Handling issues with guests and fake reviews

[Laurentiu7]

I recently had a guest book my property for 12 days during Christmas and New Year's. Before her check-in, we installed a new water heater. From the moment she arrived, she complained that there wasn’t enough hot water.

To address the issue, I adjusted the thermostat settings, which resolved the problem temporarily. However, it wasn’t sufficient for a group of five people. I then contacted the manufacturer, and their service team came out to set the thermostat to its maximum of 150°F. After that, everything worked perfectly.

Despite this, the guest decided to check out two days earlier than planned, citing a change in plans for New Year’s. I explained that I couldn’t offer a refund for the unused days but was happy to provide a credit for a future stay.

Unfortunately, she left a false and harsh review, giving me only 3 stars. I reached out to Airbnb to request the removal of the review on the grounds that it was false and hateful, but they informed me that I could only respond publicly to her review.

What steps can I take in the future to handle situations like this more effectively?

[Helen3]

Why would you offer a full credit to a guest who chose to leave early because their plans had changed?  . @Laurentiu7 

[Frances3408]

@Laurentiu7 . You have a lovely place so expectations would be high. I'm not going to address the review question as in my experience its a he said she said and i think you need to focus on all the future guests.

However no hot water is a deal breaker in rental laws here (ie they can legally stop paying rent) so I would focus on double checking the hot water capacity for eight guests taking long showers every day (test it again). I assume your hot water heater is off peak storage? Here in OZ you can ask the utility provider for an off peak that heats up twice a day or go full instant if you can offset with solar panels and a heat pump system, for example.