Complaint after check out - claims bathroom was used by other guests

[Nicola333]

Dear all i wonder if you any of you have experienced a similar situation - i recently had two sets of guests , each with their own room and bathrooms (private but not ensuite). After they departed they left me a public review stating how dissapointed they were that their bathroom was being used by other guests and that it was left dirty. 

They were over all pleasant guests which gave me no hassles however how could i have done otherwise if i was not informed of what was happening? Each bathroom comes with a lock so i do not undestand why it was not locked?

Feedback will be greatly appreciated

[Linda108]

@Nicola333   It is always disconcerting when lack of communication from the guest leads to a less than stellar review.  Obviously you endeavor to provide good value and your reviews reflect that.  However, I saw several responses from you about a review that called attention to the review and did not highlight your professionalism as well as you could.  You give a long defensive response at a detail level that might not be necessary.  The audience for your response not the guest but is the potential guest.  So you want to demonstrate concern and responsiveness, not chastising the guest.  

You have three listing in a single home and you are not there to determine if the guests are impacting each other negatively.  You seem to count on the guests to communicate with you about other guest behavior.  Perhaps that works most of the time but not all of the time.  I wonder if you need to have a way to check personally or using a co-host so negative guest behavior does not impact the other guests.

You are willing to have guests that are new to Air BNB which is good, but might require a bit more "hand holding".

[Nicola333]

Hi Linda thank you for your detailed reply - believe me when i say i am passionate about guests having a positive experience since posting i have tried to contact the guest to get a better undestanding of the complaint and even wishing to offer compensation.

Upon accepting guests i go through a detailed tour of the apartment including guest access. Each room and bathroom have its own lock and key - obviously I am upset that after a guests stay they choose to complain publicly when i have been communicating with them during their stay and this issue was never communicated with me. I am a passionate host and really do try to go above and beyond what is expected of their stay which is why it generally upsets me that such a review has to impact my image.

It also portrays that i am false advertising which is not the case and can and will impact future guests booking. 99% of the time my guests are nice and fair but when the 1% chooses to be unfair i cannot see the issue with highlighting the guests errors [i have worked in retail and marketing and trust me i have dealt with my fair share of 'customer is always right' when they are not].

I was also very upset that after clearly asking guests to switch of their ac it was left on hot with the window wide open and then reading a complaint about it being cold? After all air bnb is based around communication and not having full time staff to check things out.

There is literally no way of knowing who is using the bathroom unless i sit there all day and watch who goes in and out - after all they were given a key to lock the door which no one except myself has a copy to (believe you me the last thing i want is to play peeping tom).

Regarding my response to a previous complaint i felt the need to explain publicly why the guest had given me a 3 star for complaint (1) never raised to me  (2) based on  'assumptions' as to what air bnb is rather than reading through a listing description - they had expected their room to be cleaned daily and have towels changed (3)to explain to future guests why it was so low. I had already privately explained to them re what the cleaning fee stood for and they had 'understood'.

I am a very patient and gentle host but sometimes i feel i have to defend myself to keyboard warriors so that future guests know that i am not trying to fool or mislead guests.

I see you are a psychotherapist by profession so im sure you can understand by my way of writing i am just geniunly upset by it

Thank you once again for your time Linda 🙂 its nice to be able to speak to fellow hosts