Please help: what I should do with my current guests in my sound front house?

[Z-2]

My sound front house is an older house and the house do look older even though we touch paint every year. It is simple inside but clean. The selling point of this house is the location. Really beautiful sound and sunset view, also we have the pier for fishing, crabbing, boating and kayaking. Every year, we spray and do insect control inside and outside. The results is improving. We have no any complaints of inside insects so far but for outside, we really can’t control it, especially midge fliers, they go with wind and will die in few hours by themselves but left their deadly body outside our house. The cleaner will sweep those insects but for some left in the window seal and higher wall, we can’t clean it every turnover. Another problem with the house is the seagull, before no body complain it. But this year, one guest did complain it in their reviews because they will leave their waste on the fishing pier. We deep watch once a while, but still. Fishing people actually do not care at all.

That’s the information of our sound front house and many guests love it so much and we have some repeat guests. But for some people, it is really bad and not like the vacation house they expected. My current guests is an older couple and had great reviews before. When they did the reservation, they submitted an request after they have asked a few questions (which I answered nicely), I did feel strange since I have instant book on without any limitations. Then I told him the house is old, no dishwasher and some house rules and ask he still want the house, he is ok, then I accept it.

He checked in Saturday late afternoon and then call us, saying there are insects on the window, no window screens for the sunroom (we purposely remove it for better sound view watch). house is old,…, we ask what we can do to help, he told us it’s unfixable problem,. The house is not what they are expecting, what the options he can get. We were upset about that, but felt they are old, if we just let them go (we can full refund), they might not find the place to stay. so to keep them happy, we offer give them 20% discount. He seem good with this. Then I modified the reservation (to give the discount) and sent it to him. But after a while I didn’t see him accept, I open my ring to see if he is still there and just caught him talk to someone (my guess is Airbnb cs from the question she asked and his answer) about his unhappiness of our house., Then they left.( My guess is they go see the houses Airbnb recommended to him). After a while, they come back and bring in their suitcases, then accept my modification (refund). After this happened, I don’t want to talk with them anymore, they don’t talk either. But I do afraid they will give me bad review. What I should do next?

[Sarah977]

@Z-2  First of all, using Instant Book with no requirements is extremely foolish and ups your chances of getting bad guests who try to get refunds. I would suggest that given the nature of your place, you probably shouldn't use IB at all.

Secondly, of course it's utterly ridiculous for a guest to complain about bird poop on the pier or outside insects. People who would complain about that shouldn't book a place on the beach. If they think homeowners go around cleaning up seagull poop from piers, they are insane.

But saying that you can't get rid of dead bugs on the window sills or walls between bookings is also ridiculous- of course your cleaner should be doing this. Dead bugs can be sucked up with a vacuum cleaner on both the walls and sills in a matter of minutes. If you aren't giving your cleaner enough time to do a thorough job of cleaning, then you need to rethink your check-out, check-in times or leave one day unbooked between rentals. How much time are you giving her to clean a 3 bedroom house that sleeps 8? Beachfront houses can take a long time to clean well, as they are usually full of sand. Maybe you aren't paying her enough?

And when you have an older place, especially on the ocean, which requires constant maintenance, it's super important that it at least be thoroughly cleaned. People tend to perceive old and worn with dirty, so do the best you possibly can with cleaning.

I'm not sure what kind of advice you are asking for, when you say"what should I do?"

There  doesn't seem to be anything further you need to do. You can't ward off a bad review by trying to smooth things out if you and the guests aren't speaking to each other.

And a couple that books a 3 bedroom house that sleeps 8 is a red flag. They have paid a lot of money for only two people and are likely to be super fusssy and complainers.

I see you have great reviews, but that low cleaning rating is really bringing you down, and will lead guests to give you a liwer overall rating as well. You need to step up your cleaning somehow.

[Z-2]

@Sarah977 Thanks for reply! For the dead midge flies inside window seals, it’s hard to clean. I have windows all over the sunroom. I personally clean it every time I go there. It takes at least one hour to clean, vacuum is not working, it stick there. I will add at least $50 for the cleaner to agree to do that. Also even I paid, when they are too busy, still a problem. So it really a headache for me. But anyway, windows seal is outside. Inside is always clean. For cleaning fee, we paid more than guests paid us. Just don’t want to put too much cleaning fee there.

[Sarah977]

@Z-2  They're complaining about dead bugs on the outside of the house? That's absurd.

Now I know that it's on the outside, could you blast it quickly with a powerwasher between bookings? Or at least once every couple of weeks?

[Z-2]

@Sarah977 The sunroom is on second floor, so power wash it every turnover is impossible. But it do looks ugly because it’s sunroom and every body will look at those windows.

[Z-2]

Also the lower 3 stars rate I got is the one complain about seagulls. He admitted the inside is clean. After we change the cleaner from management company, seem inside cleaning is OK. But outside mostly is because of bugs (midge flies).

[Sarah977]

@Z-2  Have you thought about spraying the window seals with something that would keep the bugs away so they don't fly in there and die? Things like citronella, tea tree oil, cinnamon, are insect repellants.

I'm assuming the midges fly there because they are attracted to the light coming from inside at night. If you put shades or curtains on those windows and asked guests to please close them when they turn the lights on at night, it would probably help a lot.

[Z-2]

@Sarah977 Then the view through the window will be deducted. We had windows screens before, because of the view, we took them off. Anyway, thanks for suggestions!

[Sarah977]

@Z-2  Well, I was assuming that when it's time to turn on the inside lights, that it would be dark out and they couldn't see the view anyway 🙂