We have a home in Brewster and have had wonderful renters who have nothing but posative comments.Some weeks we had as many as 10 people staying at the home and still all went well.
Our Guestbook contains posative feedback and wonderful comments.
Well today all that changed...
we were out enjoying life and recieved a voicemail message on the cell phone from the present renters complaining of Air Conditioners and bath mats.
The website is quite accurate to the homes accomidations and central air was not an accomidation in wich we offered
Mind you... the upstairs master has A/C and downstairs bedroom has 2 windows and gets no direct sunlight
She also complained about th bath mat that goes inside on shower floor.Saying it was filthy! Ok maybe shes right..??
A BATH MAT??
Is this a reason to call or a note on the table at check out will do justice??
Well after two hours of dwelling the call and what to say and how to remedy the problem ...I called her back.
Did I say they were from JERSEY??
Anyway i get her on the phone and discussed the air conditioner and details on website as I apologized for her inconvenience
and asked her to purchase a new bath mat (wich really isnt needed) and we will re~emberse her the price of new bath mat
she decided that was fine....
So then I said "Ya know ....Its funny that that room downstairs is so hott that fan in the window really cools the room off nicely"
And she replied " My husband and my son slept down there last night and couldnt sleep .....All of a sudden I hear her son Yell in the background "I SLEPT FINE"!!
And her Husband ...down stairs ???
So she said " i guess tonight we'll try the fan
Like you dint think of that last night while you were hot??( I though to my self)
the fan is the first option DUH
WELL..
Guess things arent good sometimes Even On Vacation!!!
So my question is would you complain over a bath mat being dirty??
Making a call 24 hours after renting the house ??. Or just leave a note or comment in guest book ?? Our Rental Price is extremely resonable too.
Cheriberry

I would not have called about the bath mat.
We stayed at Snowshoe in WV over Christmas and paid a fortune to be in this condo. The Condo was falling apart. The first night, the heat barely worked. It was really cold...I mean freezing.The draw in the bathroom was broken and hanging out. The toilet ran every time we flushed until I jiggled the chain. The shower curtain was mildewed and grossed me out. The fireplace had a hole in the back that went outside...
Okay. I did complain at checkout. It was so overpriced. I could have stayed in a Ritz Carlton for the price we paid and we were in no where land WV. I was reimbursed 20 percent back. I should have probably complained more. I am not usually the complaining type.
If your place is old, you may need to freshen up your bath mats and such at the end of this season. It is hard to be an owner that is at least 5 hours drive away. Do you have a manager watching over the place? Do you have a good cleaning staff?

No, I would not have called, but if the place appeared dirty or falling apart, I would complain at the end and not stay there any more.

I expect a unit, including bath mats, to be fresh and clean. I would be grossed out by a dirty bath mat. If it were filthy, I would be icked out and looking all around me for other problems.

I assume you use a professional cleaning service? If so, I would change the service.

I would be glad that a disgruntled guest called early in the stay, rather than later. And, I would be thankful to have the opportunity to resolve the problem before she recorded her complaints in the guestbook.

I forgot to mention the tub was sparkling clean and bathmat hung on towel bar not on tub. If that matters ??

Wonder if she was trying to get a freebie? If her son said he was fine and her H said he did not sleep downstairs, sounds like she was "embelleshing"...Can't think of any other reason.

By the way...I am from "JERSEY". What on Earth does that have to do with anything?

Although I am certain your rental home is lovely & exactly what you represent in your advertising, some renters are just unrealistic in their expectations. As a property owner who rents sometimes you just have to deal with those type people. Not every tenant is the one you'd hope for.

Sounds like up until these tenants you have been fortunate.

Cherriberry, with all due respect I feel if the bath mat is filthy that say something about a whole place. We were staying in Homer, AK and the shower curtain had a mold on it so we called the owners. In about a half hour they not only brought a new curtain but send a cleaning lady to clean a cabin one more time and they brought beautiful flowers to appologize. As a result we would return to that place again. I would never return to a place where the owner makes a big issue of such small and easily fixable problem. No, and I don't feel that a note a on the table at check out will do justice. I think you should be thankful to the renters for bringing this problem to your attention so it can be fixed very easily and as a result the next renter has nothing to complaint about.
As to air conditioning I think if you advertise there is no a/c they cannot change anything about it. This summer is not easy to deal with heat even in the mountains. Maybe her husband and sun watched tv downstairs, maybe they play a game, read a book and fell in sleep. Come on, cherriberry, it is not such a big deal. Fix it and stop thinking about it.

<She also complained about the bath mat that goes inside on shower floor.Saying it was filthy! Ok maybe shes right..??
A BATH MAT??
Is this a reason to call or a note on the table at check out will do justice??>

< forgot to mention the tub was sparkling clean and bathmat hung on towel bar not on tub.>

<Well after two hours of dwelling the call and what to say and how to remedy the problem>
Why? It was such a small problem.

Many of us have to deal with unreasonable people at work as customers or clients or patients - it is part of the job and one just has to learn to deal with it. Owning rental property is a similar situation. That is one of the reasons we do not own any rental property - I get enough of it at work.

