See How a Bad TA Review Turned Into A Good Thing

Even though I realize it may not be possible, I would love to see your response. I tried to follow some guidelines when we did a response but think I could have done better.

I concur with most everything being expressed here. We've got two negative reviews, but even those were filled with general kudos for everything about what we offer and what a guest is looking for.

The "issues" for the two were only "perceptual", so blown out of proportion, filled with lies, innaccuracies and exaggerated about that they stick out like sore thumbs to anybody reading the 57 awesome reviews.

One came seven months after the fact, so it was obviously meant to be punitive and not helpful to other travelers.

The other was two days after check out and the poster's statement that "I was torn on writing this review and have done so only for the knowledge of the host/hostess to take note on the way they speak to their guests in the future." Yeah, right. That's why these four drunken, louts put on an Academy Award winning performance the whole time they were here and never said a word that wasn't completely complimentary the whole time.

The other bad reviewer and his family could have won awards themselves for their acting while here. It almost made us feel good that this jerk had stewed on something he created in his own head for seven full months.

We were still pretty angry and put off when they posted, so our management responses were way too long and argumentative in hindsight.

But you know what, we've had countless guests voluntarily offer us the same type supportive comment as NW B&B has gotten.

Good guests don't want to share the house with bad guests and expect us to take control of bad situations.

  will you share the basics of how you responded? 

good for you!

=)
Kk.

We just need to let the chips fall where they may and handle them at the time as far as these reviews go.  Good job for handling that negative review well!  It obviously impressed your prospective guest. 

I totally agree with you on this. It could be that my dad was FBI and always said, "You can't give in to blackmail, it will make matters worse and increase that kind of crime" that makes me so stubborn. 

I do believe that most people know that if you have a large number of complimentary reviews and one or two negatives don't usually believe them.

I have a negative review on Yahoo!Travel, and what ticked me off was that they don't allow the business to respond. But again, it was written in such a manner that the author looks like she has a problem. But it would be nice if I could explain what happened, too.

I would not change my policy and she told me she would "make me regret it" and she never even stayed at my B&B! She didn't even have a confirmation. She forgot to ever get back to me.

Riki

I try to make a point of telling people when they have done a good job. I especially try to do this with parents of small children. Last week one of the trumpet players had his son at rehearsal. As we were leaving, I complimented him on how well-behaved the child was - he did not make noise, did not run around, just sat next to Dad through a 2 hour rehearsal. Parents who do not allow their kids to run wild need to be complimented (Socks, you done good!).

Reinforcing the good is important. And to tell someone they (or their employees) did a good job WILL be something to make one's day.

That's a wonderful compliment. So many times the "good" is never commented on, only the "bad".

If I do a guest check-out, I always tell them "if we've done something good, tell others; if we've done something wrong, tell us".

I took my kids out to breakfast yesterday morning. The waitress came over and informed us, after a substantially LONG wait for our food, that they had a new cook in training. Okay, no problem. She offered us some sweet breads to tide us over. Fine.

A little while later, our food gets delivered, it's noticably better than before. My 9 year old son says, "Mom this is really good. The new cook did a good job". I told him to tell the waitress when she came back. He's too shy to say all that, so I did. She came back and said, "The cook appreciates your comments. He was very glad you liked it". Then she bent down a little farther and said, "I think it made his day".

You never know

Good for you.