Right at the end of our first year of ownership, we got our first 1-star review, from a guest who brought a cat without telling us, that proceeded to tear up everything and pee all over our suite. What is now known by others guests as our "crazy cat lady review," has gotten us lots of amused questions, and very, very sympathetic smiles. In the interest of letting you know that your future guests can easily read between the lines, I include both the guest's review and my response below:
"Nice couple very new to the busy, no best at making an unsatisfied customer happy. They charged us $75,00 checkout for our indoor cat. Claiming it had climbed the furniture, which cats will do. This wasn't an oversize dog just coming in from the weather and mud and jumped up on the bed. This cat has never seen the outdoors. Our sheets were dirty but no apology was given. We felt pressured to just buy their beer and wine and not use ours that we had brought along. We ended up drinking our bottle and the rest was Another reason for the "fee" being charged. Last insult was their own gratuity was added to the room. So, get everything in writing before you commit as you will be surprised as we were. We won't be going back and we have traveled the world.. Advertised as bed friendly very narrow minded and we felt they only want dogs so they should just say that. They should just charge everyone the pet fee as one's pet is bound to get up on the furniture at some point. We've paid the pets fees before at better locations, but it was disclosed well in advance. After the fact is really like a bait and switch."
I ignored her complaint about the alcohol, since state law requires guests to drink what's sold on property and not bring in their own, and focused instead on the fact that had we known she was bringing a cat we would have told her no. Also, note the snarky mention that our pet policy is disclosed five different ways.
"We're very sorry your experience didn't meet up to your expectations and you felt misled. Unlike most hotels and almost all B&Bs, we do not charge a fee for guests for their first pet. We do allow guests to sleep with their pets and have them on the beds, but do have to charge a $75 cleaning fee for that so we can deep-clean and sterilize all bedding so future guests that may be allergic won't be affected. We disclose this bed policy in five ways: On our website, when you book, when you check in, in our in-room guidebook and with signs on the night tables of your room. Since you failed to advise us you would be bringing a pet at booking and at check-in, you were only advised on our bed policy in 3 of the 5 ways, and we apologize for that. We hope we have the chance to try and please you again in the future."
As I said, every guest since who's seen this review (and they all scan directly to the 1- and 2-stars) know where the problem really lay, and have laughed heartily with us about "crazy cat lady." One even pointed out "Cat's walk through their own litterbox poop; so saying their paws were clean was hysterical!"
Don't sweat a bad review. Sometimes if you don't have at least one, I think guests are less likely to believe all the good ones.
