We had a guest who came to town for his annual family reunion, his request was a month prior to the gathering. When his request came through, we noticed he maxed out our capacity with 7 adults, we did let him know prior to accepting that we only have beds for 6 adults and listed the beds and the 7th was for children, (this is something we have listed on our house rules). He responded by asking if he could bring blowup mattresses to accommodate his needs and we accepted.
A little over a week prior to checking in he asked if they could have a 2-hour early check-in, we let him know we would try but we couldn’t guarantee the request until the day of the check-in. He informed us that due to family events they need an early check-in. We let them know we have guests leaving in the morning and we need to clean prior to their arrival, and the best we could contact them at noon to let them know if they can check in early. (They seemed okay with this.) A few days later, he requested to know if we had a private room or any accommodations for his daughter to use for breastfeeding; we provided a few solutions to provide privacy however, she decided to stay elsewhere. The day prior to checking in, we send out a message providing the check-in process and we reintegrated that we understand they are wanting to check in at 1pm and we will let them know by noon if that is possible. His response was that they really wanted to check in between 1-130. On the day of check-in, we notified him (via Airbnb and text) to let them know they can check-in early as they request. We didn't hear from them until 1pm, when they notified us that they left their home late and won't need to check-in early, but they would arrive during our normal check-in timeframe. However, prior to coming, they called and yelled at me for charging an early check-in fee, letting me know we have enough of their money. After a brief discussion, I told them I would remove the early check-in fee and they came to the cabin. Upon arriving at the cabin, he was still very hostile and looks around the exterior of the cabin and yells at my wife about not being able to check-in early, she explained the correspondence clearly stated we couldn't guarantee, and we let them know we would try which we did. He said that he thought we would not accommodate them, that is when my wife explained that we told him we would try if we were not going to try, we would have told them "No, they cannot check-in early" and if he read any of our previous reviews, we do try to accommodate our guests needs, he acknowledged that our reviews are good. But they had made the decision that they were not going to check-in early and just leave home later. But why would we charge for early check-in, and we let them know we had 2 additional people helping to get it ready for them. His wife then walked to side of the cabin and proclaimed that this is what costs so much per night, she had to remind them that they have 7 adults staying and the additional people cost more. At this time, since they were still hostile and yelling, my wife also let them know that they don't need to stay as we only want guests who are happy with our place and atmosphere, that we don't need guests who are hostile and stressed. He then said he couldn't get a refund and just to get rid of them, we offered to refund our portion; however, his wife wanted to stay. At that point we finally went inside the cabin, and their demeanor totally changed, and they were apologetic for the early behavior. We gave them a tour (as we do all of our guests) and they seemed to be impressed and they realize that we provide a nice place to stay (mind you we have 43 pictures on Airbnb).
Despite the rough start, after Glenn saw the inside of the cabin and the atmosphere we created he was very apologetic. The next day he brought over a piece of smoked salmon to share and apologized again for the rough start. He let us know that everything was great and that everyone had a nice time. They were very respectful and quiet, and they did follow our house rules and kept the place clean.
So here is my question, how should I review them? We haven't actually refused a guest before, but we were willing due to how hostile they were and complaining about spending money. Also, we have not been yelled at by our guest's period let alone prior to checking in. We did allow them to stay, and again, since the initial start they were great guests. So how much weight should we put on this?
As I am typing this, I see that the guest has since put in his review of our place and because of the initial issues I am concerned about what they wrote and marked.
