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Vendetta Reviews

General Hostel Operations

rjd1983 started this discussion 12 years 2 months ago

How would you deal with vendetta reviews? This week, I have received two vendetta reviews, one from a current guest, and the other an ex-guest.

The problems come down to our 3 week maximum stay policy.

The first review was quite horrific... He wrote on his review that someone should kill me, and burn the hostel down... When we saw the review, we immediately kicked him out, and gave him a refund of his money for the rest of his nights. We got the review taken down first thing in the morning.

What kicked him off was that I saw he had been here about 6 days, and had booked in for another 7 nights, so I thought I would introduce myself properly, then I wove into the conversation our 3 week policy. He said no problem, he probably wasn't going to be extending past he second extension.

Then about an hour later, I get a phone call from my boss saying to look at HB reviews.

The second review was just a vendetta review, because I reminded this Australian guy of our 3 week policy. His review said "New manager is creepy, lying, thieving, and is ruining what used to be a charming hostel." In fact, since I've taken over the hostel, the hostel is now rated the highest it ever has been (90%+ on HB). As far as the Australian was concerned, he shouldn't have to leave as he hasn't been staying 3 weeks consistently all the time (he goes for a few days, then comes back for weeks). I said our agreement with the Council is a 3 week stay (it's 4, actually), and the Council would see your reservation a breach of our licensing conditions as you are living out of the hostel.

I explained everything really politely to him, said that "I had no problems with him, I was happy for him to stay, but the council are going to be auditing us soon and we need to make sure we look good. We are also asking other long term guests to leave as well, so it's not you, so please don't feel that I am singling you out." He went on to say how he felt singled out, how he abided by the rules, paid his rent on time, etc, and was still asked to leave the hostel. While I definitely understood his point, and if the positions were reversed, I would feel a bit hurt about what was said.

One of the reasons we wanted him to leave was that he wasn't being a tourist, he was just living in the hostel, he would drink our free tea and coffee all day, sit *all day* in the common area on his laptop, extend his stay day-by-day on HB to get cheap rates, and didn't spend any money at the bar. He was costing us money. About a month later, he writes that review on HW...

My boss has told me not to personally tell people about the 3 week rule (we have posters up), and when they are coming close to their 3 weeks, he said for him to tell them the bad news...

What do you think is the best way to handle these disgruntled ex customers? And how would you go about telling people that they have to leave after 3 weeks? Some people do get upset about it.

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Rucksack Brian

12 years

Wow. Really? Kill the manager and burn the hostel down? That’s not psychotic at all…

If someone arrives with a booking for a week or so, it’s probably not a bad idea to casually mention the 3 week policy when they check in, just in case they want to extend later. The receptionists can try to word it as an invitation to extend their stay: “If you decide you’d like to stay longer, just let me know. I can extend your reservation up to three whole weeks! Of course then the Council gets all weird and makes me kick you out, but that’s like three weeks away, so no worries. Would you like me to block your bed for another night or two now?”

Since you have the posters up and people can see the policy every time they walk by, you might not even need to say anything until it becomes a problem. When the guest comes to extend past the limit, tell them, “unfortunately I can only extend your stay for X more days before you hit the maximum stay limit.” If there is resistance, then the receptionist can mention that longer stays would violate the terms of the Council and incur fines for the hostel. The guest probably won’t care about your fines, but at least they might not take it so personally.

I can see how going directly to the guest and bringing up the policy before they actually reach the three-week limit could make them feel singled out. It’s kind of like telling someone out of the blue that you’re counting down the days until they leave. I always support the policy of avoiding surprises and telling people what they can expect in advance, which is exactly what you were trying to do. That’s definitely a good policy. Some people are a bit sensitive though. And apparently others are batshit crazy.

I presume that after four weeks the council considers them to be a tenant rather than a hostel guest. Is that right? It’s not ideal, but you could institute an undesirable price for longer stays that would make them a tenant. After three weeks, anyone wanting to become a tenant must pay rent, which could be astronomically high. The first and last month’s rent must be paid in advance, as well as a security deposit equal to two months of rent. All of this could be spelled out clearly in a document at reception so that there would be no claims of a personal attack. Of course, this might backfire if the rent isn’t high enough to discourage people from staying. Then you could end up with a house full of legal tenants overrunning your hostel and making your life miserable.

Regarding the vendetta review itself, there’s not much you can do except write a response that tries to soften the blow and dilute the negative impact.

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rjd1983

12 years

I think under UK law, landlords have to offer tenants a Tenancy Agreement after 4 weeks, and after 4 weeks they are entitled to extra facilities to make their stay more comfortable, such as cooking facilities. For cooking facilities, all we have are a toaster and microwave. So as we don't have a lot of these facilities, the Council doesn't want guests staying longer than 4 weeks, which the owner had no objections to.

I generally don't find the posters make that much of a difference - people are still staying beyond their 3 weeks. I usually let it slide a week or two if they are not a pain-in-the-you-know-what. Saying that, I will probably put more posters up to cover ourself. I all ready translate them into French and Spanish, that way there are no come backs.

