Guest left a 'neutral' review because I couldn't look after their luggage after reservation was over!

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Hey guys!

Long time no see ;-)!

I just thought I’d share a story about something that just happened. Three girls checked out this morning at the usual time of 11am. They asked if they could leave their bags at my place as their flight wasn’t until 9pm in the evening. I said ‘sorry guys, no can do - I’ll be out and about from about 5pm and I need the keys back to pass to the next guests who are arriving this afternoon’.

They seemed disgruntled even tough I provided info on a local gallery near the main station that has lockers where they can store luggage for free. Anyway, they put the review in earlier and I put mine in, which was nice (regretting that, now!) - here is what they left me …

“The house was nice and cosy but far away from the city center. K is very helpful with tips for Liverpool but not very flexible with the check out and the luggage.”

Now my place is a 10 min bus ride or 20/30 min walk from the city centre (as indicated in the listing , google maps, etc) so the ‘far away’ bit is inaccurate for a start. The comment about me not being flexible is more a case of them being entitled, non? There was an element of malice in it, I feel…

I was considering contacting Air to remove it since this is the only nasty review in about 500.

The other option I was considering (if Air won’t remove it) is to leave this response …

" Dear X -

I am somewhat bewildered by your comments.

My place is a 20/30 minute walk from the city centre or a 10 min bus ride (check google maps if you don’t believe me) so I’d be interested to know what route you took that led you to state it is ‘far away’ … it must have been rather scenic ;-)…

Also, when you state that I am ‘not very flexible with the check-out and the luggage’ you refer to the fact that on the morning your reservation ended it was not possible for you to leave your bags at my house until the evening-time because I had to go out and would not be able to look after them for you (and needed the keys back to give to the next guests). You also neglected to mention that I gave you advice on an alternative /safe place to store your bags in the city centre at no extra cost to yourselves… "

What do you guys think?

Also, as a point of interest these guys stayed up late in my kitchen drinking and shouting and bought an extra person in the house who was not a part of their original booking. It violates the terms of use, right? Do you think this would help in my pledge to get the review removed or is it too late as I’ve already left them a nice review?

Any thoughts would be wholly appreciated :-)!!!

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They violate rules and you leave them a nice review anyway? Now you’re upset because these entitled little brats were unappreciative. There are a million posts on this forum about how important it is to leave honest reviews. As for responding, it’s been pointed out that responding makes the negative review stand out. If you feel you must I would shorten it to be to the point. "The listing indicates the distance from city center as a 30 min walk and leaving luggage is not an amenity provided. " I’m pretty sure air won’t remove it and if it were me I’d forget it and move on.

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It’s actually kind of nice that they’ve reinforced your checkout requirements and it might head off any future requests for luggage storage :wink: Do you have other reviews that say how much they like your location in proximity to the city centre?

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Woah there, Thomas! It didn’t bother me too much at the time - and they weren’t disturbing other guests. In fact they were otherwise very nice, hence me leaving a nice review. I was just chewing the fat, thinking of a case against them to get the bitchy review removed. That is all!!

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You might be right, there - good point ;)! Yes there are lots of other reviews saying how handy the location is for central access.

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Or not, as it goes. …

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I wouldn’t waste the time responding.

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I agree with Suite Retreat. I like it when guests bring up things in reviews that other guests might need to know. Guests rarely read the details we write in the listing including the house rules, but they do read reviews. Now other guests know that your check in/out times are firm. Hopefully the next guests won’t ask.

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Yeah, so I guess I should maybe re-edit that to say - “any non-agressive thoughts would be wholly appreciated”.

Have a sit down and a chamomile tea ;-)!

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It’s more a reflection on the expectations of the guest than it is on you. I do like Karma’s shorter, sweeter review though. Anything too long makes you look defensive, dramatic and draws too much attention to a non issue.

Shame on those guests for partying and bringing additional guests. I’d say those were bad guests and I personally wouldn’t have been nice in a review.

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Bringing someone in who’s not on the guest list is a serious violation. If I received a request from these people and accepted it based on good reviews from other hosts and they did that here and then I found out they did it to another host who gave them a great review, I’d be seriously PISSED!

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So, yeah … as I’ve already tried to explain … it didn’t not occur to to me that it was a ‘violation’ at the time since they were otherwise quite nice. My bad for trying to be nice !!

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You are throwing too many things in one basket. The fact that they brought another person to visit and shouted has nothing to do with their review. It did not bother you anyway at the time.
I think its even a good thing that they mentioned the luggage issue in their review. Now, every futture guests who reads it will know. I dont think Airbnb will remove this review, and i also think that the short answer saying that your house is 10 min.ride from center and mentioning free luggage storage is enough.

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You are right, thanks Yana! I will do just that…