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I had a guest who I mentioned previously that turned down my AC without asking to 69f.
He gave me 1* on arrival and other low scores.
He pissed me off with that AC and I wrote in his review describing the whole thing and advising him a better option of staying In a hotel where he can regulate his own AC.
He wrote me a long review mentioning a few factors that he thinks need improvement.
No Wifi information: was right there on a night table, also in Airbnb website visible as soon as a guest books.
He didn’t know where his room is: send him a message the day he was arriving, as I didn’t know ahead of time which will be available. He never got the message
No mirror in a room: there is a full length mirror in a private bathroom.
No lamp on a night table. Here he is right, I put one there already
No shade on a bathroom window: tiny window on a second floor bathroom with no houses across from it. No one can possibly can see through that window
No hairdryer. He could have asked, I have one but not in every bathroom
I never answered his email when he thought he forgot some thing. I never got his email, I am very thorough with my emails and never miss anything.
Oh god, what is wrong with people! Sorry, this is why I hate the review process so much…
Is this a public or private review? What a jerk. If it’s public, I would only answer the statements that were untrue. I would refer to this guest in the third person, but keep the response “professional.” It’s so tempting to get defensive.
But remember potential guests will evaluate us on the way we respond to complaints. New guests will also recognize this nimrod for the nit-picking, small-minded weasel that he is, so maybe the less said in response the better. In fact, I might avoid responding at all, because, as you know, it will print the entire response, drawing even more attention to it.
I think some people just enjoy making hosts doubt themselves and get a jolly by leaving a smack. (Hair dryer?? Unless he’s from the 80s, why does a guy need a hairdryer?) Ugh… my sympathies. I’ve had this too. some guests would even find fault at the Ritz Carlton. Try not to let him bug you.
My thinking is you can’t please all of the people all of the time. It sounds like you are trying and that’s what counts, right? The fact that you are on this forum means you do care, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much. You probably have lots of great reviews. I remember years ago I booked a place with two reviews, one horrible and one wonderful. I read them and was astounded at the bad review. The guest had complained that the pigeons outside had pooped on the porch and were a hazard to them when they went outside. Are you kidding me?! We booked the place, stayed there, loved every inch of it (including the pigeons), and wrote a wonderful review. People recognize knitpickers in reviews, especially if you respond. All the power to you!
Lol, Kona , hair dryer in 80F!! i answered politely explaining how it all in fact was, but to put 1 star on arrival. I would do it if i was bitten by a dog, really, but he did not know which room to go to: there are 3 rooms, one was locked (ours), one was occupied by another guest, that leaves only one that looks exactly like on a picture.
There’s a scene in a Laurel and Hardy movie where they are writing to their commander in the French Foreign Legion telling him off and quitting. He says “And if I could spell raspberry, I’d say that, too!”.
So Pfffsfsfsfft to that dude. Dust off your feet - thank God most of the people that come through are nicer than that.
If you don’t mind sharing I would love to know an estimate of his age. I feel like I need to babysit guests sometimes because they cannot think for themselves. Why not ask for a hair dryer? Why not ask for the Wifi password if you missed the info in two different places?
I read a review once of a B&B and guests had a whole bunch of complaints. One of them was that no hair dryer and soaps/shampoos were provided. The owner replied that the hair dryer was in the bathroom drawer and the soaps were all right there on the counter and they even provided extras in the drawers.
Another complaint of a different B&B was that there was no dresser for them to unpack their clothes. The owner responded saying the dresser was right there in the closet. How do you miss a dresser in the closet?
I short circuit this sort of thing by doing a walkthrough of the facility when a new guest arrives. I have a checklist of things to cover, and Wifi and hairdryer are a couple of them. Somebody swiped a hairdryer once, so this makes it clear to both of us that it’s there at the start of the visit. With the Wifi, I usually make sure that at least one of the guests gets successfully connected before we finish. Sometimes they just take a picture of the network name and password.
The point is not that I missed those things but that this guests simply did not pay attention to his surroundings. Wifi info is on a night table at all times. It’s right next to bed in big letters: WIFI, PASSWORD:… Hair dryer we have one, no one ever asks for it, and I did not even listed it as amenity. If he needed it he could asked.
I always do this as well… but sometimes it doesn’t stop the crybabies. Couple years ago, I had a hand wringing, question asking Canadian (not the Harper Albertans) and gave him the tour of everything. First thing he groused about in the review was “no hair dryer,” even though it was listed as an icon. And it was right there in one of the drawers. He was a bald little weasel so why the heck did he need a hair dryer? He didn’t. He just had to complain that because there was an ICON for it on the listing, there “should be” one in the room. Then he went on to list, in the public review, a laundry list of everything he found lacking, some of which is all disclosed a million different ways in the listing… this, after I set him up with one of my contacts at the helicopter company for a discounted rate! At the end of the review, buried at the bottom, was “We had a nice time and and K was a great host with lots of information.” Gee thanks.
I’ve had hair dryers and flashlights swiped. WTF. In addition to shampoos. Now I grab a sharpie and write “property of Kona’s Cabana” on it. My guests needed a flashlight but now I only buy the giant floating lantern ones :). Damned unappealing to slip in your luggage.
Hehe really, a bold guy needs a hairdryer?
When I told my husband that guest left me bad review, my husband said he knew it would happen, he had a gut feeling that fellow would come up with something.
Yana my first guest wanting little things and condescending asked me to improve the place with special pot holders, a bowl for his keys and wallet and how they did long term rentals in their place how I could improve and could give us advise. I took her advise but I hated her tune. I Am sorry if I offend anyone but these guest were a particular age and I am now very wearied about that guest group.
I think I know the age group!!! What’s funny, SO funny here is that my guest of that fusspot age group left “private” feedback about how much she hated all the things I had out like pot holders, placemats and tablecloths. HATED. Said it interfered with the hygiene of cooking. What a KOOK.
Carmen, hard as it is, try to let these mean-spirited remarks roll off you. You’ll never see the schmucks again and think of it this way-- you have their hard-earned cash in your pocket, potholder or no potholder, wallet bowl or no wallet bowl (REALLY? You have got to be kidding, Get a Life!!! . Losers!!!) LOL.
(I’m sorry if it offends anyone for me to call some (not all) guests losers…I’m just so over it.)
What was wrong with your pot holders that could be improved upon? Is this a self-contained space?
Oh big boy (if you are in your forties or older) you should have figured out by now how to keep track of your keys and wallet. You need a special bowl? Does he need a special dog bowl to drink water from and eat from too?
My partner cannot keep track of his wallet and he is in his fifties. But a bowl would never solve that problem. Some ADD adults just don’t want to solve issues themselves. If your ADD ass can’t remember basic things then you hang signs on the door. At least it works.
Seriously it sounds like my weasly, hand-wringing guest who groused about no hair dryer just because he wanted to complain about “something, anything.”. Some people just take that line “What can be improved about your stay” so literally.
Well as I feared the older guests that complained about pot holders, and a bowl for his keys gave me dings on Location, I am closer to the keys. ( they most of their time in Miami Beach and only used public transportation for all travel) Communication ( I bent over backwards to accommodate them, finding paper bus route so it would be easier for them, and fulfilling all of their requests) and lastly the value portion! 50 USD a night for a whole studio apartment, WHAT the heck did they expect during ART BASIL week? My place is a steal because I am new and need reviews, I should have known with her condescending tone that she would be a bit passive aggressive.
O my god, I even charge more than 50$ for a not large room, not a separate apartment. A bowl for keys??. I never use it in my house for us, and what difference does it make if he just puts it on a nightstand.
Try not to let him bug you.