You do make a good suggestion, blaming the 'silly Council', and telling them about the silly Council when guests checkin.

I have no problem in what people write about me in the review (e.g. thinking I am creepy), but personal attacks are not acceptable such as "lying, thieving, overcharging". I wouldn't even know where to begin if I was to write a response.

I personally feel like writing the Australian guy a polite e-mail, saying there really wasn't a need to write such a nasty review about the hostel, and how I was always polite and friendly towards him. But frankly, that would probably make things worse by escalating it.

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Rucksack Brian

12 years

I have no problem in what people write about me in the review (e.g. thinking I am creepy), but personal attacks are not acceptable such as "lying, thieving, overcharging". I wouldn't even know where to begin if I was to write a response.

Assuming that you kicked the guy out, you can discredit the review by saying something along the lines of “This guest had to be removed from the hostel for inappropriate behavior.” The fact that you dismiss the review without explaining the situation or responding directly to the comments might encourage potential guests to dismiss them too. And it makes the review sound spiteful and childish. Of course, all of this assumes that you did, in fact, throw that person out. Which you didn't in this case.

HW used to have a published policy that a guest would lose their right to leave a review if they were a no-show or they got kicked out of the hostel. I can’t find that text anywhere on their site or in their contract anymore. If that policy still exists and anyone knows where to find it, please share the link.

I think most countries consider personal attacks like "The new manager is lying, thieving, overcharging" to be libelous unless they can be proven. You may be able to negotiate the removal of those specific comments if the guest can’t back up their claim.

If you need to respond, just make sure it is beneficial to future guests. A general apology to show you care might be called for too. “In accordance with Council regulations we have to limit the maximum stay in the hostel to three weeks. I’m sorry that this policy affected your stay and for any inconvenience that it caused you.” If his comments aren’t about something you can fix or if they don’t apply to the hostel, (for example, he doesn’t like you) you may end up doing more harm than good by acknowledging them in your response. I think you’re right that emailing him would probably just escalate the situation.

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sydney

12 years

All the hostels I've been to had a 2 week maximum stay. It's not an uncommon policy. I usually let people know when they book for a week at first or extend for a week. I just say ' just to let you know there is a 2 week maximum stay in a calendar year and if you book for this amount of time you will only have so and so days left to stay." I actually haven't really had that many complain and more often than not the ones that do stay the full 2 weeks are the ones we don't want staying at all. It's like a godsend.

As long as you can get the reviews taken down it shouldn't be too much of a problem though, right? HB and HW have been very understanding on which reviews need to come down. I had a review calling me a 'racist' because I made her take her luggage down from her old room when she was due to change rooms and store it until the new room was ready. Despite that I told her it was what we ask of everyone changing rooms she insisted it was because of the colour of her skin and wrote a terrible review about it. One email later to our HB rep and it was taken down since it was ungrounded. We emailed the woman after she left to further explain the common procedures in a hostel and to explain it had nothing to do with race or ethnicity, but she just didn't want to hear from us. She wanted to believe she was victimized and sometimes you can't win with people like that.

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Ria

12 years

i agree that talking to a guest pre-emptively might make him/her feel singled out. You have up posters...you should also put this info on your HB and HW profiles and in your confirmation letters. Then..you just point to those places and kindly explain that you have this limit. But you wait until they try to extend past the 3 weeks. I don't think you need to justify it in any way. We have a 2 week limit at our hostels and it rarely gets questioned. We have a 2-week stay limit, I'm sorry. End of story...if you need to blame the council as a last resort do so. I've blaned the 'corporate office' before and i am the corporate office. Makes the staff laugh whenever i do that. but generally, less is more. The less you discuss it the more you don't have to engage back and forth on it.

Also, unless you need to write the guest for ammo to get the review taken down or you are wanting to get into an email fight, don't bother to write the guest. Their mind is made up and if they are still made, then they will just fight you. It's not worth the aggravation.

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HostelOffice

12 years

Hey there is nothing wrong with Australians ;) Why not write English speaking dude or dude that did not speak English as a second language. :)

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elpsi

12 years

Hi, I have been reading here, and many more times in the post "Should hostels honor bookings at all cost?", interesting (to me) references regarding bad or even psychopath guests behaviors.

Let me tell you that I have more experience with "human behavior" than with "hostel management", because I am a psychiatrist since 1987, and my hostel is not open yet BUT the WORST UN-PROPER PSYCHOPATH LIKE MANIPULATIVE MISCONDUCT I've ever seen WAS NOT among my patient in my office, BUT it was among clients of a print shop I had 8 years ago.

So get ready to lead with people trying to get what they want, with no normal or logic limits, no matter to which socio economic, race, age or educational level they belong. Once in a while you should face this unfortunate event.

HB, HW or even other costumers will be able to believe your arguments when you explain the situation in response to the only one or few vendetta reviews.

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