.

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Again Ellen, I agree with you. Ours in a separate apartment and we leave these items in fairly plain view. I find that most guests would rather deal with a lightbulb themselves instantly rather than wait even ten minutes for me to do it. And with things like the plunger, there is the embarrassment factor. :slight_smile:

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I agree with @EllenN

If you are going away for Christmas and don’t want your holiday disturbed, then you should have had someone available on hand locally to deal with any issues.

11p.m. at night isn’t too late to call in what they saw as an emergency.

Saying to a guest on Christmas Eve they can leave if they aren’t happy knowing it’s unlikely they will get anything, is hardly offering them a choice.

I can imagine the guest thought they had no choice but to wait it out until Boxing Day and then when they found more cockroaches the next night they felt they had to contact you again.

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Yes, we’re in the tropics.Sub tropical Queensland Australia.

Some suburbs in my city are absolutely RIDDLED with roaches, my area seems ok. Been here 13 years.

I have a pest inspector who visits me biannually for termites. He would certainly inform me if I had evidence of any pest infestation - it’s more money for him after all.

I am just vigilant. That’s all.

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Ok, they disturbed me on BOTH xmas eve and Christmas night WITH THE SAME ISSUE.

I asked them to not contact me so late after the first time.

I also mentioned xmas was a major holiday in Australia - the FIRST time.

They were rude to bother me at the same time again the very next night for the very same issue.

I realise that more clearly than ever now.

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Sorry to say, @tooeasy, but I agree with other posters.

11 pm is really not that late. Many people stay up late Christmas eve, anyway. Midnight services, etc. If you can’t be disturbed at that hour, perhaps finding someone to do it for you, as @Uphost.ca suggested, may be a good idea. Christmas or not, hosting is a job. If we don’t want to be on the job, we block the calendar.

I would object to your feeling ‘abused my hospitality’. It’s not really hospitality. It is a business. Abusing your hospitality means a friend shows up for a weekend and stays for a week. Or eats all your ice cream. Etc. Paying for lodging that you expect to be roach-free is a business transaction. They felt that they were not getting what they paid for and informed you.

I don’t know why they contacted you the second time since you had already promised an exterminator, but perhaps they thought you would want to know. And they did use the method you preferred - they messaged you. It is your responsibility to turn off your phone if you don’t want to be disturbed.

I hope you enjoyed your holiday in spite of this and this is the last of the roaches. It may be that someone moved in around your home that brought them.

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I did have someone locally to handle their issues. I mentioned that in my OP.

In addition, I DID handle the late night issue sufficiently, they wanted to stay and I agreed to get an exterminator out.

WTF?

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Oh, and my listing is right next door to a motel which operates 24/7.

I mentioned that the 2nd time I asked them to leave.

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Eating all my ice cream isn’t abusing my hospitality; it’s a declaration of war. ; )

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Actually you mentioned you had a cleaner, not that you had someone locally to manage issues arising with your listing.

If you had someone locally - why didn’t you give out their details so you wouldn’t be disturbed.

Please don’t use terms like WTF in response to posts.

You came on here to ask for advice.

You may not like the responses you receive but no need to be rude.

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At this point you should just hope that they don’t complain to Airbnb and get a full refund. You seem more hostile than hospitable and I agree with others that you should NOT host when you don’t want to be disturbed.

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