How can we recover bookings after a very poor holiday let review?

[holidaylethelp]

Any advice very welcome and am prepared to be flamed! We have a holiday let in Norfolk near Cromer, quite a long way from where we live. We have always loved it there and put everything we had into buying a small holiday let about 3 years ago. We got a agent and cleaner and it is rented out for about half the year, in quiet times we go and let family and friends use the house. Our cleaner has always been a little hit and miss, at the start of the summer the feedback we had was good mostly 5 star reviews, but as the summer has gone on we have had some really negative feedback saying that the kitchen and bathroom were dirty. We offered compensation and spoke to the cleaner - the guests were happy. We told the agent we wanted to get a different cleaning company and they said they would start looking for alternatives. We have now had an absolutely dire review from the next guest posted on the booking website, saying items in the house were broken and it was very dirty. The agent is annoyed as they contacted the guests on the day they arrived to see if everything was alright but they did not respond. My wife went to see the house today and it was dirty and items in the house had been broken - for example broken scissors, dvd's snapped in two - of course items do get broken and we expect that but we would never leave broken items in the house and always replace items and never charge the guest for breakages, Sometimes guests hide damage (probably thinking we would charge them) and we do not have the chance to replace the item quickly. This guest of course has a right to complain, holiday time is very precious and I am upset that their stay was not perfect. We have sacked the cleaning company, but I am so sad that we put so much into the property, have had many happy guests, and now no one will rent the house going forward because of this awful review. Any ideas how to approach this?

I see that others have covered this - sorry, I should have clarified; but I wanted to say that I absolutely love your gloriously silly username

Recently stayed in a holiday cottage in County Durham. On arrival it wasn't as clean as it should have been (the living room floor clearly hadn't been hoovered, there were crumbs in the kitchen drawers, washing up was left in the dishwasher that that hadn't cleaned properly, and most of the cooking pots were completely worn out).
I sent a rather grumpy text to the owners with photos. An apology came back and they suggested a time to come round and rectify the problems the following morning. When we got back the following day everything was spotless and a brand new set of pots had been delivered.
The owners dealt with the problems quickly and efficiently.

OP - your problem is because you didn't do enough about previous reviews commenting about cleanliness. The final review isn't your real problem - it will be the fact that you have a number of reviews commenting about your place being dirty which suggests a trend.

Whilst there's not a lot else you can do about it in many circumstances, I don't think just turning up to rectify the issues is a completely perfect solution that would reasonably satisfy everybody.

A big part of your self-catering holiday is that you have everything that you need, all lovely and in place for you, and to be left alone in privacy to relax and enjoy it. I can see how people don't want to have to get in touch to complain and then have to work around arrangements to make it right during their holiday.

Enough people put out the Do Not Disturb signs in hotels when they're staying several nights and don't want the staff to come in and clean/replenish for them - because they just want to be left alone in peace without any interruptions.

Obviously if an emergency happens out of the blue, that's one thing; but if it's something that could and should have been known and dealt with before your arrival, it being 'rectified' within a day or two isn't really a great solution for many people.

At least they finally made the effort, and I get it if their cleaners have just started to let them down; but the cooking pots are weird. We have pans that we've had for 20 or 30 years, which are still in perfect working order; it's not like they suddenly all wear out.

I do think that, even if they don't have a full week's holiday there, all holiday let owners should at the bare minimum set aside a day each year, out of season when they don't have a booking, to go and examine in detail everything in the place, and properly fix/replace anything that needs it, rather than just shrugging with an 'it'll do' attitude.

People pay a lot of money to rent a place for a week, so they don't want to be treated as though they're the owners mates who've been told they can come over and stay for a while for free and "just take us as you find us".

Oh. Thanks

Sorry been offline visiting the house, didn't realise so many responses! Thanks for all the very useful advice and encouraging messages. New cleaning company now in place but just wanted to clarify a few things. We only had one poor review which mentioned the cleaning (before the dire one) they are very regular guests and have already booked for next year so are obviously happy overall. We have never had a bad review before about the cleaning (we think the cleaner is a bit hit and miss as things like skirting boards are not washed down) so we did not want to sack her after one poor review when the guests have already rebooked. The cleaner has worked for us since we brought the house and has three kids - I suppose everyone can have an off day and we would always want to be fair, we did speak with her and she apologised, but she obviously did not clean properly for the next guests. She gets paid £28 per hour for cleaning as well as a large Christmas bonus. We often go to the house to check it is ok - at least once a month, and replace any broken items etc. When my wife visited the house it was dirty, mainly because the guests had just left, but she could see some areas had not been dusted properly and some areas in the bathroom had not been wiped down. Anyway everything is now in place and I hope that future guests will be happy and enjoy their stay.

Please don’t take any notice of that last nasty comment. Could you find a local person who would clean your holiday place and take a pride in it like you do?

Honestly unless you pay a lot of money, nobody is going to care as much as you do. Not knocking you, just you need to be realistic.

So now you say only two negative reviews

the impression you gave in your Op was rather more @holidaylethelp

but as the summer has gone on we have had some really negative feedback saying that the kitchen and bathroom were dirty