I need help responding to a review on a VRBO booking. Background (sorry, it’s long and the easily-offended should stop reading): we have a three-bedroom house in St Lucia that is open (no glass over the windows, interior room walls do not go to the ceiling - our pictures show that). This design is very common in St Lucia. It was designed for air circulation, not to be soundproof, so you can hear some noises from other rooms. We had a few complaints a few years ago about being able to hear people while they use the toilet, so we put in transistor radios for those people that are shy and haven’t had a complaint since. We have TV’s in every bedroom.
Two couples and a single friend stay in January (lots of COVID restrictions - you couldn’t leave the villa without being taken by a driver - technically, not even to take a walk into the forest, and you had to make reservations at the places you are going). One couple left mid-week, leaving one couple and the single person.
Her (one of the couple there the whole time) review complained that they could not be intimate and they recommend that couples stay away from our house. We’ve had lots of couples stay - they split up part of the time, or just turn the TV on to cover their “intimate” noises. I suspect they didn’t want to make the single person uncomfortable by telling him “go to the beach without us; we’ll join you in a few hours”, but it would have been OK if the other couple had stayed.
Here’s my draft response - what should I change? She said they really enjoyed their stay except for the challenge on being intimate and would happily return with a different group.
"We’re happy to hear you enjoyed your stay and hope to see you again soon! We wish you hadn’t had a disappointment, though. Just like many homes in our area and as you can see in our pictures, our home is fairly open inside. Most of our groups of couples have simply split up for some private time, but COVID restrictions made that difficult during your stay. For those groups that can’t work out a schedule, the bedroom TV’s provide “cover-up noise” 