If you have had good renters before and after this, try to just let it go - it does not matter if you are right or wrong. Just try to let it go, because if you rent long enough, you are going to get other tenants with untimely, over-stated and even unreasonable complaints.

Consider it one of the costs of doing business - you could get 99 responses here saying we would not call landlord over this issue - but there will always be that 1 person in 100 who will - no matter how "perfect" your product is.

I think it is perfectly reasonable to call about the bathmat if it indeed was filthy. Personally, that would disgust me. Leaving a note at checkout serves no purpose for that particular guest.

As for the AC, if you make it clear you don't have it, then they don't have grounds for anything.

I grew up in NJ. Why is the fact that they were from there relevant to your story?

I completely agree with Mama.

It is not unreasonable to expect a clean bathmat!

I was born and raised in New Jersey -- I too do not understand the relevance of your remark.

To be perfectly blunt, I think if you obsessed about the call that much, and if you were bothered so greatly by the complaint of a dirty bathmat (which you admit was probably true), then I strongly suspect being a "landlord" is not for you. These stories are mild compared to what often happens. If someone rented the place understanding it was Air Conditioned, I would understand their being disappointed to find out the AC didn't extend to all rooms. Does your ad make it clear that the lower bedroom is NOT air-conditioned?

Pegging people by their backgrounds, such as seemingly understanding the problem when you knew they were from Jersey, also speaks volumes about you.

You've got someone on your hands who wants a discount on her rent and/or attention, and to my knowledge they grow such people in all 50 states. It's not pleasant but it's far from unusual, and it comes with the territory of being a landlord -- little point in being defensive.

On the other hand, after a hot, damp season with many people tramping through your place, a bath mat could get funky, so consider the possibility that she's not 100% nuts, and that buying a new bathmat is cheaper than discounting the rent -- and will leave her with nothing to say on the matter any more.

Otherwise, hold your breath until she leaves, make sure that the cleaning crew did their job with the bath mat, and don't get in a swivet -- be positive. She could be a lot worse.

A clean bathmat is very important in my book! Who needs a foot fungus?!

It sounds like you have gotten really used to the good comments and just don't know how to accept criticism.

I believe, even if the mat appeared clean to you, that you need to replace it right away, in order to appease to customer (and do it nicely).

The fact remains, if you want them as a repeat cusomer, or to give you good a review to friends (or message boards), you need to try to resolve dissapointments ASAP.

...and if you DON"T want them again, then make a little note for future reference.

My Sis who is VERY particular, even more than myself (which is alot!), received a AC window unit installation in her B&B on the BI after calling ahead from the 1st place that didn't have one. (Somehow she didn't realize that fact, but said there were also other disappointments). She came home RAVING about how wonderful the 2nd place was, in every aspect!

Now, I call installing an AC specificly due to a complaint outstanding service!!

Anyway, attitude makes a big difference...you can make sticky situations work, with alittle effort.

Belle.

One more poster taking offense to the Jersey comment.

Maybe she just meant it was a long distance phone call to New Jersey? I hope that's it anyway.

Kath, nice thought but clearly that is not what cheriberry meant about "JERSEY".

Still not finding that remark amusing.

I can't believe that you had to post this on a travel board for opinions. This is really just so trivial & so obvious. The mat may not have bothered some tenants, others may not have complained, but this one did. And I would be pretty pissed off if I had to spend my vacation time in a wal-mart. Couldn't you have your cleaning person pick it up and deliver it to the house?

But, I would like to know, how often do you visit this property? Have you checked on it recently? Or are you an owner who just lets it run and run, only checked by the cleaning people year after year? If you check the house yourself regularly then you should know if things are 'funky'. If you rely on others to do the job for you, then you really need to get in touch with the property and perhaps update some items. And, your cleaning service who may have done a fantastic job when you first hired them, may be slacking off as well. Finally, without air conditioning, the humidity will attract mildew and mold so fast you won't believe it. That mat may have been clean on Friday and by Monday have mildew on it already--without the shower ever being used. You may also want to get the A/C filter cleaned or changed.

Oh boy, I knew the Jersey comment would get things riled up, even more than a dirty bathmat!

We were on a white water trip in Montana last week and our guide told us a story about a very difficult client she had who not listen to her safety instructions. He insisted on keeping his leg dangled outside the boat. It could easily get caught on a submerged log or rock, she explained, but he told her bluntly that he signed a waiver and he'll do as he wished. We all were, of course, appalled at this. Then a few seconds later, someone said, Let me guess, he was from NY. Or Jersey! someone else piped up and said. Yikes.

Please understand - I am not condoning this talk - just relating comments I heard about my neck of the woods (I'm in PA) while away. It seems a lot of people, all over the country, have this stereotype. (BTW, we did not find out where the rude man was from).

Repeat: I did not make these comments, I heard them. Please don't attack ME.

We could have a whole other thread on cultural stereotypes, if it hasn't already been done. Read the first two paragraphs of this Washington Post article. I think the Jersey stereotype is similar to the one described here for Brooklyn, only lovingly, in this case.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...081401235.html

cheriberry, get a life, or learn how to be a business person and how to handle complaints..