What the OP has said is that he “tests” the batteries with each turnover.
So if the battery is dead they replace it; if not, they apparently don’t. Unless they use a battery tester on each battery (we haven’t heard the OP’s response on that).
So it appears, based on what the OP has so far said, that they wait until the batteries die to replace them. The OP can certainly correct us on that. [If they do use a tester it didn’t seem to work well for the lock batteries this time. Measurement errors are ever present. What is the plan for that? Relying on the guest? Or something else?]
I agree with you and the OP that it would be nice if a guest would report in real time to the Host any issue that arises during their stay so that the Host would have the chance to correct it.
But guests do not always do that and nevertheless sometimes put that in their review. We don’t like it – I don’t like it – it strikes me as unfair and have said so earlier. But none of that really helps. The real message to Hosts is to do all they reasonably can to make sure devices are working – and seen to be working (i.e., adequate instructions).
For example, Hosts can change the batteries periodically AND leave a supply of batteries in the listing and disclose that. That is a fail-safe for that defective battery or other scenario you can imagine. It also helps the guest when the battery is discovered not to work at 11:30 pm, when a message to the Host will unlikely provide an immediate remedy. Of course, guests might pilfer the batteries, so there’s that – competing considerations.
I think many of us feel vulnerable that this or that device might fail at some point despite our diligence. We would hope that a guest can see and feel our goodwill and return it in common sense decency/fair play in letting us know of issues in the property in real time.
For whatever reason some guests will not do that. At that point I think we can just accept that this review will be an outlier and leave it at that if we’ve done all we can reasonably have done.
Here a few of us are challenging whether the OP has done everything he reasonably could have done.
AND, we’ve taken into account the context in which this guest has acted. The context which another member and I noticed was the signed check-out list, which we found off-putting. So much so that I could imagine a guest making noise in its review about things that but for springing that signing requirement might not have been made.
Of course, I don’t know that this guest was put off by that. Maybe it was something else that put off the guest. Or maybe the guest is a jerk. The fact that guests have not complained about the signing carries little weight to me because just as guests often don’t like to read they often don’t like to write. They aren’t compensated to critique what aspects of the Host’s conduct might have set them off.
I’m just providing a data point to this OP that I found off putting. That the OP had a defensive reaction to my comment and those of others, suggesting that they were invalid rather than a data point(s) to evaluate does not inspire confidence that the OP is truly considering what he can do to guest proof his listing; maybe he just wants to vent.
We also do Water Wednesday which is when houseplants are watered, if they need it.
And taco Tuesday but I realize that’s different, haha.
) However, because it’s not policy guests won’t (and don’t) have that information. They really don’t have any way of knowing about this expectation. If you’re not a host then it’s just not a thing.
