I love Paris and hope their city will fare well during these floods, but have to say the Parisians can be brutal. While visiting Paris and being misidentified as an American (actually Canadian), around the “Freedom Fries” scandal, we experienced hatred by many Parisians. While a French group insulted us at a Cuban restaurant behind our backs, I was able to understand and retaliate in French. During the same visit we heard of a Japanese tourist who had to be sent back to Japan due to Paris Syndrome. Wikipedia describes it as “a transient psychological disorder exhibited by some individuals when visiting or vacationing in a place drastically foreign from their own. It is characterized by a number of psychiatric symptoms such as acute delusional states, hallucinations, feelings of persecution (perceptions of being a victim of prejudice, aggression, or hostility from others), derealization, depersonalization, anxiety, and also psychosomatic manifestations such as dizziness, tachycardia, sweating, and others.”
I’ve just noticed that some guests walk into the apartment with the attitude “if not everything here suits me well and if you don’t do as I say, I will make sure to destroy your business and tell everyone what a horrible host you are”
And these types of guests tend to be from where primarily Jan?
Sorry this link doesn’t work.
Yes, I know about the Paris syndrome. And yes French people can be brutal. As a laid-back, straight-speaking Australian I found it tough living and doing business there. The difference though is that Americans somehow see it as a personal affront. You need to just acknowledge that it’s a different culture, it’s not personal (although Americans think it is) and you should just make the most of your time there and take what you can from the experience. By the way, the British (which I was usually mistaken for) receive far harsher and derogatory treatment from the French - they are the long-standing battle enemies.
Fanny in the UK is the equivalent of ‘see you next tuesday’ in the US.
I can absolutely relate to many of the comments here.
Like the conclusion as to why so many Americans wear white trainers (they also seem to wear them with white sports socks pulled half way up the calves).
Interestingly, in my day job I used to do some supply chain consulting for a major foot wear manufacturer. They actually used ‘poorer’ materials for shoes sold in America than in Europe as they didn’t get walked in as much so the cheaper materials lasted just as well 
One of the best management responses I’ve ever seen on Tripadvisor was for a hotel that had been dinged for the lack of a bell boy to take luggage up to the room and that the guests had to do it themselves - although they conceded there was a lift which made it ok - but the service was expected.
The manager replied that he was sorry they didn’t offer this service but as the guest had managed to bring their own luggage all the way from the US themselves, they thought they would have been able to cope with taking it the last 50m to their room.
Also on the point of Americans expecting everything to be just like home. I once had a guest emailing me asking if a restaurant was trying to scam him.
During their first lunch they had been drinking Coke and had expected it to be refillable as per US norms, when they got a bill showing 26 glasses of Coke at a cost of nearly $150 he thought the restaurant were trying to rip him off.
Said it spoilt his whole trip and they would never come back to Copenhagen!
Americans have this thing at school called “Show & Tell” which means they have to bring something to grade school and talk about it for 15 minutes. So they get good at padding things out. It also teaches them that their opinions are important, no matter how trivial the topic. It might be better if “Show & Tell” was replaced with “Shut Up & Listen” (That’s a joke, I have lived in America twice and visited dozens of times and love the place and the people but you’ll never be short of an opinion whether you ask for it or not.). Like you my only ba review was from Americans - they weren’t happy with the level of Cleanliness and gave me 1 for it (which suggests to me a college share house where there are things living in the fridge and the toilet hasn’t been cleaned for 6 months) but also gave me 2s and 3s for everything else including Location (the house directly overlooks the sea) and Communication (they arrived 3 hours late and never answered any of my text messages to check they were okay). They were first timers and everytime I look at my stats I can see their low scores sticking out from all the 4s and 5s.
Well I wanted to kick myself so badly after it cost me $50 in Barcelona to get hold of a Burger King meal after our hostel host took us to the karoke bar. I was so hungry and thought the vendors on the street were a rip off and heard only Burger King was open…so I decided to take a cab and not sure if the driver drove me all around town (Chen Susanne style) or not. But I was so far into the cab ride there was no turning back. I kept thinking - surely it can’t be much further…
I never thought to leave a review…
I probably would not have known how anyway…
I had a bad review like that mentioned the wife was arachnophobic and there were “too many spiders” then 1s and 2s for everything. I just replied “Thanks for your feedback. I hope the rest of the trip went well”. And left it at that. I didn’t want to draw attention to it and I was worried it might put people off (the spiders of which he referred were very small by our standards, you should see the big ones, but their webs appear quickly for a month in summer and can be a lot bigger than them). But it made no difference and I asked some later guests if they read it and they said they had but the other reviews didn’t mention it and were all good so they ignored it. I think most people understand that one or two bad or weird reviews can be ignored.
Hey @KKC,
While American exceptionalism is real, of course, I think the reasons are a tad more complex than that. 
And I’m not not really sure if American exceptionalism is part of the mix. I had never thought of it like that before…
Hi @cabinhost,
Ok, I’ve just got to ask - is this a real restaurant manager response, or did you make it up? If so, good job.
Just like statistics, throw out the top and bottom 10% and you have the norm. Many Americans are not well traveled and those are the ones that oftentimes can’t put things in proper perspective.
26 GLASSES OF COKE AT ONE MEAL!? I hope there were 13 people in his party. If not he will be dead soon and won’t need to worry about going to Copenhagen or anywhere else.
Ha! Ok…I made up the review, but it was based on partly true stories. I did work at a restaurant where every once in a while a guest would order the tuna melt, and not read that it was really a tuna steak. It was so amazing to see a guest snub their nose because it wasn’t the tuna fish cat food sandwich they expected.
I have a grown " American" child, she was 2 when we immigrated and was raised here in US. And what I observe in her and her friend is totally opposite of being entitled and thinking they are privileged. This new generation is very much aware of the world, non judgmental and accepting of everyone’s differences.
They are much kinder and much more easygoing than my generation .
They were very little travelled I am sure. They also did not know that a Coke can cost 5$. I wonder how many people drank 26 glasses of Coke! Hope it’s not just 2.
I love Copenhagen
Trying to think where there is even a Burger King here! I know of plenty McDonalds and even Dunkin Donuts…
You all sure like to say mean things about Americans. I have no idea why anyone would judge anyone on the color of their shoes. By the way, I currently have two English guests who wear white socks pulled all the way up. Many of our guests from many countries buy baseball caps.
It’s ridiculous to deride Americans for wanting everything to be the same as at home on the same board where English people post about how everyone should buy the kettles they are used to.