Post by High Priestess on Oct 1, 2015 3:55:54 GMT
Renée shared:
Need help crafting a public response to an unexpected quite bad review
Hey all, could use some help with this. I am a host renting out four properties, my own house, my cousins house and my cousins family cottage and my family cottage. I have indicated in my profile that the properties are my own and families, not for each one specific as that shouldn't matter. I am much more hands on with my own house but provide all reservations with detailed instructions, a google map to copy, written driving directions etc, there are lockboxes on each property which have a code, in which guests can find the key as I work fulltime and I can't meet guests on arrival and checkout... this is made very clear before they come, though somehow people still don't read the messages! All the codes are different and they are changed every few months. the following review is for my cousins home. This just posted at the end of the 2 week period, they waited until the end to review.
"The booking of the cottage was uncomplicated. We have received detailed information from Rene and the keys were to collect in a safe box. We have not met Renee personally. Very much to our surprise the cottage was for sale and twice people where inside the cottage durring our rental without prior notice. On the first night a girl showed up and showed people arround. She introduced herself as owner, but she was not Renee the official AirB&B host. We have no idea to whome this cottage really belongs? 2 days later a real estate agent was in the house with potential buyers while we were out. We found this out because the doors were open, lights switched on and his business card was left on the kitchen table. We can not recommend this place, since our privacy was not respected and you can not leave any valuables in the house while you are gone. Sorry but without any prior information (email, sms, phone call) this is an absolutely no go!"
My cousin had made an error, she thought the house was empty and went there with a potential roommate on the evening of checkin for these guests (she lives there 9 months of the year) as soon as she stepped in she realised her mistake, she stepped out and then met the guests as they came back down the driveway, She introduced herself as the owner to them and apologised then asked permission to enter, in hindsight she shouldn't have done that buts he is having a hard time finding a roommate, it happened. The guests were very friendly, seemed okay and indicated it was fine. My cousin told me about it as well. Two weeks later I get this review. The cottage is for sale now but we don't allow showing during guest stays, nor does the real estate agency have a key or the code to the box. Only my cousin has a set of keys. I have found out yesterday that a realtor was in the area and accidentally showed the wrong property, he walked in because the door was left unlocked by the guests who were out for the day... The cottage is no longer for sale.
Obviously this review is bad! What do I say? On one hand mistakes were made but there isn't any way to have stopped this, they didnt let me know about this issue or their unhappiness while they were here.
Queenie & Ted:
I think that all you can do is apologize profusely and say that you have taken steps to make sure that never happens again. Then do that. You, the owner, the realtor all need to be in sync. Miscommunications that effect guests' privacy are a big no-no.
Renée:
The insync part is definitely an issue, she had the reservations, just didn't read them properly and went there and tada, I get to deal with it. This is the last month I will be hosting on this property or their cottage, too many little errors that just don't happen with my own house and my parents cottage. And I don't have the time to micromanage them, they should rent it out themselves. I can't force my cousin to read or listen. It's frustrating, and frankly not really worth my time anymore. I'm just dealing with the next three weeks of bookings before I'm done, but need to make sure everyone has a good experience and is able to leave a positive review. Sigh. /rantover
Jessa:
This sounds like a pretty complex structure.. and if your cousin makes a mistake it is your reputation on the line... If you will still rent out families' property, maybe under a joint account?
Renée:
Oh it is, much more so than I anticipated when I started hosting the two other properties in June. My own and my own families cottage have been fine, no problems. But essentially managing the other two isn't working, I need to either a) do it all as a management company as I do my own but get paid for it by them to manage EVERYTHING so this doesnt happen and they dont need to be involved at all.. which they wont... or b) quit. I delisted this cottage last week, hosting the last guests in it October 12th... after that my family can do it themselves.(well, unless they want to make it a fulltime job for me.. then I may consider it) I will only host mine going forward, huge relief, just trying to get through the next couple of weeks now.
nathalie:
If we keep on facts, people indeed entered in the property without prior asking to the guests. So i agree with Queenie, just make a neutral reply saying that you took all the actions to guarantee the privacy of hosts and thank them for helping you to improve.
