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Post by patricia on Jun 19, 2016 5:31:55 GMT
Feeling a bit frustrated at the moment, so I thought I better ask for your advise before I post a grumpy reply that I will regret later on :-) We had a couple staying with us for 4 nights. Communication was easy, they were nice people and we got along really well. They arrived with two large shopping bags of food and clearly expected to use our kitchen for cooking. In our listing the kitchen is NOT part of the amenities and none of the pictures shows our kitchen and fridge. We provide the guest with a cooler for drinks and snacks and are happy to exchange the freezer packs on a daily basis. On the other hand, we do live in the tropics so if people bring perishable food we offer them space in our fridge. On request we also allow light cooking as we did in their case. They used the kitchen twice to cook dinner and on both occasions they carefully cleaned up after themselves. Therefore we saw no reason to mention this in our review. Now they left us the following review: P. and G. are kind people and we had interesting chats with them.Everything was okey except that it is not expected that you can cook. There isn't fridge to guest use. There are some photos of places which are not available for guest. The neighborhood was quiet.We’d appreciate any advise on how to best respond to their review. Upon request the guest clarified “The photos of places which are not available for guests” are the pictures of the living and dining area to which guests only have access when we are home (the guest room and our part of the house have a separate entrances). This is all described in our listing but now we're wondering whether we should maybe remove the living and dining room photos and delete the paragraph about sharing our living and dining room. If you would like to have a look at our listing this is the link: www.airbnb.com/rooms/8407322. What are your thoughts? Any recommendations much appreciated!
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Post by andrew on Jun 19, 2016 12:25:08 GMT
Hi Patricia!
I'm very honored that you seem to have taken some inspiration from my listing; yours looks like an amazing place to visit!
I can't find anything in your listing that directly indicates that guests are permitted to cook, so it seems like the guest was being a bit too presumptuous. However, one possible cause of confusion is that you mention the local supermarket for groceries - which implies that self-catering is an option. For us, it seems like quite a leap from being able to store groceries and use the dining room to being permitted to commandeer your kitchen to prepare full meals. But less experienced guests have all kinds of misconceptions - some of them might assume that kitchen access is default unless stated otherwise. For the sake of setting accurate expectations, I'd suggest firmer and clearer descriptions of not only which rooms guests are permitted to use but also which ones they aren't.
It seems that in the interest of relaxed, friendly hospitality you can be flexible on your boundaries. And while there's nothing wrong with a little wiggle room, it can sometimes backfire by leaving guests feeling confused about what's expected of them. The one sentence that I think most needs some adjustment is: "We are happy to share our living area when we are at home." It's hard to know what to make of that, as guests won't arrive knowing how frequently you're at home. And if use of the living areas is important to them, they're stuck arranging their plans around your schedule. Some guests' interpretation will be that you don't trust them to be left unattended in the dining room, which could undermine your efforts to make them feel welcome and respected. Some might even wonder, if they're in the middle of dinner when you need to leave the house, will they have to get up and leave the room too?
What I recommend is that you work out a less ambiguous policy for use of the kitchen, dining, and living room, so that the listing can clearly show which facilities guests are invited to use and at what times they are available. And then, in your House Rules, reiterate that with the opposite - say which features of the house are private, and at what time of day the common areas are "closed." It might help to find ways to "guest-proof" your common areas so that you are more comfortable offering unrestricted access.
As for how to reply to the review - I think that the first step would be to decide what you intend to change about your offering and listing. And then, in your response, thank the guest for his feedback and point out to future readers which features of the listing and/or offering you have adjusted. There's always something to learn from our feedback, and I'm impressed to see hosts demonstrating a willingness to use it productively and make improvements. If you decide not to change anything, your reply need only clarify any statements that were misleading in the review and leave it at that.
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Post by High Priestess on Jun 19, 2016 13:39:12 GMT
Hello Patricia -- nice to see you here!
I looked over your listing --- I was expecting to find a statement somewhere on the listing that guests can't use the kitchen, but didn't see any. I would recommend adding that. It's true that you have no photos of the kitchen, but if it were me in this situation, I would be pro-active and really make the statement clearly rather than just trying to imply it by what is not depicted. As you saw in this case, that wasn't clear enough for this guest. Also, a guest reading that you are willing to share your living areas when you are home, may assume that the kitchen is included in that offer, unless you state clearly that that is not the case.
Regarding the shared living and dining room -- rather than remove the photos of these or the statement, I would just clarify in the photos that these areas are available to the guest only when you are home. It may also be helpful to say, as you did here, that these areas require the guest going in another entrance, which is why they are only available when you are home. I see no down side to being very clear in your listing description. STating that the living and dining room are actually in YOUR area which is not one part with the guest residence, also helps clarify why you would have this rule and therefore that it isn't just a trust issue. I agree with Andrew that it may be helpful to give an indication of when you tend to be home.
Finally -- is it possible you could get a small refrigerator for guest use (eg the half-size ones, about 24"=30" tall or so) , which they could put in their room? I think that would be helpful, and would strike guests as being more "standard" than having just a cooler with an ice pack in it. However, if you dont' have many guests, or don't have many bringing food, maybe you don't want another fridge plugged in all the time.
Maybe also provide the guest with an electric teakettle to make hot water, and/or a microwave? Particularly an electric teapot, for those who like coffee or tea, it could be so nice to have something right there when they get up in the morning, and such a device is quite inexpensive.
As far as the review --- I would make some changes in your listing description, and then reply to the review stating that you have changed your listing description to try to be clearer about what you offer.
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Post by helgaparis on Jun 19, 2016 16:14:21 GMT
As said above, I would clarify the access situation, but present it as an advantage. In the sense "your room is in a seperate part of the house and you have your own entrance. " In the interaction part, I would explain, that they have privacy in their part of the house. If they are inclined to talk, you are happy to invite them into your living room, in your part of the house. The garden is used by both and always accesible.
