You know what ‘fanny’ means in the UK right? It’s a bum bag 
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Since I landed in here at the beginning of May, I have been asked non stop about Trump. I literally walked into my Mum in Law’s flat in Sweden and her bridge group started telling about how terrible Trump is and why I shouldn’t vote for him. I have even had waiters (that I kinda know) here in Barcelona ask me about. It is topic Du Jour at the moment!
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Am surprised how many Americans can fit into Abercrombie and Fitch. I haven’t gone into one of those stores since the 90’s. You will never spot an overweight American in A and F clothes. How can this brand even be associated with a country on the top list of obesity is beyond me.
Before anyone says anything about me being mean…I don’t have any A and F clothes 
- and it’s not by choice! I can’t fit into them myself!
I just had to do some research. It is the front part of a girl and not the back part?
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Indeed it is. What a nice way of putting it 
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My first job in the States was at a car dealership. I caused SO much confusion! ‘This car is great on petrol consumption and wait until you see the size of the boot. Let’s take a look under the bonnet shall we?’
And as for the spellings - people were correcting me when I wrote ‘tyre’.
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Me…being complimented on my manners? Wow. someone said I had a nice way of putting something. It must be pretty bad - lol.
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Here is some extreme example. Same property and completely opposite reviews.
Guest A:
Host and his wife are both nice. His lovely wife help me a lot and give me a very good feeling. Their house is as beautiful as they describe, and moreover very clean. Thank you for serving me tasty breakfast. For my aeroplane to hk was at 12pm, they allow me to check out flexible. I would strongly recommend to someone who want to have a trip to Taipei. It will be a good choice. And i will choose them again. Thank you.
Guest B:
Host and his wife are very welcoming and friendly. They provide a lot of help on planing my trip. And their house and toilet is awesome, very accurate with their description. The location is close ntu, very convenient to experience the energetic life in university. Just one reminder, need to book earlier as their home would be fully booked very soon.
Guest from USA (only stayed one night and didn’t shower any time):
Nice hosts, easy communication, and met me promptly when I arrived and always quick when I messaged with questions! Their apartment is very nice generally, however the bedroom I was in specifically had a very funky smell. Pretty strong smell exactly like a catbox, although I never saw any animals in the house, and never experienced that smell in other apartments in Taipei.
The property has other very good reviews especially emphasizing the cleanliness of the place, but in English only those, the reviews praising the cleanliness are mostly in Chinese language.
Since only those are in English, and our inquiries are about 40% westerners, should I reply to this guy? What should I say?
The room has no smell and no complaints from guests, he was the only one. It is freaking hot and humid in Taipei and he didn’t shower any time here. I am thinking this might be some smell from his wet clothes or something like that. The way he put it is as if this is the worse room in whole Taipei as it is ‘exactly like catbox smell and no other room in Taipei has that smell’
Please help us out with your advice.
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I would actually reply to it. And here’s why, but first…
Air has a new implementation that automatically translates reviews to system operated languages. If your browser and OS is US for example, would be using US-Americas for localization. The globalization is impressive but is not without fault where translations from “slang” or without proper English wouldn’t work. But…
Seeing that 40% of your potential guests are westerners speaking English only. It’s not worth to chance. I would reply something along the lines of…
Thank you for the stay and nice comments and suggestions. We have investigated into the odd smell and could not find what you were referring to. Certainly we would be concerned as well, but we have had an enormous amount of review that mentions no such thing. Again, we can guarantee that the room is completely clean and have no such odor.
And the whisper under your breath. Go take a shower you %#]^bag. Scrub yourself clean before I slap the freedom out of you. And then carry on with your day as the gentlemen you are.
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I vote not to reply. It only draws more attention to the offending comment. Plus the system expands your answer so you might as well have the lights of Times Square advertising it. 
As I have learned, the less said, the better. I usually only reply to correct something inaccurate, such as someone who said I don’t provide snorkel equipment when I do.
If you have no other complaints, your guests will think of it as just a random nit pick and disregard it.
As tempting as it is to type a reply to this clod, I would just let it roll off. It will be gone soon enough.
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I’ve only hosted about 6 US guests at my place in Australia and they’ve all been ok experiences. But I completely understand what you mean. I lived in France for 6 years and ran an International relocation company moving about 120 people per year into Paris and the suburbs. It was widely acknowledged there amongst our clients and other companies that the most challenging missions were those relocating Americans. (Followed by the Egyptians in case you’re interested).
The reason for this seems to be (as someone has also mentioned in a post above) that they don’t know how to deal with the ‘differences’ they encounter. They may be moving to Paris for work (lucky things) but they want it to be just like living in the US. Their expectations didn’t match the possibilities and when they discovered this they were completely unable to adapt. Many a US wife dissolved into tears or temper tantrums. It’s as though in their mind it’s going to be a certain thing and when it’s not, they don’t know how to cope. Life in the US it seems may be more predictable.
