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Guest was uncommunicative and not very savvy (did not read rules, had nomidea where to find the adress etc), i came home tomfind that he had parked his carbin a neighbor’s driveway, blocking 3 cars of my neigbors. Saving him from being towed, i asked him to move it to my private parking area behind my house.
I gave him my generic bland review saing he was clean and quiet. His review to me?
“He had me move my car”.
Thats it! Ps in his private to me he said i should allow people to go into mynkitchen to relax and have tea (i do not allow kitchen priveleges)
Do i respond? Do i say “thanks sommuch for mentioning this, since i saved you from getting towed, thanks to my asking you,to move your car from someone elses house”. Or do i justbignore it?
As it looks from your post like your guest’s comment about moving his car was in the public review, I think you should respond to, “He had me move my car.” I would say, “Unfortunately, this guest was confused about which driveway belongs to me and parked in my neighbor’s driveway.” We had a few guests confuse our neighbor’s driveway with ours so we now tell guests that our driveway is to the left as you face the house. Since we’ve been doing that all of the guests have parked in the correct driveway.
I would not respond about having tea in your kitchen. I would just make sure that your listing clearly states that the kitchen is completely off limits.
I think it’s good to clarify anything future guests will read, but I don’t see the value of getting the last word.
Bob, I know your first reaction is to blast him but I urge you to just ignore this dodo brain. When you do respond, you risk sounding defensive AND the system draws even more attention to it by printing his whole review and your whole response.
Anyone looking to book is going to read that and laugh. It speaks for itself. It almost sounds like a surly teenager being scolded by his dad.
Hi Bob_Blank,
EllennN’s advice is right on target. It is always wise to respond with a positive explanation to a publicly posted criticism so that future guests see a balanced picture and know your side of the story, not just the complaint. EllenNs example response is so good because it is neutral in tone. Good Luck + Happy Hosting.
So the guy left nothing more in the public review?? Lol. I would reply with “My neighbors were upset that you parked in their driveway, and blocked all three of their cars from being able to get out. They were going to have your car towed, so I asked you to move it. Thank you for doing so.”
Did your “relaxing in the kitchen” comment come from the “what can be improved part”? - I hate that private feedback part. Why can’t they just leave it with general private feedback section? Isn’t that how it used to be long ago? Wasn’t there just a public review part and then a place where guest could leave us private feedback if it wasn’t appropriate to leave a commnet in a public review?
It’s been a while since I left a review but do we get to give the guest suggestions on how they can “improve” themselves as a guest? I bet you a guest wouldn’t like to hear “you should get up and be out long before noon so that you allow me more privacy”.
Or maybe we should be allowed to rate them on “value.” - We could rank them on whether we value them as a return guest in the future…lol.
I think so, we can tell guests how to improve in private feedback also.
This is off the topic, but of course, every host has his/ her reasons to allow or not allow access, to any amenity in a house and it’s perfectly fine, but I I can see how guests can find it a bit unusual that they can’t even have tea on existing kitchen. I
During my travels as a guest I never had no access to kitchen. I never cooked, but for me to wake up in a morning and go look for coffee or tea somehwere would be quite a disadvantage.
I’m sure you responded by now but - yeah I’m with Ellen - provide the explanation of why you asked him to move his car.
“I’ll just explain what XX means by this in case anyone misunderstands the sentiment, it was a close thing but when I saw XX had parked incorrectly I let him know so he could avoid getting towed! They can be brutal round here! I’d hate for any guest to wind up in a predicament”
That should do it and keep future guests in check to boot!
like people said
you should answer to him that:
“It was not my fault that your brains didnt understand that driveway is only for my neighbours.
They called me at 8PM asking me to take that car from there because some of theirs kids needed to go to the hospital”
And to finish Bob:
" i would advice next hosts to avoid this specific guest."
John, I walked up to the guest and asked him to move his car, since he parked DOWN THE STREET in someone elses driveway. No need to text. His review shows me a lack of basic understanding of courtesy and propriety.
my house manual tells them to pull in behind my house and park. Do you really think I need to tell a guest not to leave their car down the block in someone else’s driveway when they come here? Should I put that next to "please make sure you use the bathroom in MY house and do not try to use a bathroom in a neighbor’s house’?