Cooking is not possible, as the kitchen is not accessible from their part of the house.
As Deborah, my first idea was "why not put a small fridge and kettle in the room?" If you are not often booked, you can switch it off between guests. A microwave means cooking, means plates, cutlery, crumbs and ants. Not sure if you want that, but you would have the space for it. It means also washing dishes.
The review itself is not bad. I'd write somethings like Thank you, you are right, we clarified that the kitchen cannot be reached... Great idea, we bought a Fridge.
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Post by trafalgar on Jun 19, 2016 22:59:09 GMT
Hi Patricia, I think you must have edited your listing as it seems very clear that you don't offer kitchen facilities. And no mention of use of living or dining room, and I think that's best - you can then, if you choose to, invite guests inside your home in a purely sociable way, rather than having them expect to use these areas. There's ample living space in the garden when it's a hot climate... I agree with the others that providing a small fridge would be a good idea, unless there is some compelling reason why not.
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Post by patricia on Jun 19, 2016 23:09:54 GMT
Thank you Andrew, Deborah and Helga for your input and help! andrew, I thought you might recognize some paragraphs in our listing description ;-) When trying to figure out how to make our listing less cluttered and easier to read, I checked your listing and - it was perfect :-) I hope you don’t mind me hijacking parts of it! andrew, Deborah and Helga, as always, plenty of great suggestions and ideas. It seems that sometimes things only become obvious when someone points them out to you, like the grocery shopping mentioned by Andrew. I’ve decided to delete the pictures from our living area, it’s less ambiguous for our guests and we can still invite them in as we wish. I’ve changed the guest access area accordingly and also added a line specifically for the cooking issue. My thoughts regarding more appliances in the guest room. One of our house rules is “no food in your room” (because of ants are other creepy-crawlies) so adding a microwave oven is not an option. When preparing the guest room my husband and I discussed a mini fridge at lengths and in the end decided against it. Again, mostly because we don’t want to encourage guests to keep food in their room. With our last guest, their groceries would not have fitted into a small fridge anyway :-) In the description, I’ve added (for drinks) to the cooler box, to make it clearer. Also, I personally hate to have the “humming” noise of a fridge in my bedroom. It’s the first thing I switch off when I’m in a hotel room. I like your idea of adding a teakettle, easy and cheap and only cups and teaspoons to add :-) Thanks Deborah for your review response - it’s perfect! Again, thanks a lot to all you!
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Post by patricia on Jun 20, 2016 9:47:55 GMT
Thank you, trafalgar, for your thoughts. It looks like we posted at the same time. Yes, you are correct, I've already updated the listing. Knowing that a lot of guests don't read the full description it really is best to keep it as simple and clear as possible.
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Post by trafalgar on Jun 20, 2016 20:40:37 GMT
How about providing a mini-fridge but not advertising it in the listing?
I've found that it's advantageous to exceed guest expectations, and one very easy way is not to flag up a special feature (the majority of guests don't take on board every amenity you provide anyway). So, that way, your guests are just expecting a cooler for their drinks, and no expectations of storing food, yet, when they arrive, they're extra happy to find there's a proper fridge.
I agree the humming noise of a fridge isn't great, but many people are happy with aircon noise pollution in their room! (not that I provide it, as it's hardly necessary in the British climate).
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Post by helgaparis on Jun 20, 2016 23:16:16 GMT
Good public answer, Patricia! The listing is very clear now. I understand the noise problem - i hunt for everything humming or chirping too. My guests sometimes laugh, when I tell them to switch off the computer over night, as it snores. It does. At lesst it wakes up from time to tjme and may switch on the fans. But most of the guests using the computer never switch it off.
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Post by patricia on Jun 21, 2016 0:11:30 GMT
Good point, trafalgar. Will think it over and check out prices. That's the drawback of living on a remote island, everything is so much more expensive. Yeah, agree with the noise of aircon but at least you get the benefit of cool air. In some places you wouldn't be able to sleep without it. Thanks, Helga, for your feedback and for rechecking my listing. Let's wait and see what else will need tweaking:-) BTW is this new that guests get asked to give specific feedback if they don't give 5stars? It's the first time I see this: Location feedback: how careless of us not to be near the best beaches of Tahiti. I'll immediately send a request to the local council to do something about it ;-) So funny also his arrival feedback. I always send a very detailed description on how to find our house and so far this couple has been the first one who didn't find us, not sure a map would've made a difference but of course I will add it, plus the GPS coordinates.
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Post by High Priestess on Jun 21, 2016 1:06:41 GMT
I think Airbnb ought to instruct guests that they should only give less than 5 stars ratings when the host actually has the ability to improve the issue. So for location, that is never. People get the location that they actually book -- as Andrew has said before, it really doesn't make sense to rate location.
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Post by andrew on Jun 21, 2016 10:23:23 GMT
Actually that is an old feature (at least 4 years), but it doesn't seem to get used very much.
Great illustration of how ridiculous the Location score is. This particular guest seems better suited to a Club Med.
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Post by helgaparis on Jun 21, 2016 21:26:10 GMT
Patricia, every now and thrn, a strange guest fills in several points of the feedback. You got a strange one, who filled in every point. A Mr Monk. He sees tiny points, not the global picture. Therefore the request to give him the coordinates. (Not that he could not find them himself) And the exact distances for shopping and the remark of photos of areas not included in two categories.
Tell yourself, Mr Monk on TV is funny, in real life it's just a poor guy with a very special need to orient himself in space and time.
If you get those thpes and recognize it, give them structure, that is reassuring to them and they don't give you the full play on review time, if they are less stressed.
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