Time to vent. First bad review

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I had a guest book my place for 4 people in May to stay in June. Too late for her to cancel without fees, she asked to cancel. I said she can reschedule if she’d like, but if she cancels there is a fee. She rescheduled.

The day before the new reservation, she changes the listing from 4 people to 2 people, but this is a guest house and you get the whole thing, whether 1 person or 4 people, you pay the same price. Then she wanted to reschedule again siting rain in the weather forecast. I said no. If I rescheduled every time rain is forecast, I might as well just close – it didn’t rain.

So she came with an attitude. Her husband confided that their “friends” cancelled on them and they were stuck paying for the whole fee. My husband and I just said, oh, that’s not very nice of them. I think he thought we’d give them their money back.

Everything seemed fine. He asked if he could borrow tools to fix his boat trailer and we gave him everything he needed.

When they left, they had turned the air conditioner down to 65 and left the fan on constantly. They also turned the refrigerator and freezer down as far as they would go. They also took a crap in the toilet and covered the toilet brush in shit and then put it back in the container with shit all over it. I debated about what to put in her review as I have never had anyone do anything like this, but they said they come to this area all the time and I worried that one of their friends would retaliate, so I only said that they were friendly, but I gave them 1 star on cleanliness and 1 star on house rules.

Today, I get a review that the property is not very private and there are fleas.

We don’t allow pets, so there are no fleas. I haven’t been doing this very long, but have 16-5 star reviews and every one of them say how clean the place is. I know there are no fleas - and you cannot even see the nearest neighbor, so she lied.

I rebutted her comment with everything above (my husband wouldn’t let me put the shitty part)

I guess I just wanted to vent. Maybe I’m lucky that I haven’t encountered this until now and I should be grateful.

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We all would have advised not to post a long winded rebuttal but what’s done is done. Seeing what this guest did to you reminds me of why some hosts just give the refund and move on. Forcing unhappy people to stay might not work out in your favor.

Soon her false review will be buried by your other good reviews. Time to move on.

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I don’t give a refund but I do move on :slight_smile:

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Wait, isn’t the nearest house your house, or can you not see your guest house from your house?

Nasty. At least they didn’t leave you an “upper-decker”.

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It sounds like she was upset that her planned vacation with friends didn’t go as planned and she took it out on you. Nothing you can do except respond to her review.

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Never allow a guest to reschedule dates into the future. This is a great way for them to be able to then cancel with no penalties.

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Based on the guest’s retaliatory behavior (who leaves poop on a toilet brush???) and bad review, is anyone aside from me surprised their “friends” canceled? I wouldn’t want to travel with that female guest…

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We mostly tell hosts not to respond to a negative review. Even I would have mentioned in rebuttal the feces-covered leaving…

This is something you should NEVER consider! After what they did, I’d be surprised if they have friends. Even if they did, you would just give those “friends” the bad review they deserve!!! Hurts their friend more than them

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Exactly my thought, too

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Thank you. I had never thought about that

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I just responded to one—the guest complained that the air conditioning didn’t work forcing her to cancel her vacation and lose her money and called me fraudulent because I didn’t refund the full amount. A/c was repaired. (Did not work 18 hours) she cancelled 4 hours AFTER the repair. After repair made and after she stated she wanted to cancel, I encouraged her to stay so she wouldn’t lose her money.

Airbnb was involved from beginning and handled the refund according to their rules.

Bottom line she wanted a free 3 night stay for 1 night of no a/c. IF IF IF she left before a/c repaired she would have received full refund or rebooking at a different rental.

@KenH. Btw I used your suggested review almost verbatim thank you

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I just came across a negative review and host’s succinct response and am posting it here, redacted, for your amusement.

concise
concise.png721×256 6.58 KB

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Same host, different guest:
thankyou

This one has me rolling.

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That is crazy how far that guest went to make your life miserable. When things go bump it’s important to stay calm. I wouldn’t have given them a full refund if I was in that situation. I think you handled it well.

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@LoneStar - The “will not return” and then “good” is genius! I want to stay with that host, hahah

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