I just got handed my azz with a nasty review.

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TheBeachHouse

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here is my response.
I generally answer with as much understanding and kindness and I can, but this review has me peeved.
I'll answer each point.
- " His wife saw us for the first time the next morning we were not spoken to, not even a good morning from her. The next day she waved us goodbye from the porch."
I always say good morning when I enter the breakfast room. So I can't understand why it was missed. I also remember that you left without saying goodbye, so I didn't get a chance to wish you a great day and could only wave as you left.
- "It wouldn’t take much to improve breakfast, here’s a few suggestions, proper loaves of bread not ready sliced thin stuff. Locally made jams not tiny fruitless plastic pods, a few blueberries and strawberries in the fruit salad not just melon and tinned pineapple. The fruit was improved the next day. Cookies on the coffee table are shop bought not homemade."
We know our strengths. We do not make jam. Most of our guests do not come for the toast. So we play to our strengths. Our breakfast consists of: a hot buffet of crustless individual quiche of the day or another baked egg dish along with a sweet offering such as pancakes or French toast or bread pudding and always, bacon and sausage. We also offer a yogurt parfait bar with yogurt choices, fresh fruit (the pineapple, like all our fruit, is fresh, not canned), and toppings including walnuts, raisins, chocolate chips, coconut and granola. In addition, we always offer a bakery made coffee cake or fresh made muffins, assorted cereals and oatmeal and assorted juices and two kinds of milk. The cookies are made fresh in a local bakery.
- "The decor is very very dated, not shabby... I suspect (the sheets) are some sort of non iron mix."
We call our style, "beach house casual." It is meant to make you feel like you are at your summer home by the sea. The furniture in your room is cherry and is a matched set. Good quality, traditional and classic. The room is yellow and blue. Fresh, pretty and bright. The sheets are microfiber. Comfortable and clean.
- "Take up the terrible rugs and leave the beautiful wood floors bare."
Your room is above another guest room. Wood floors in a second floor room would simply be loud for those trying to relax in the room below.
- "Don’t leave the terrible pictures on the wall. You are surrounded by local artists so ask them to display their artwork which you could sell on their behalf and make commission on."
In your room, you have a large print of a painting by Jn Terk, the premier American impressionist of his time and a Rrt resident. In addition, there is a M Arn print of a cottage in Ireland. Mr. Arn was JTerk's father in law. He divided his time between Rrt and Ireland. The third painting in that room is an original by KTr, a Rrt native and lifelong resident. In the common room, we have two paintings by J Tk, one by D Mr (Rrt artist) , and one original painting by L M, , who gave it to us as a thank you when he stayed here. Your impression that we do not support the local art scene is more than incorrect, it is insulting.
- "my husband says I’m fussy."
He likely knows you better than anyone.
 
I'm really upset. But I do like that last comment..
TheBeachHouse said:
I'm really upset. But I do like that last comment.
Yes, that last one says it all.
If you haven't already published that I wouldn't go line by line. That's so tiring to read as the next guest.
Definitely put in the breakfast items, state your styl is beach casual, mention you have local artists' work on the walls (and you're surprised she didn't recognize it) and then throw in your last comment. Let everyone else deduce she's the problem.
People can be so annoying.
 
