Hello fellow hosts,
We have a room with kitchenette in our house which we rent through AirBnB. I was just wanting some ideas from other hosts on how you would have responded to this guest…
A few months ago we had a couple stay with us for 1 night, the wife wasn’t very friendly or chatty but the husband was. Apart from the usual introductions, showing them the room, bathroom etc we didn’t have a lot to do with them on the first day. In the morning I met the wife in the hallway and to be friendly I asked “Good morning, did you sleep well?” WELL! I should NEVER have asked. She ranted for about 5 minutes about the bed being too soft, ruined her back, probably ruined her holiday now, never had any back problems before, never had such a bad nights sleep, and on and on and on. She was obviously very angry. I was at a loss to know what to say. We have had lots of guests even before we were on AirBnB and NO ONE has ever complained about the bed before or since. I have slept in the bed myself and found it very comfortable. This guest was able to walk normally and carried her suitcase to their car without any obvious discomfort. How would fellow hosts have responded to her rant? (The husband later confessed, out of her hearing, that she wanted a hotel room but he had booked through AirBnB which she wasn’t impressed about) They didn’t leave us any feedback.
Ignore it, or at best tell her "Thank you for the feedback. It’s important to us to hear everyone’s opinion:.
My rule is that I don’t do anything (major, at least) in response to a complaint until I’ve heard it three times. I’ll buy a new $5 trash can, or move a lamp, things like that for a single complaint, but I’d never buy a new mattress because someone didn’t like the ones we have.
She had unhappy cow disease, moaning and bitching at her husband didn’t work, so she took it out on you. My response, I sorry you didn’t sleep well last night, sitting in the car for hours makes me uncomfortable too. Have a nice day!
@J-and-G - “She was obviously very angry. I was at a loss to know what to say…How would fellow hosts have responded to her rant?”
I (…er, my Walter Mitty alter-ego) might have responded: “My condolences to your husband.”
I have had a few like that over the years, Husband uncomfortably hovering in the background, I have only to deal with it short term, he has a life sentence.
How to respond?
Me: Thank you for the feedback, a constructive opinion is always important, have a nice trip!
Second me: I hope that everything you managed to say in 5 minutes can lessen the “frustration” you had when you were not taken to a hotel.
Thanks for all the feedback folks. We were relieved when they left, but the poor husband probably had to put up with her ranting for several more hours / days / weeks…
Yes, ‘thank you for the feedback’ is all you’d need to say in such a situation.
But I have to admit that I am arrogantly impatient with guests who give me excessive criticism. Our rentals are in a beautiful place. I live here, I’ve chosen to live here for years. Yes, I’m sure there are better places in the world but if people want to go to them, they shouldn’t come here in the first place.
Our two rentals are very clean and a little quirky. Everything is good quality, even down to the loo paper. If people criticise anything unreasonably (yes the garden isn’t always perfect but that’s the condo board not me) then I’m arrogantly inclined to believe that they are the idiots and don’t have my fined-tuned sense of quirkiness and quality 