Joseph:
Its a series of very bad mistakes, and your guest was spot on with the review !!
Nobody should of entered into the property , and even if they did read the listing , they didn't expect anyone to enter into the property (which is illegal in most states without notice) You did admit to not having time to micromanage the property
and since you are the account holder the responsibility does lay with you , even for the mistakes of your cousin . Your cousins roommate issue is not your guests issue .
I think you would be best off to apologize for a series of mistakes made , and that you really should consider refunding some if not all of the guests costs of the stay .
Can you imagine if the guests were inside and somebody walked in on them ?
I also do not believe the part of the Realtor not having keys and blaming the guests
You have to remember , you were not present and cannot prove they left the door open . Sorry this happened to you and if I sound harsh , but sometimes
you have to really admit that this was a series of bad events and they guests didn't have a good stay due to this .
Renée:
No, not harsh at all. Thank you
I am just frustrated find out two weeks later, I had no idea that it happened, and also that they told my cousin they were fine with it, then afterwards state they are not. Since there are two separate issues here. It wasn't the realtor that had it listed and they don't have a key, weren't given one, I still don't know who it was, which is also frustrating. I don't know what to think about it, but I am happy I already unlisted this last week as this would have never happened with my own house.
Joseph:
It happens every once in a while , I think you are better off without your cousins place . Perhaps you were not told everything ?? At least your cousin should of let you know about it as soon as it happened to to double check . The Guests I'm sure didn't want to seem negative to your cousin about the issue .
Fiona:
I wouldn't worry about the public response as the review is already buried by many other reviews. If you do choose to say something I agree with the advice above to just be apologetic, something along the lines of "I'm so sorry for the intrusions, my cousin and I had our lines crossed." You are complaining you didn't know about it from them until the review but you did know about it from your cousin and should have proactively contacted them then. That can be the takeaway for the future.
Suzanne:
While I agree with what everyone above wrote, I also think a small part of the blame lies with the guests. What we they doing leaving the house unlocked while they were out? Much worse could have happened - for them, yourself, and your cousin.
Need help crafting a public response to an unexpected quite bad review
Hey all, could use some help with this. I am a host renting out four properties, my own house, my cousins house and my cousins family cottage and my family cottage. I have indicated in my profile that the properties are my own and families, not for each one specific as that shouldn't matter. I am much more hands on with my own house but provide all reservations with detailed instructions, a google map to copy, written driving directions etc, there are lockboxes on each property which have a code, in which guests can find the key as I work fulltime and I can't meet guests on arrival and checkout... this is made very clear before they come, though somehow people still don't read the messages! All the codes are different and they are changed every few months. the following review is for my cousins home. This just posted at the end of the 2 week period, they waited until the end to review.
"The booking of the cottage was uncomplicated. We have received detailed information from Rene and the keys were to collect in a safe box. We have not met Renee personally. Very much to our surprise the cottage was for sale and twice people where inside the cottage durring our rental without prior notice. On the first night a girl showed up and showed people arround. She introduced herself as owner, but she was not Renee the official AirB&B host. We have no idea to whome this cottage really belongs? 2 days later a real estate agent was in the house with potential buyers while we were out. We found this out because the doors were open, lights switched on and his business card was left on the kitchen table. We can not recommend this place, since our privacy was not respected and you can not leave any valuables in the house while you are gone. Sorry but without any prior information (email, sms, phone call) this is an absolutely no go!"
My cousin had made an error, she thought the house was empty and went there with a potential roommate on the evening of checkin for these guests (she lives there 9 months of the year) as soon as she stepped in she realised her mistake, she stepped out and then met the guests as they came back down the driveway, She introduced herself as the owner to them and apologised then asked permission to enter, in hindsight she shouldn't have done that buts he is having a hard time finding a roommate, it happened. The guests were very friendly, seemed okay and indicated it was fine. My cousin told me about it as well. Two weeks later I get this review. The cottage is for sale now but we don't allow showing during guest stays, nor does the real estate agency have a key or the code to the box. Only my cousin has a set of keys. I have found out yesterday that a realtor was in the area and accidentally showed the wrong property, he walked in because the door was left unlocked by the guests who were out for the day... The cottage is no longer for sale.