I'm really upset. But I do like that last comment..
TheBeachHouse said:
I'm really upset. But I do like that last comment.
Yes, that last one says it all.
If you haven't already published that I wouldn't go line by line. That's so tiring to read as the next guest.
Definitely put in the breakfast items, state your styl is beach casual, mention you have local artists' work on the walls (and you're surprised she didn't recognize it) and then throw in your last comment. Let everyone else deduce she's the problem.
People can be so annoying.
.
Here is the updated version.
If I look through the unhappy tone, I hear, you loved the location, loved the view, loved the koi pond and enjoyed most of the breakfast except the toast offerings, and disagree with my decorating style. I generally answer with as much understanding and kindness and I can, but this review has me peeved.
I am 'his wife'. I always say good morning when I enter the breakfast room. So I can't understand why it was missed. I also remember that you left without saying goodbye, so I didn't get a chance to wish you a great day and could only wave as you left.
With regard to breakfast, not every B&B owner makes her own jam. We present a very good hot and cold buffet with lots of variety. Our breakfast consists of a hot buffet of crustless individual quiche of the day or another baked egg dish along with a sweet offering such as pancakes or French toast or bread pudding and always, bacon and sausage. We also offer a yogurt parfait bar with yogurt choices, fresh fruit (the pineapple, like all our fruit, is fresh, not canned), and toppings including walnuts, raisins, chocolate chips, coconut and granola. In addition, we always offer a bakery made coffee cake or fresh made muffins, assorted cereals and oatmeal and assorted juices and two kinds of milk. The cookies are made fresh in a local bakery
We call our decorating style, "beach house casual." It is meant to make you feel like you are at your summer home by the sea. The furniture in your room is cherry and is a matched set. Good quality, traditional and classic. The room is yellow and blue. Fresh, pretty and bright. The sheets are microfiber. Comfortable and clean.
I was most surprised by your comment on the art in the room. All of the art in your room is by local artists. The large print of a painting is by John T, the premier American impressionist of his time and a town resident. In addition, there is a Martin A print of a cottage in Ireland. Mr. A was John T 's father in law. He divided his time between town and Ireland and had a gallery in towt for many years. The third painting in that room is an original by Karen T, a town native and lifelong resident. In the common room, we have two prints of paintings by John T, one by Don M (town artist), and one original painting by Leonard M, who gave it to us as a thank you when he stayed here. Every room in our home has at least one of our vast collection of town artists' work. Your impression that we do not support the local art scene is more than incorrect, it is insulting.
"...my husband says I’m fussy." He likely knows you better than anyone.
 
Shorter! You need a tldr; version, or you will lose everyone.
Sorry you didn't appreciate our hospitality, our beach style and the artwork by our local artists. Not everyone enjoys buffet style breakfast and we appreciate that. Followed by your sweet finish.
 
Shorter! You need a tldr; version, or you will lose everyone.
Sorry you didn't appreciate our hospitality, our beach style and the artwork by our local artists. Not everyone enjoys buffet style breakfast and we appreciate that. Followed by your sweet finish..
how's this?
We are happy to hear that you loved the location, loved the view, loved the koi pond and enjoyed most of the breakfast except the toast offerings. (It is a myth that every B&B owner makes her own jam. LOL)
I'm sorry to hear you were disappointed in our decorating style. We call our style, Beach House Casual. We want our guests to feel like they are the family summer home by the sea. And we do, very much, love our home.
I do want to correct a very important point. Every room in our home has at least one piece from our large collection of Rockport artists' work. The room you were in had two prints and one original painting - all by Rockport artists. Your impression that we do not support the local art scene is more than incorrect, it is insulting.
"...my husband says I’m fussy." He likely knows you better than anyone.
 
Shorter! You need a tldr; version, or you will lose everyone.
Sorry you didn't appreciate our hospitality, our beach style and the artwork by our local artists. Not everyone enjoys buffet style breakfast and we appreciate that. Followed by your sweet finish..
how's this?
We are happy to hear that you loved the location, loved the view, loved the koi pond and enjoyed most of the breakfast except the toast offerings. (It is a myth that every B&B owner makes her own jam. LOL)
I'm sorry to hear you were disappointed in our decorating style. We call our style, Beach House Casual. We want our guests to feel like they are the family summer home by the sea. And we do, very much, love our home.
I do want to correct a very important point. Every room in our home has at least one piece from our large collection of Rockport artists' work. The room you were in had two prints and one original painting - all by Rockport artists. Your impression that we do not support the local art scene is more than incorrect, it is insulting.
"...my husband says I’m fussy." He likely knows you better than anyone.
.
I'm still annoyed that her info is wrong. The cookies are fresh baked. The room she was in was a matched set of beautiful real cherry wood furniture and she called it mismatched!
Especially the art - as you can see by my response. She actually had the most valuable piece we have in her room. I spit out the nasty term starting with b and ending in itch when I think of it.
 
