Need help reviewing a return guest

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Ann72
Level 10
New York, NY

Need help reviewing a return guest

This group came 2 years ago.  They booked for this year the minute the calendar opened for those days.  Very little communication.  Instant Booked for 6 people.

 

A few days before her trip I asked her to give me the final head count.  She said two people weren't coming so it would just be 4.

 

This morning, they were not ready to leave by checkout time, and took an extra hour.  My cleaner was stressing because it was a one-day turnover.

 

Cleaners went in and made 6 beds - for 4 people.  For 2 nights.  So - is this review too blunt?

 

"Robin's group of four used six beds - three bunk beds, a queen, a full, and a king - in two nights. They did not check out on time and cleaning took longer than usual."

1 Best Answer
Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@Ann72  one question - why do you make more beds than you have guests? Even if they don't use all of them for sleeping they can put their suitcases on them, throw their clothes, sit on them with naked butt...  and you still have to change all the bedding because you can't know what they were used for.

 

We always ask our guests which beds they want to use and the rest we leave with just a waterproof sheet and a decorative cover over it. No sheets, no pillows, no duvets.

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12 Replies 12
Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@Ann72  one question - why do you make more beds than you have guests? Even if they don't use all of them for sleeping they can put their suitcases on them, throw their clothes, sit on them with naked butt...  and you still have to change all the bedding because you can't know what they were used for.

 

We always ask our guests which beds they want to use and the rest we leave with just a waterproof sheet and a decorative cover over it. No sheets, no pillows, no duvets.

Kelly149
Level 10
Austin, TX

@Ann72 I've seen the instagram set brag about playing goldilocks with every single bed in a listing. They literally made a game of "enjoying" every bed in the place. Bc if it's in the space then they paid for it, so they might as well use it.

Now, at my place your pricing is per person and I only make up the beds that you "should" need (it's a discussion point in the listing and in their pre-arrival communication). I also have cameras that tell me exactly how many guests are in the space.

 

So, no, I don't think the review is too blunt and if you personally don't want them back in a year or two, keep in mind that it may take several 1* marks to keep them from IB in the future.**

 

 

** this is what a CS told me recently "ABB considers anything other than 1* a "positive" review". Maybe true, maybe not, no way to know for sure

Ann72
Level 10
New York, NY

@Branka-and-Silvia0 @Kelly149 Those are good questions and good points!  Okay, the original booking was for 6 guests.  There's a king bed in the master, a queen bed in another room, 4 twin beds (2 bunk beds) in the third room.  The guest asked us to make up the futon (a full bed) in the library.  Even after she said there'd be 4 people.  I know that in the past it has been her and her husband, their two sons, and their sons' wives.  The wives weren't coming.  But they still wanted the futon.  So assume the parents in the master, one son in the library, and one son in the queen.  The bunk beds are made up routinely, but one doesn't expect 4 adults to use them - or even WANT to use them.  However, after this, I will take your suggestions and ask my cleaner to leave the bunk beds unmade, with just the duvet cover over them, unless guests will be using them.

 

I've written her and said that, before I leave a bad review, I'd like to hear from her what really happened.  If she doesn't answer I'm going to go ahead with what I've written - thanks, Kelly!

 

It's funny you mention Goldilocks because recent guests used ALL the bunk beds after claiming they only had one 4-year-old and one baby in a portacrib.  I wrote and asked if Goldilocks had come by for a visit . She said the 4-year-old had been "playing" in all 4 beds.  I didn't ask her who lets a 4-year-old play in the top bunk by himself.

@Ann72 yep, the IG group I"m thinking of was a family that rented a 3 bed house that had a bunkroom. Mom & Dad slept in the master and then the 3 kids spent their week sleeping in every single other bed in the house. Yea!! Fun!!

 

I do the same as @Branka-and-Silvia0 with our extra daybeds. They get covers, but are Definitely not made up for sleeping.

@Kelly149 I kind of get that when it's a week.  When my girls were young they certainly made a point of sleeping in all the bunk beds.  🙂

 

But this was adults only for TWO NIGHTS.  They were in town for the boat races and I think they brought some crew members home.

@Ann72 its an ongoing conundrum: leave the house nice enough to be the quality listing that we want it to be without inviting fraud and allowing guests to take advantage of us...

 

It's gutsy to ask the guest to clarify: hopefully she takes it well and does right by you.

Ann72
Level 10
New York, NY

@Branka-and-Silvia0 @Kelly149 

Just wanted to follow up.  Didn't hear back from the lady so after thinking about it some more, I decided not to leave the above review.  My hosting style has always been to charge a lot and never quibble with guests about the small stuff.  Plus, she paid more than $1,200 for two nights.

 

Still, I was annoyed, so I gave her 4 stars on everything and wrote, "Robin and her family were return guests, and I'm happy they felt at home at the house."  Kind of hoping that's a code to other hosts.

 

I told her I hadn't left a bad review, but I was disappointed at her lack of communication.  She then wrote me a LONG note going into every detail about who was there and who slept where and what they did, yada yada yada.  And it turns out there were extra people, and they were the ones who checked out late because they were picking blueberries and didn't feel like leaving!  Then she added, "As you may recall we were planning to actually have our entire family of 9 stay but changed our mind."  Um, no, the reservation was for 6 people, so she has revealed that she was lying from the beginning.

 

My favorite part of her long screed was this:  "The dishwasher was loaded and clean up of the property should have been very limited to making beds and doing laundry."  I can't even.

 

She gave me all 5 stars.  But will I host this guest again?  That's easy.  No.

@Ann72 ugh! no, I don't think that's a code that most hosts would pickup on. But I understand. I had a listing in a college town last year. We had 4 total weekends rented for the whole year all at about $1000/night. The first 3 groups were all dreadful, awful, wouldn't wish them on anyone each of them in their own special way, but it was $1000/night and they didn't burn the place down. Would I let them come back, nope! But they weren't going to be convinced of their bad behavior. And it gave me good conversation starters with each new subsequent guest: "hey you absolutely cannot throw a kegger for your freshman kiddo and their entire dorm floor!". Oh, and I was so shocked that the 4th guest was lovely that I sent her a $100 back after her stay! And I rented to long-term tenants for next year, some money is better than others.

@Kelly149 Oh Lord!  Yeah, that definitely comes under the heading of not for all the money in the world.  🙂

 

Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@Ann72 

if you don't want them send them to me, for 600˘$ per night I will host all 9 of them any time 😄 😄 😄

 

@Branka-and-Silvia0 LOL - you got it!

@Branka-and-Silvia0  LoL!

You are the best ;-D