Should questionable guest complaint and threat of a bad online review justify full refund?

 I might add this as my siggie line, but I have to share it as it is that good:

"Nothing's idiot-proof, but idiot-resistant helps."

 I think the best way to combat the blackmailing guests is to work at getting excellent reviews, so when we tell the blackmailing guest to suck eggs it will be apparent to the reader that there was something afoot. Of course also add a diplomatic response to the blackmailer too.

Riki

 Just had a threat like this yesterday. We had rainy weather & a one night (we take 100% non-refundable VISA/MC deposit for one nights stays-verbal & email confirmation of this policy-it is VERY CLEAR) stay cancel at 6:30pm on the day of the reservation & threaten to "tell everyone I know!" because we wouldn't "work with them"... to refund.

ah...

 Gvmt per diem is possibly what they are talking about.  Sure they can make three figures but can only spend $85 per night on accomodations, or whatever it is for them.

Government employee discounts............I can understand this concept some decades ago...

Today.......Government employees are over paid and have outstanding benefit, retirement packages......

Gov. employee discounts should be discontinued.

In the last 2 seasons I had been asked this a few times.........oddly, several times this past spring.........this questioned annoyed the heck out of me......my response had been.........."Yeah right....with your quaranteed salary, yearly increases, benefits and retirement. I should consider a surcharge added to your rates".........this gave them a perplexed expression on their faces...

May not applly entirely - I made the minimum stay 2 nights / no same day bookings,  and lost most of my problem guests.

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We use laterooms and Booking.com and you can review on these but only if you have stayed as you get a link on your confirmation or after your stay (I havn't gone into all the details) I think they need to do something similar so that there is proof of stay. (trip adviser I mean)

The questionnaire asked various questions like paying a small fee for featured listings, and also a few questions after expressing how "IN" and important reviews are, and also a THUMBS UP and THUMBS DOWN feature, how I felt about that. I HATE A THUMBS UP OR DOWN!!!! I told them in the extra comments section how easy that is to play the system, would someone REGISTER to just add a thumbs up or down? Nope, so they will have to guarantee that is is fool proof!

Then spoke about adding TA reviews to our listing(s).  Not happy about that at all.

 PS Catlady you do know that our state tourism is reworking some of their website stuff and sent out a questionnaire and one question on it was about posting TA reviews on our listing!!

We had a real jerk here once who pushed every limit (and every button of ours) while he was here for his whopping one night.  The final straw was when he was verbally nasty to me at check-out, DH jumped in and basically pushed the guy out the door.  The guest said "I sure hope there's somewhere to leave a review of this place" and DH said "C'mon back in, I"ll grab my laptop and you can write it right now".  He just stormed off to his car, never to be heard from again.  You're just not going to get far with those kind of threats here, I really hate to hear when any small business owner lets themselves be intimidated by this "threat".

How about questionable guest illnesses?

Friend just called me because her guests for this weekend called to cancel. One of them has cancer. Totally understandable that she doesn't want to travel. But the second room? Staying home in 'support' of the friend instead of coming to town to see her own children? Not likely. And guess what? The guest is staying at another property in town!

I would never give money back for something I didn't consider a serious complaint that I had seen myself eg a bathroom not thoroughly cleaned etc. I have a ton of good reviews and I'm not afraid of one bad one by people like that.

i dont understand why guests think that way and why trip advisor has become something to blackmail a business with. No I would not have given in to this blackmail and I would certaintly have responded about the supposed "water" problem in front of the other guests and asked them if they had the same problem.

How sad do you think a hotel or motel would have done the same? Don't think so.

If you look back here you will see we have discussed TA issues on and on and on....nothing new.

It is guest BLACKMAIL pure and simple!

I have a friend who told me someone called looking for a discount for a one night Sat night. He told her the price and was firm. She stated firmly and nastily...that she would ruin him on Tripadvisor!!!!  IF some said that to me I would be hanging that phone up as hard as I could.  People think they have power for some reason from TA reviews.  They don't....unless a truly bad review is warranted.  If someone puts in a bogus one...an innkeeper does have some recourse...or just post a management statement. 

Most people can read for themselves. If all reviews are good and there in one nasty...chances are you forget about it and move on.

Water smelled strangely?  That's the lamest excuse for a refund (or a bad review) that I've ever heard.  And the fact that a guest would threaten to write a bad review if they were charged for their stay is the ultimate in bad behavior.  Frankly, I can't even imagine one of my guests saying such a thing, or how I would reply if they did.

Does that Innkeeper regularly get problem guests, or was this a complete anomaly?  Just curious!

it's blackmail. and it's absolutely rephrensible behavior.

no innkeeper wants a bad review.

guests know this.

in my opinion, a guest who speaks that way in front of other guests has to be spoken to immediately ... in front of the other guests.  as in ' we are sorry you felt the water smelled strange.  as you know, we accompanied you to your room and found no problem. inspection .. etc. ... blahblahblah '

each innkeeper has to decide if a 'free night' or discount is appropriate or not. sometimes, the dissatisfied guest STILL posts a negative review.  if an innkeeper goes out of her/way to rectify a situation, there is no way a negative should be allowed.

but a bad review does not have to be the end of the world.  a bad review, a truly bad review, should be responded to. as a guest,  i always read the innkeeper response.  some of them are brilliant.   there have been great suggestions of turning around a bad review on forum. 

I refuse to allow anyone other than me - or the laws of the State - run my business. If I had heard that guest, I may have offered them a pen to sign the credit card receipt and told them to keep the pen so they can take notes.

I did not cower and back down when my kids threatened the child abuse hotline and this falls in the same category.

If they write a review anyway? What recourse does the innkeeper have then? Or the guest writes a review that says 'tell them anything, you get to stay for free.'

'Let the chips fall where they may.'

Did the innkeeper hear them telling the other guests or are you saying the guest said that to the innkeeper in front of everyone else. If the latter, THAT would have wound me right up and I would have had to say, 'I have no control over what you do when you leave here. If you feel justified in writing a bad review, that is your privilege. However, we have had no other complaints about the water system and it was just inspected by the board of health. What credit card will you be using to pay your bill?'

JB - Gotta say, I love that term.  My Dad's favorite and I have not heard it said by anyone else in years, except by my DH when he gets on the kick of using all my dad's little phrases.  - Thanks for making me smile.

First of all, if someone is a last minute or walk-in guest I would require 'payment first'.  Then - you have their money already!  There is no way in he!! that I would succumb to this blatant attempt to bully me.  They were looking for something to get a free night, and if it hadn't been the water it would have been something else.  To top it off, discussing this in front of other guests, anyone with proper manors would attempt to settle any grievance in private.  

A tasteful owners response would be able to discredit anything writen by the likes of these individuals.  And I would provide the other happy guests with information on how to post a review. 

I will not be bullied...

God forbid we live under the thumb of any nincompoop who comes along wielding power over us using a mouse.  

As the saying goes, "Are ye a man or a mouse?"

I have seen bad reviews actually entice me to book a room at an inn by the owners response, endearing them to the reader.  Truth only, let it be our guide, let it be #1 in all we say and do, and let the chips fall where they may.