They were always generous and polite but so unbelievably demanding that I had staff who simply refused to deal with them. Customer service is such a well-defined thing in the US that they cannot accept that it’s different elsewhere. They had no boundaries in what they’d ask for. It was nothing to receive phone calls on my personal mobile at 10 at night or 7 in the morning. The requests were always polite and friendly, but just crossed boundaries they didn’t seem to see. Their attitudes seemed to be 'you’re in the service industry, and giving good service means giving me exactly what I want.'
I do find American guests extremely demanding even as Airbnb guests but they are impeccably polite and friendly. And I always know what my review will look like at the end.
Unlike British and Australian guests who (again as someone mentioned above) say one thing and mean another - and you will only ever discover what they really meant when you see their review at the end of their stay.
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If this idiot American guest was the cause then just say:
“There was no smell before your group arrived, and there was no smell when your group departed.” Apparently whatever odor you smelled - also left when your group did.
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As kids we used to say “he who smellt it dealt it…”
That was an awful review, @Joseph, so sorry.
When I read bad reviews and the owner takes time to reply, to me, that’s a great asset. Something like “I’m so sorry you were not pleased. Please message me privately so I can get more information and look into the matter. Since the complaint hasn’t been repeated it’s difficult to understand”.
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Well, in my limited experience, shoe-wear-faux-paux are not restricted to white trainers.
In Shanghai in 2012 we wore sandals - good, athletic sandals. And shorts. It was HOT!!! On the subway we’d be standing on the train and the ‘locals’ would look down at our shoes, and up at our faces. Down at our shoes, and up at our faces. Add to that one of my daughters is Chinese and my other is very white, blue eyed, and blond curly hair…there was NO WAY we were not going to stand out!
My husband and I always made an effort to not look like tourists. Then once he was looking for his lodging in Amsterdam. He had a camera around his neck, was carrying a map, and his rolling bag was going ‘ca-CHUNK ca-CHUNK ca-CHUNK’ across the cobblestones. It suddenly occurred to him that his ‘blending in’ act was a bust!!
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I didn’t know the system translates the reviews as well. That’s great! I hope the translation from Chinese gets the message across. We already slept on it a few nights and no other guests after him have mentioned any smell, they all love the place. So we want to sleep a couple of nights more on the matter before we decide to reply to him. If we respond, pretty much we will use your reply, i think it is perfect [quote=“izze, post:29, topic:5158”]
Thank you for the stay and nice comments and suggestions. We have investigated into the odd smell and could not find what you were referring to. Certainly we would be concerned as well, but we have had an enormous amount of review that mentions no such thing. Again, we can guarantee that the room is completely clean and have no such odor.
[/quote]
Although I think since he had the guts to complain something non existing I think hosts should know he doesn’t shower… 
My wife is reluctant to reply, so we need to discuss it.
hahaha, thank you for that. I did it. I feel better now.
My wife has the same opinion as you, not to reply. She wants to wait a few more nights to see how much the review will impact our bookings/inquiries. Also, it is right, the response the response is always highlighted, I would like to highlight he doesn’t keep personal hygiene haha, I have to resist on that.
Thats what we hopefully will do, my wife (who stays most of the time with guests as she works from home and I work in the company) is trying to persuade me to let the other good ones after him build up.
We just let another guests checking out today who came alone and loves the room, he wants to bring his wife next time. Go figure…
I will keep you updated.
The truth is he left and the room had no smell, so I am almost sure it was himself. The temperature in Taipei right now is around 38-40 degrees Celsius. And humidity is extremely high. The weather is very uncomfortable as you finish a cold shower and you will sweat right after if you go outdoors and just stand outside for 2 minutes. We are astonished how he managed to stay with zero showers. Moreover, I am really really inclined to that your quote to a response.
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Thank you for your sentiments, my wife almost had a break down as she is almost OCD for cleaning. She couldn’t have dinner the night we received the review, we had just arrived a restaurant and ordered many things and them the review came up.
I think the standard, as we are in this hospitality side business, is to contact him directly thanking and following up with him. But I think he is a mess, I found out he was a ‘Food evaluation’ blog, or whatever that means, so he is used to go to restaurants and nitpick at whatever little thing he finds out. Also did a bit checking out his Air profile and he got a Amazing penthouse apartment in Shanghai, incredible view, I personally know the area, for 120USD the whole place, 3 bedrooms and so, great place, I went to the host profile and the host qualified him as a great guest and he killed her in the review, saying the place is good for a family but far from everything, inconvenient etc… the woman list it as a get away place… anyways, I dont think he deserves any type of follow up because he was smelling himself and creating an issue where there isn’t one.
My wife just told that she had prepared his breakfast and as she was cooking it she asked him how he liked the eggs etc he replied, and when it was all on the table served for him alone (we had just finished having breakfast earlier at the same table as we are early birds) he took his luggage and said, I am leaving. Good bye. HE was alone at home then and she was shocked.
… you can imagine the looks of horror if you said fanny pack to a brit … erhmm lol
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Funny moment I had in a Pub some evening, I think it was a Tuesday evening in Yarm.
Upset American walking over to Britt: "I am pissed"
Britt: “Really? You don’t look like it, here have another one…” (giving him a beer an walking away.)
Total confusion in the eyes of the American.
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