Responding to disappointed guest / mediocre review

[Tabitha26]

We recently received the worst review we've had so far, and I would love to get any feedback ya'll have to offer. The guest's complaints were:

1. House smelled like a wet dog.

2. Guest had "no privacy" because our listing was "just a room in a townhome."

3. Our dog jumped all over him and we didn't do anything about it and "didn't keep him put away." 

I don't know what to make of the comment about the smell. We thoroughly and regularly clean the house, and all but three of the 36 guests who have reviewed us have given us five stars for cleanliness. The other two guests who have had an issue with cleanliness didn't mention a smell, even in the private feedback. But I realize that we probably wouldn't notice a dog smell ourselves, and I am going to ask a couple of guests and friends if there are any bad smells in the house.

Our listing clearly states that it's a private room in a townhome, so I think the guest just didn't read the listing thoroughly and was expecting something we don't offer. He also had no prior reviews, so I suspect he is totally new to AirBnb and may have been disappointed overall with the experience of renting out a room in someone's home. I am going to start including a mention of "your private room" in my welcome message to guests just to emphasize that we are not offering a totally private residence.

The comment about our dog is the most confusing to me. It's true that he is a puppy who still gets very excited when new people are in the house, and he does have a tendency to jump. But we always stop him when he is jumping on guests. When he was jumping on this guy in particular, my fiance went over to grab him as he always does, and the guest just kept petting him, said he loved dogs, and insisted the pup was not bothering him. I still get that the jumping is annoying and the guest was probably just trying to be polite, but it's not true that we were just letting the pup jump all over him without doing anything.

He also mentioned in the private feedback that our dog is "untrained," which is not true. He responds to "sit" and "no," no matter how excited he is, and our house manual (and a welcome note that we leave in the room) clearly state that he will respond to these commands and that guests should use them if he is ever bothering them when we aren't around.

As far as not keeping our dog put away, I mean...the guest was with us for three days. We're not going to keep our dog confined for the duration of a guest's stay. We have had several people book our listing (which clearly says we have a dog) only to find that the guest does not like being in a home with a dog. So I'm going to include a picture of our dog in the listing photos with all the info about the jumping and the commands he responds to, and I'm going to put all that stuff higher up in the guest manual and in the welcome message we send out to guests after they book.

I also responded to the guest's review with the following:

"We're sorry to hear that you weren't totally happy with your stay. I am not sure about the issue with the smell, as we have not had any other complaints about this. As far as privacy, our listing clearly states that this is a private bedroom and bathroom in a townhome, so I am not sure how we could have served you better in that respect.

We are also a bit confused about your comment regarding Mas. We realize that he is an energetic puppy, some people like to interact with him, and some people don't. We always try to follow our guest's lead in either allowing Mas to interact with them or keeping him away. When my fiance came over to pull Mas off of you, you insisted that it was fine and that you didn't mind. If you had at any point indicated that he was disturbing you, we would have taken care of that immediately. Again, we're sorry you were not happy with your stay, and we do appreciate you taking the time to offer your feedback."

If anyone has any suggestions about other ways we can improve in light of this review, I'd appreciate it. I'd also like to know if anyone finds any issues with the response I posted, if it seems defensive at all, if something could have been worded better, etc.

Thank you!

[Tabitha26]

I understand what you're saying about the importance of consistent training. And I can see how my wording made it seem like we only stop him when he jumps on guests. But since we got him he has not been allowed to jump on anybody, including us, and he stopped jumping on us a long time ago. If it's us or anyone he's become accustomed to, including a long-term guest, there's a lot of tail wagging and wiggling but no jumping.

The jumping only seems to be an issue when he's over exited, so I am going to start tiring him out more with walks and such before people check in, taking him out and about more to encounter new people more often, etc.

[Sarah977]

@Tabitha26  Thanks for explaining. I've just known so many dog owners who allow their dogs to do this, they actually seem to think it's cute ("Oh, he really likes you!") and only stop the behavior if they can see it's not welcome. I know one woman who has 3 little yapper dogs-she once told me "Of course, they've dug up all my gardens" as if that's just something one accepts if they want dogs, rather than something we train them not to do.

And yes, we have to wear our dogs out 🙂 Mine barks much less if she's had a good long walk. And she still jumps up when excited to see me or friends, she just doesn't jump on anyone. She "air jumps".