Obviously this review is bad! What do I say? On one hand mistakes were made but there isn't any way to have stopped this, they didnt let me know about this issue or their unhappiness while they were here.
Queenie & Ted:
I think that all you can do is apologize profusely and say that you have taken steps to make sure that never happens again. Then do that. You, the owner, the realtor all need to be in sync. Miscommunications that effect guests' privacy are a big no-no.
Renée:
The insync part is definitely an issue, she had the reservations, just didn't read them properly and went there and tada, I get to deal with it. This is the last month I will be hosting on this property or their cottage, too many little errors that just don't happen with my own house and my parents cottage. And I don't have the time to micromanage them, they should rent it out themselves. I can't force my cousin to read or listen. It's frustrating, and frankly not really worth my time anymore. I'm just dealing with the next three weeks of bookings before I'm done, but need to make sure everyone has a good experience and is able to leave a positive review. Sigh. /rantover
Jessa:
This sounds like a pretty complex structure.. and if your cousin makes a mistake it is your reputation on the line... If you will still rent out families' property, maybe under a joint account?
Renée:
Oh it is, much more so than I anticipated when I started hosting the two other properties in June. My own and my own families cottage have been fine, no problems. But essentially managing the other two isn't working, I need to either a) do it all as a management company as I do my own but get paid for it by them to manage EVERYTHING so this doesnt happen and they dont need to be involved at all.. which they wont... or b) quit. I delisted this cottage last week, hosting the last guests in it October 12th... after that my family can do it themselves.(well, unless they want to make it a fulltime job for me.. then I may consider it) I will only host mine going forward, huge relief, just trying to get through the next couple of weeks now.
nathalie:
If we keep on facts, people indeed entered in the property without prior asking to the guests. So i agree with Queenie, just make a neutral reply saying that you took all the actions to guarantee the privacy of hosts and thank them for helping you to improve.
Joseph:
Its a series of very bad mistakes, and your guest was spot on with the review !!
Nobody should of entered into the property , and even if they did read the listing , they didn't expect anyone to enter into the property (which is illegal in most states without notice) You did admit to not having time to micromanage the property
and since you are the account holder the responsibility does lay with you , even for the mistakes of your cousin . Your cousins roommate issue is not your guests issue .
I think you would be best off to apologize for a series of mistakes made , and that you really should consider refunding some if not all of the guests costs of the stay .
Can you imagine if the guests were inside and somebody walked in on them ?
I also do not believe the part of the Realtor not having keys and blaming the guests
You have to remember , you were not present and cannot prove they left the door open . Sorry this happened to you and if I sound harsh , but sometimes
you have to really admit that this was a series of bad events and they guests didn't have a good stay due to this .
Renée:
No, not harsh at all. Thank you
I am just frustrated find out two weeks later, I had no idea that it happened, and also that they told my cousin they were fine with it, then afterwards state they are not. Since there are two separate issues here. It wasn't the realtor that had it listed and they don't have a key, weren't given one, I still don't know who it was, which is also frustrating. I don't know what to think about it, but I am happy I already unlisted this last week as this would have never happened with my own house. Joseph:
It happens every once in a while , I think you are better off without your cousins place . Perhaps you were not told everything ?? At least your cousin should of let you know about it as soon as it happened to to double check . The Guests I'm sure didn't want to seem negative to your cousin about the issue .
Fiona:
I wouldn't worry about the public response as the review is already buried by many other reviews. If you do choose to say something I agree with the advice above to just be apologetic, something along the lines of "I'm so sorry for the intrusions, my cousin and I had our lines crossed." You are complaining you didn't know about it from them until the review but you did know about it from your cousin and should have proactively contacted them then. That can be the takeaway for the future.
Suzanne:
While I agree with what everyone above wrote, I also think a small part of the blame lies with the guests. What we they doing leaving the house unlocked while they were out? Much worse could have happened - for them, yourself, and your cousin.