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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

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

41 replies

Ujjayi · 05/04/2016 14:19

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?

OP posts:

Original poster

Ujjayi · 05/04/2016 14:55

DirtyBlonde and GarlicShake - fantastic advice. Thank you.

OP posts:

GeezAJammyPeece · 05/04/2016 14:56

I wouldn't see it as leaving a bad review if you clearly stated the facts : what you found on your arrival, how the owner dealt with it, the final outcome. Don't use emotive wording like horrified by the mess etc, keep it very neutral.

Praise anything you did like/enjoy.

Would you book this accommodation again? If so, say so.

An honest review, stating what went wrong and how it was dealt with IS NOT A BAD REVIEW
If I read such a review, it wouldn't put me off booking. I'd read it as a positive because the owner attempted to solve an unforeseen issue as best they could.

If you feel that you would have been happy with the accommodation in the event that this hadn't happened, and if you are happy with how the owner dealt with the issue, then it is perfectly reasonable to award a full 5 star/ smiley face rating.

GeezAJammyPeece · 05/04/2016 14:59

Oh and as someone mentioned upthread, start with the good bits first

AppleSetsSail · 05/04/2016 15:01

I would mention it, along with how helpful the owner was. It's not 100% true that this is out of her control; it's possible that she's not using a reliable cleaner, she's not paying them enough, she's difficult to work with, etc.

Haggismcbaggis · 05/04/2016 15:01

I don't think 50% is that generous. I got full amount refunded when a similar thing happened to me with a holiday cottage.

By the same token, I definitely didn't mention it in a review. I just didn't review at all.

pinkcan · 05/04/2016 15:04

I don't think you should mention it. The owner was not to blame - she had employed someone who let her down. She tried to sort it immediately and she gave you 50% off, which if it was 3 nights, makes up for the problems. Presumably you enjoyed your other two nights. It would be mean to mention it because the owner did everything she could and was not at fault originally. She's lost 50% of your booking money because someone didn't do their job. It would be cruel to damage her future revenue IMO.

SaucyJack · 05/04/2016 15:11

As Apple has already said.... We have no idea if the owner was partly to blame (or not) or whether there was anything she could've done to prevent the situation before the OP's arrival.

We also don't know it was a one-off. It might happen frequently. Maybe half the other previous reviewers failed to mention the issue themselves.

Hence why honest reviews are best.

eddielizzard · 05/04/2016 15:14

no i would not mention it. it takes very little to put someone off and sounds to me like the owner tried very hard to rectify things. a 50% discount is very generous in my view. she wasn't to know that you had already thoroughly cleaned it and she did get another cleaner the next day. i'd say that was a good resolution.

if you can't bring yourself not to mention it, i think not posting a review at all is better.

NadiaWadia · 05/04/2016 15:30

A 50% discount would indeed have been very generous if the OP was staying for a week, but as she was only staying for 3 nights and this problem effectively spoiled a third of her total time at the cottage, I would say the discount was only OK.

I think you should leave a review, just stating exactly what happened, not using emotive language (and not leaving out the good points) and other potential customers can then make up their own minds. Like pps said, you can't just assume that this is a one-off and the owner was totally blameless, although this may be the case. The point of reviews is (without being nasty) to give other customers a true picture.

People are very precious about reviews now (like the way sellers demand 5 star reviews as standard on eBay), and IMO this leads to the devaluation of good reviews, when they are justified. Also I don't know why a pp mentioned that the amounts paid were 'part of the mortgage'. Whether or not the owner has a mortgage on the property is absolutely not the OP's concern. She should review it in the same way as you would a hotel.

Original poster

Ujjayi · 05/04/2016 15:31

EddieLizzard she did know because I told her. The bathroom, for example, was not in a usable state & the kitchen was dirty so there's no way we could have stayed there on Friday without cleaning.

OP posts:

goldfinch01 · 05/04/2016 15:34

Yes I would mention it (but also say what she did to fix it). It sounds like she doesn't have a good enough backup plan if she lives abroad. She needs to have a friend or a management company on-call as back up in case these sort of things happen.

I know a lot of people who would not have dreamed of washing other peoples dirty sheets upon arrival, so she was very lucky that you did stay and she got to keep 50% of the fee!

It would be interesting to know whether any of any of the existing reviews mention similar issues?

Sparklingbrook · 05/04/2016 15:38

I wouldn't leave a review at all. It's not mandatory.

I wouldn't have done the cleaning though but decamped to a hotel until the let was in it's rightful condition, or returned home.

SenecaFalls · 05/04/2016 15:39

If I saw a review that mentioned an unspecified problem, it would out me off more.

I agree. This is not a good solution to your dilemma. I think the issue for a review is to warn people of possible problems. This particular problem probably won't happen again. I would probably just not leave a review.

RB68 · 05/04/2016 16:00

Jeez who leaves holiday homes in this sate - I am paranoid when leaving - hoovering behind us as we leave!

There should have been spares, don't think its unreasonable to expect a spare set of linens in an out of the way cupboard. But as to the cleaning I don't think a 50% discount is unreasonable for having to do that.

However going on about mortgage payments etc is irrelevant - they are a business providing a service and it didn't come up to scratch. The next day cleaner was reasonable, frankly I would have left stuff knowing that was happening, and just done the minimum - sink and loo - before bed.

I do think being kicked out at 10am was a bit unreasonable, but I can understand cleaner wanting a clear run at it without folk around - perhaps a negotiated time with you (say by phone) as to when you would be out and then come in.

We have stayed at places where e.g. fridge broke down and they came next day and swapped it out for a spare (was an agency run one though), which I found amazing service.

As to review - I would rate it as if there hadn't been an issue because I would feel that is fair given that they dealt with the issue promptly and gave a decent refund. I would mention the issue in the review but would also mention that is was resolved promptly and satisfactorily. You can always tell a good company by how they handle complaints - don't deny issue, sort out a resolution and leave you happy with outcome. I would find that reassuring

curren · 05/04/2016 16:15

It's a difficult situation. As a business owner I would not want a review that says you complained and got a discount. It usually leads to people complaining about anything and then wanting money off.

But I would like customers to know if there is a problem I will do all I can to resolve it.

Personally I just wouldn't leave a review.

ChopsticksandChilliCrab · 05/04/2016 16:21

I think you should leave a review and say what happened. I would have turned around and left if I had arrived at a cottage and found it in that state, I can't believe you rolled up your sleeves and cleaned it. Never mind a discount, the owner should have paid you.

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