Hi All,
This year I decided to keep my cottage open to guests over Christmas. I had a lovely couple with their dog, who were friendly and looked after the place well. With it being Christmas the price did go up, as I was working through the Christmas period there should be some benefits ? but also the extra money I earned was spent on a Christmas tree, champagne, luxury welcome pack and a Christmas present for the humans and the dog, as I wanted them to have a thoroughly enjoyable Christmas.
Now the difficult part, the guests review. I know we are all probably a bit over sensitive to these, but I know we are all proud of homes and what we offer and the rating reflects our standards.
The review was 5* every category except value - 4* with the reason being a little freezer space required, larger chopping board required and possibly a cheese grater. All fine and perfectly acceptable, except - there is no freezer in the listing, just a refrigerator, if it is a problem for guests, they have used ours.
More importantly though is that when the guests arrived, me being ultra cautious as it was Christmas, mentioned that if there were any extra utensils they needed then just to ask and I would bring them to them. I also sent this message via airbnb as I know cooking Christmas dinner in a strange kitchen could be problematic.
Overall rating was 4 stars, putting my star rating down below 4.9 and my value rating from 5 to 4.9.
Overall I think this is unfair and the lady I spoke to at airbnb agrees, she could see because of my message that even though the guest hadn't asked for anything, I had still offered it, she is willing to escalate this but I am not sure what to do as they obviously want to contact the guests.
Would love to hear what anyone else would do in this situation. Fight to get your hard earned rating back to where it was, or swallow it just knowing that however hard you try, you can't please everyone ?
Thanks
