I'm finding that as I continue with this business of managing vacation rentals, guests are increasingly cranky about not receiving a 5 star review.
I just left a 3.5 star review for guests that left a bag of dirty diapers inside the door to the unit when they checked out. In a warm weather climate, it's important to take OUT rubbish. It's why we leave an instruction to do that on our check out note to the guests. This has of course, lead to an additional rule on our house rules about taking out rubbish before you check out.
Add to this, they left the AC on.
This guest is Very Cranky about this and feels it is unfair. I won't go into too much detail about the content of his crankiness, but as it goes on, he is burying himself deeper. Were I to write the review today, I would not remark on how they are a lovely family, and that I would host them again (this time with express instructions to the guest directly about remembering to take out the rubbish).
This kind of thing seems to be happening with more frequence, and I am starting to feel a little bullish in my review writing. I don't want to throw some sweet little family under the bus, but I also don't want to pass their bad habits on to the next host.
My guests are brutally honest in their reviews of the properties I host. I appreciate it, and try very hard to see the review for what it is, business. If a guest is critical, then I have something I need to pay attention to. Sometimes it means an apology as well as getting the problem fixed.
My guests don't view a review of their behaviour that way, and I'm trying to wrap my head around the need to be professional, while knowing that this is my business, but their vacation.
