guest review

[Thea-and--Keith0]

I was hoping for some objectivity from other hosts on the below situation.

We recently hosted a woman, her two adult children and grandchild.  This woman and her children are people I grew up with, I have known the adult children since they were very young however we do not have an ongoing friendship.  They moved out of town some years ago and booked our airbnb for a holiday trip.  I recognized their name and reminded them we all grew up together.

When they arrived, we were out of town for the holidays.  We had flown to another time zone and they sent a text and email at approx 8:30 am their time, 3:30 am my time.  I did not get the messages until approximately 5am.  They were upset the internet was not working and that they could not watch tv or have the young child watch the ipad.  I called at approximately 5am and explained I was out of town but would address the problem.  I explained that it was not unsual in our small town to have trouble with the main internet provider and we had had trouble recently as well.  My husband immediately called our internet provider.  The guests were also upet that the heat had not been turned up upon their arrival stating they had to sleep with their coats on.  This is a free standing unit they were staying in that is in our building but not our home. Within a short period of time, Airbnb called stating that the guests were "frantic" there was no internet and stating I told them the internet was down in the whole town.  The adult daughter was claiming she was there for work and needed the internet but refused to walk across the street to the coffee shop unil we resolved the problem.  The problem was not something we could have predicted; it was the result of a prior guest accodentally unplugging the modum in another unit.  It is possible the adult daughter has ill feelings toward me personally although I do know for sure.  I have not seen them for at least 30 years.  We were able to resolve the problem within 3 hours of their contacting us.  We offered them a full refund if they wanted to leave that day as they indicated they were very unhappy.  They did not respond until the next day and they decided to stay.  We refunded them $100 for the trouble.

What I would like to know is what people think my review should say?  They appeared to be fine guests howevermMy concern is that they have expectations that are not compatitable with Airbnb and I am trying to figure out how to word that in their review.  

[Emiel1]

@Thea-and--Keith0,

As amenities like Internet and Heating should work as expected (the guests pay for it), I would not mention it at all in the review. If they are mentioning it in their reviews, you can write a comment in a professional (business-like) way.

Best regards,

Emiel

[Thea-and--Keith0]

Thank you for your thoughts.  I appreciate it.  I definitely learned to make sure the heat is turned up for guests and not to disclose too much to people just because I know them!

[Sarah977]

@Thea-and--Keith0  It is a bit of a tricky situation since you actually knew them. But that unfortunately didn't prompt them to cut you any slack. 

I think if you are going to be out-of-town, it would be best to enlist the help of a friend, family member, or neighbor to check the place over before guests arrive to make sure everything is working properly, and do things like turn up the heat before a guest arrives. I'd be a bit put-out if I arrived to a place and it was freezing cold.

That said, I think they way overreacted to the internet situation (3 hours without internet in the listing, kid can't play on his ipod, what an enormous hardship- I've always thought people like this should have to volunteer to work in a refugee camp for awhile). 

From what you said, it seems they were otherwise good guests, I assume they left the place clean, didn't damage anything, etc. For a review, I wouldn't mention the internet issue. If they leave a public review which talks about that, I would respond to that review. "We're very sorry that the guests experienced an internet issue. Unfortunately, unbeknowst to us, a previous guest had unplugged the modem. We were out-of-town at the time, but immediately contacted our provider and managed to get it up and working in 3 hours." 

That way, your response will make it evident that it was addressed as quickly as possible and isn't an ongoing problem, and makes it look petty of them to complain.

I know what you're saying, that you want to warn other hosts that they're not at all adaptable, but I'm not sure that it's worth it if they're otherwise good guests.

[Thea-and--Keith0]

Thank you for your input.  It is rare we got out of town and never out of time zone but this was that one time!  I felt they overreacted and were manipulative but I also have a five year old and I understand there are times you need help.  Having said that, I agree that they should have to volunteer with others less fortunate.  I appreciate your thoughts, I am going to refrain from mentioning it unless she does.

[Sarah977]

@Thea-and--Keith0 Yes, there's definitely times when parents need a bit of a break, especially after travelling a distance and wanting to get settled in with all their gear. I have 3 daughters, all grown now, and I figured part of my job as a parent was to teach them to be adaptable. So what these folks taught their kid was that not being able to use his ipod for 3 hours was completely unacceptable and needed to be loudly complained about 😞

It really was rude of them, when you told them you were dealing with it, to go ahead and complain to airbnb without giving it a chance to be rectified.