Shorter! You need a tldr; version, or you will lose everyone.
Sorry you didn't appreciate our hospitality, our beach style and the artwork by our local artists. Not everyone enjoys buffet style breakfast and we appreciate that. Followed by your sweet finish..
how's this?
We are happy to hear that you loved the location, loved the view, loved the koi pond and enjoyed most of the breakfast except the toast offerings. (It is a myth that every B&B owner makes her own jam. LOL)
I'm sorry to hear you were disappointed in our decorating style. We call our style, Beach House Casual. We want our guests to feel like they are the family summer home by the sea. And we do, very much, love our home.
I do want to correct a very important point. Every room in our home has at least one piece from our large collection of Rockport artists' work. The room you were in had two prints and one original painting - all by Rockport artists. Your impression that we do not support the local art scene is more than incorrect, it is insulting.
"...my husband says I’m fussy." He likely knows you better than anyone.
.
Much better to go short and sweet.
If you actually put 'LOL' in your reply, take that out. Take out the whole thing about making jam.
I'd not apologize for my decorating style. (Cambs will tell you to embrace it and own it and sell it.) 'Our style is 'beach house' which is a casual, eclectic decorating style evoking a summer's day at the shore; it is not everyone's cup of tea, and that's ok. 'Beach house' implies fun, relaxed, found items, even though your room has a matched suite of furniture.'
'Our breakfast buffet has a plethora of delightful edibles for every guest to enjoy. As blueberries are not in season yet, we like to wait until we can buy local before we add them to the fruit plate.'
'Our entire B&B is decorated with local artists' works, including the 3 pieces in your room. Sorry you didn't recognize those famous local artists' paintings. We can add a line in our room books explaining this for future guests.'
Then, yes, do add that last line. It's the one that puts it out there. 'My husband says I'm fussy... As I never had the chance to meet you, I'll have to leave it to his judgement...' (Did you ever lay eyes on her other than her walking out the door?)
Remove your hurt feelings from the text and it sails along happily on the current and says, 'I'm moving on, that poor guy has to live with her.'
 
Shorter! You need a tldr; version, or you will lose everyone.
Sorry you didn't appreciate our hospitality, our beach style and the artwork by our local artists. Not everyone enjoys buffet style breakfast and we appreciate that. Followed by your sweet finish..
how's this?
We are happy to hear that you loved the location, loved the view, loved the koi pond and enjoyed most of the breakfast except the toast offerings. (It is a myth that every B&B owner makes her own jam. LOL)
I'm sorry to hear you were disappointed in our decorating style. We call our style, Beach House Casual. We want our guests to feel like they are the family summer home by the sea. And we do, very much, love our home.
I do want to correct a very important point. Every room in our home has at least one piece from our large collection of Rockport artists' work. The room you were in had two prints and one original painting - all by Rockport artists. Your impression that we do not support the local art scene is more than incorrect, it is insulting.
"...my husband says I’m fussy." He likely knows you better than anyone.
.
I'm still annoyed that her info is wrong. The cookies are fresh baked. The room she was in was a matched set of beautiful real cherry wood furniture and she called it mismatched!
Especially the art - as you can see by my response. She actually had the most valuable piece we have in her room. I spit out the nasty term starting with b and ending in itch when I think of it.
.
TheBeachHouse said:
I'm still annoyed that her info is wrong. The cookies are fresh baked. The room she was in was a matched set of beautiful real cherry wood furniture and she called it mismatched!
Especially the art - as you can see by my response. She actually had the most valuable piece we have in her room. I spit out the nasty term starting with b and ending in itch when I think of it.
Let it go. Really. How many reviews did I have in one year that said the detached bath was shared and to avoid it at all costs? Too many. I had to address it each time without saying 'shared' so 'shared' didn't start trending as a key word.
 
Don't forget to wait the requisite 24 hour cooling off period before posting.
That's saved me a lot of grief.
 
Plus she mentioned other places, that's not supposed to be allowed.
 
Plus she mentioned other places, that's not supposed to be allowed..
Generic said:
Plus she mentioned other places, that's not supposed to be allowed.
Perfectly legit, as you may recall from my disaster several years ago. That, and name-calling, are allowed.
 
