To mention negative issue of a holiday let in a review even though owner compensated us for it?

[Ujjayi]

Recently stayed in a holiday cottage. Unfortunately, when we arrived the cleaner had gone AWOL & we were faced with piles of dirty sheets, towels & rubbish from previous residents. Contact owner (who is out of country) & she was unable to locate cleaner or substitute, despite 2 hours of trying. No clean spare linen in cottage so instead of enjoying our holiday we had to spend Friday night cleaning, & washing & drying the previous residents' linen, which took ages due to only having a dual purpose washer/dryer. Finally got children to bed at 11.30pm.

Owner finally arranges cleaner for Saturday morning - rather pointless since we had done it all - but is insistent & says we need to leave property at 10am so she can get on with it.

Owner gave us 50% refund on cost of trip. Howevever, would IBU to still mention all of the above in a review? All previous reviews are glowing & obviously she did try & put things right. BUT sorting & handling other people's dirty laundry is not how I want to spend the first evening of a short 3 night break & I would feel bad for anyone else facing the prospect of it if I wasn't honest. So should I mention or not?

[HerRoyalNotness]

Mention it, but also mention how the owner rectified it and refunded you partially.

[MattDillonsPants]

No. She did all she could to recompense and you've been given half your money back. Mentioning it would be petty.

[FrankUnderwoodsWife]

That must have been incredibly frustrating for you. I think I would have just returned home!

Was the rest of your stay successful? If this were me, I think would maybe mention, in a review, that there was an issue, but the owner did everything possible to rectify it.

Would you recommend the accommodation or not?

[WhoTheFuckIsSimon]

I wouldn't. It sounds like a one off and I bet the original cleaner has been sacked now.

[centigrade451]

The point of reviews are to give an objective account. You should mention the issue AND mention the refund. Be objective about it.

[mudandmayhem01]

I would either not mention it or give them a positive review for going to great lengths to resolve the problem ( and giving you very generous discount)The circumstances sound completely out of the owners control what else could they have done?

[Lilaclily]

I wouldn't mentioned it
It was a cleaner problem not the fault of the owners a nd you got 50% off
Bet the cleaner or cleaners Company got a roasting

[LunaLunaLovegood]

I think I would give them as many stars as I would have done without the problem, so it doesn't drag down their rating iyswim. But in the comments part I would explain there was a problem as the cleaner had failed to turn up, but the owner did their very best to resolve this and gave you a discount and [insert rest of review].

Then you have been honest but fair. Plus if she has sacked the cleaner it backs her up!!

[herecomethepotatoes]

Like others said, mention it and the excellent customer service and compensation the owner.

It wouldn't put me off going in the slightest.

[FreckledLeopard]

I wouldn't mention it. The fact she gave you such a discount and obviously did everything to try and remedy the situation shows that it was a one-off and something that was out of her control.

[DextersMistress]

I wouldn't. It sounds like the owner wasn't at fault and tried her best to rectify, plus gave you a decent discount. Would you be happy with her losing bookings because of it? Because essentially that's what you'll be doing.

[NisekoWhistler]

I think it would be very nasty for you to mention it. 50% discount is big when it boils down to the fact that it's potentially a part mortgage payment being discounted. The cleaner let owner down, owner is overseas and did what they could with the resources they had.
If you were in exactly the same position as the home owner would you expect someone to mention it in the review? Surely you wouldn't.

Please don't mention it

[PrimalLass]

I'd probably just not leave a review at all.

[SaucyJack]

I just wouldn't bother to leave a review meself.

I can see that you wouldn't want to leave a bad review, but pretending everything was fine just makes a mockery of the whole reviewing process IMO.

[LettingAgentNightmare]

Mentioning it is so mean! You got 50% off, she did get it cleaned, Jesus, now you want to leave a bad review? Why so harsh?

[Floralnomad]

I'd also not leave a review , but then I would also have just found a hotel to stay in and not done the washing and just asked for a refund of the full cost .

[fascicle]

As others have said, if you choose to mention it, you can be balanced about it and comment on other aspects of the accommodation/stay as well as the issue and its resolution.

That said, I think the owner could have handled this better and provided a solution more suited to you and your family (i.e. no need to insist on next day cleaner; could have paid for you to stay somewhere else for the first night unless the place was in the middle of nowhere). I think the 50% refund is reasonable rather than generous, given that the stay was for just 3 nights and you were inconvenienced (and had to provide cleaning services) for an evening and vacate the property for a morning.

[DurhamDurham]

It would be right to mention it, it happened so it's not like you are making it up.
I'd mention the good points along with the bad to balance it out, also that fact that the owner sorted the problem out for you in the end. If you go to the bother of leaving a review it should be an honest one.

[Ujjayi]

Thanks for the responses. I think I'll go with mentioning there was an issue (without the detail) but that owner did all she could to resolve and, despite the circumstances, we were with her resolution.

LettingAgentNightmare I didn't say that I wanted to leave a bad review. Otherwise I wouldn't have posted my dilemma, would I? I simply wanted to reflect an honest opinion. I certainly have no desire to see her lose business. Yes, she was very generous in her compensation but she also said that she was thankful that we were so calm and not getting cross at her like she would have expected. So I feel we were mutually supportive throughout the process.

The house is lovely and in a perfect location so on that basis I would recommend. It was just a shame as we don't do weekends away - this was the first time in about 5 years - so it did spoil the treat somewhat.

[Ujjayi]

Sorry, that should read "happy with her resolution".

[DirtyBlonde]

Flip it round, say everything that was good first. Then say how good the owner was at resolving a difficulty (add in brackets last that the cleaner had let the owner down, so it was not as you had expected on arrival).

[Ujjayi]

Oh and as I said, the cleaner being sent to do the job on Saturday was somewhat a moot point since I had already cleaned the place on Friday, as I said in my OP. And I mean thorougly cleaned. TBH, I'm not entirely clear what she did whilst she was there.

[GarlicShake]

Actually I would explain the issue as you have here.

If I saw a review that mentioned an unspecified problem, it would out me off more. I'd wonder what was so bad you didn't want to talk about it! Plus, some people's issues are my minor irritations and vice versa. You write reviews to inform fellow customers, so do that :)

[Nottodaythankyouorever]

In this case I just wouldn't leave a review.