[Tabitha26]

I know what you mean! We actually had to stop some of our friends from encouraging him to jump, and some of them thought we were being mean to him when we insisted they ignore him until he calmed down.

[Mark116]

@Tabitha26  I see I'm too late and you already posted your response, I would have advised that end it with the sentence that you take the lead from guests on how they interact w/the puppy.  The image that you had to 'pull the dog off of' someone is probably not one you really want to raise with future guests.

I'd agree you should ask some friends w/out dogs to tell you if they smell any dog odor in the house.  You could get a steamer and start steam cleaning upholstered furniture and the carpets on a regular basis if there really is a smell. Or, maybe it was rainy during this person's stay?  I love linen spray to freshen up the space right before guests arive, but some people also won't like that.

But, really, your dog shouldn't jump on strangers, even when he's excited.  That is risky for you and your dog if it happens to the wrong person, whether it's airbnb or outside on a walk, so I'd suggest more training to stop this behavior and ensure your puppy's safety. 

[Tabitha26]

You're right; that wording really doesn't sound good. Makes it seem like the jumping was much worse than it was. And we are definitely going to be more proactive about how we introduce him to new people. He knows he isn't supposed to jump, but we need to condition him to stop getting so over excited around strangers.

Thanks for the cleaning tips! We do have a hand steamer and I might invest in a larger one for the carpets. 

[Sandra126]

I am a lover of dogs myself, and a handy hint for not spreading the smell when you vacuum assuming you have a canister vacuum and I hope you do as they are the best: When you empty the canister, throw a small handful of dried lavendar or similar in the bag/canister. Then when you vacuum, the smell of dog which comes with the sucked up hair etc will not spread, Instead, it will smell of lavendar. Wash vac filters often.

Ask for animal lovers only. Plenty of those around!

[Tabitha26]

This is a great tip, thank you!

[Susie111]

@Sandra126 

Sandra!

What a great idea!

As a dog owner myself l have wondered how l can reduce our 

fur kids odour 😃.

Thank you so much for sharing!

[Dora-Gabriela0]

I think the best is to let only the stars without comment. I mean that the site to not give the possiibiiloty of a cmment. And maybw more options like wwas the guest/ host friemdly, was it helpful etc...because when a bad comment is written it ccan harm very much.

[Dora-Gabriela0]

also, if he hst have a dg to have the pssibiity to ask he guest if they like dogs from a scae from 1 to 10 before accepting he request to book. Like this, he will know that this guest is not very fun of dogs and he will be much more careful.

[Niel3]

Welcome to the world of hosting when you have pets. It may be the first but won't be the last that you host a guest with a superhuman sense of smell. I have cats (stated in my listings) and from around 160 guests, three have mentioned or complained about the cat smell in the house. Two claimed it was overpowering (!), one of them actually purchased a can of air freshener which she would spray ahead of her even if she was in a room for just a few seconds telling me it was "nothing personal". I have asked both friends and other guests staying at the same time (who I was getting on with well) and the response has always been a puzzled "can't smell a thing".

I have plugin air fresheners in every room and also a couple in the hallways as AirBNB being how it is this made me a bit paranoid.

Some people either have super sensitive senses or smell or it's all in their mind because their brains tell them they should be smelling pet smells. Not a lot we can do about folk like this really, they come with the territory.

[Tabitha26]

Haha yeah. There is definitely more we can do cleaning wise, but I am resisting the urge to get neurotic about it. We haven't had a single other soul mention a dog smell. 

[Kara1]

I totally agree that they probably didn't read the whole listing.  We've been doing this for 12 years, 9 of them with airbnb.

We have a 1915 house and talk about the beautiful old woodwork, columns, open stairway, etc, as well ashave lots of photos.  Our 3 worst reviews were folks who apparently didn't read our description or look at the photos

  They all left comments about how old and out of style the house was....there's wide dark woodwork and high ceilings.   It needs a total remodel...said one 2 star reviewer.  Another who also left 2 stars said in the private comments that everything was just so old fashioned that we'd probably be best off bulldozing the place and building something decent snd more modern!

[Suzanne302]

@Kara1 

OMG I would have had a hard time not telling that guest to F off after a statement like that! LOL!

[Tabitha26]

Agreed that is so ridiculous! Your place sounds lovely, and I hope you didn't let it get to you too much. Some people just seem to be looking for something to complain about.