Egads! So sorry. We've gotten some vindictive doozies, but that one is downright nasty and personal.
 
ok - this is cool. We have a group of 6 here for a week. They love everything. One of the couples is in the room the review describes. I told them about the review. The woman in the room says, "Dated????? You mean antique????"
The best part - they recognize their uncle's painting on our wall!! A local artist! An original. Handed down to me from a deceased relative. And they filled in info I did not know. I love it. They made my day!!!!
AND - they are all writing reviews for us. :)
 
Shorter! You need a tldr; version, or you will lose everyone.
Sorry you didn't appreciate our hospitality, our beach style and the artwork by our local artists. Not everyone enjoys buffet style breakfast and we appreciate that. Followed by your sweet finish..
how's this?
We are happy to hear that you loved the location, loved the view, loved the koi pond and enjoyed most of the breakfast except the toast offerings. (It is a myth that every B&B owner makes her own jam. LOL)
I'm sorry to hear you were disappointed in our decorating style. We call our style, Beach House Casual. We want our guests to feel like they are the family summer home by the sea. And we do, very much, love our home.
I do want to correct a very important point. Every room in our home has at least one piece from our large collection of Rockport artists' work. The room you were in had two prints and one original painting - all by Rockport artists. Your impression that we do not support the local art scene is more than incorrect, it is insulting.
"...my husband says I’m fussy." He likely knows you better than anyone.
.
My reply is late, but I wanted to say that I'm so, so sorry to hear that this b!!!aaatch posted such a scathing review. It will be obvious to anyone reading her review that she is intolerable and could not have been pleased by the even the pope himself.
Follow everyone's advice and keep your response short & sweet. It's tempting to address every nitpicky detail in her review, but it somewhat stoops to her level when you point out how very, very wrong she is on everything. The revised response above is closest to the best response. I agree with Morticia on removing the bit about the jam. (perhaps end the sentence with just "...enjoyed most of the breakfast.")
Your last sentence is priceless and nails it home! Classic!
 
Plus she mentioned other places, that's not supposed to be allowed..
I just flagged the review using my personal (i.e. not business) TA account & cited the reason you provided regarding promotional content. Gotta say that I'm a bit surprised that this nasty lady gave the B&B 3 stars after her rant. Any time someone complains that much, it's usually a 1* review.
 
Plus she mentioned other places, that's not supposed to be allowed..
Generic said:
Plus she mentioned other places, that's not supposed to be allowed.
Perfectly legit, as you may recall from my disaster several years ago. That, and name-calling, are allowed.
.
Not supposed to be. They don't follow their own guidelines as they should.
 
ok. how's this?
We are happy to hear that you loved the location, loved the view, loved the koi pond and enjoyed most of the breakfast except the toast offerings. Our breakfast is a buffet - we don't like alarm clocks when we travel, so we allow our guests to come to breakfast on their own schedule. We always serve one savory and one sweet entree', plus a coffee cake, bacon and sausage, a variety of cereals and of juices and of course coffee and tea. Our signature is our Seafarer yogurt parfait bar - make your own parfait using fresh fruit (never canned) and your choice of toppings like coconut, walnuts, granola and more.
Our home is an antique Captain's House on the sea and our decorating style is 'Beach House Casual.' Furniture is a mixture of antiques, inherited pieces and great finds. We want our guests to feel like they are the family summer home by the sea. And we do, very much, love our home.
I do want to correct a very important point. Every room in our home has at least one piece from our large collection of Rockport artists' work. The room you were in had two prints and one original painting - all by Rockport artists. I counted in my head and came up with 11 different Rockport artists whose work is displayed in our home. Your impression that we do not support the local art scene is more than incorrect, it is insulting.
"...my husband says I’m fussy." He likely knows you better than anyone.
 
ok. how's this?
We are happy to hear that you loved the location, loved the view, loved the koi pond and enjoyed most of the breakfast except the toast offerings. Our breakfast is a buffet - we don't like alarm clocks when we travel, so we allow our guests to come to breakfast on their own schedule. We always serve one savory and one sweet entree', plus a coffee cake, bacon and sausage, a variety of cereals and of juices and of course coffee and tea. Our signature is our Seafarer yogurt parfait bar - make your own parfait using fresh fruit (never canned) and your choice of toppings like coconut, walnuts, granola and more.
Our home is an antique Captain's House on the sea and our decorating style is 'Beach House Casual.' Furniture is a mixture of antiques, inherited pieces and great finds. We want our guests to feel like they are the family summer home by the sea. And we do, very much, love our home.
I do want to correct a very important point. Every room in our home has at least one piece from our large collection of Rockport artists' work. The room you were in had two prints and one original painting - all by Rockport artists. I counted in my head and came up with 11 different Rockport artists whose work is displayed in our home. Your impression that we do not support the local art scene is more than incorrect, it is insulting.
"...my husband says I’m fussy." He likely knows you better than anyone..
I like it! A lot.
 
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