wonderful guests

[tansy]

I have just got back from our Utah Beach house - 10 Germans and a Newfoundland dog for a week in this rubbish weather (we're at the edge of this artic weather blast - no snow here just freezing winds!) - if I hadn't seen the 3 cars during the week I would not have believed they had stayed... towels washed - even some of the beds had had the linen washed ironed and put back... I know 3 Newfoundlands around here and they stink to high doe ... I can't even be with in 2 meters of them on the beach as my stomach wrenches - this one only reason I know it was there was some dog hair - no smell nothing - fantastic.... this is the 3rd time I've had Germans in....they can keep coming as far as I am concerned - I'll even put their towels on the sun beds for them in the summer!

[Mouse]

How nice to experience that Tansy!
And shows there are dog owners out there who appreciate owners allowing them to have their dog holiday with them (must admit I'm the same with ours - I'm paranoid about leaving a bad impression incase it puts them off allowing dogs).

Now - point me in the direction of a good German rental website!

Mousie
x

[cottageguru]

That is great to hear. We welcome dogs in our cottage and find dog owners tend to leave the place in a much better condition than other guests. I know there's an occasional bad apple but on the whole, its been a good experience for us.

We don't get too many Germans here - sounds like they are the ideal guests.

[Margaret]

Some of them are lovely guests but my experience is that many have firmer ideas on what they will and will not cooperate with when on holiday. One family were even furious when I asked them to park a little more tidily so that the guests in the other apartment could get into the parking area. They seemed to think we should have covered the whole garden with tarmac to allow them to park how they liked. My other problem with them (and this will not apply to many owners in here) is that quite a lot of them will bring all their food and drink for the week with them, which means precious little benefit to the local shops and restaurants.

[tansy]

Ahhh - these are all Germans coming to Normandy ... we didn't have very many until recently, when The Chancellor was welcomed to the 60th anniversary celebrations for D Day - since then our numbers have rocketed.

As these ones that have just left said - our last invasion wasn't that successful!

Even Germans with a sense of humour coming here!

[cottageguru]

For a nation that doesn't have a word for 'fluffy', that was funny!

[Margaret]

After the horror of the bogus reviews, this email last night from guests who came last summer and have rebooked for this summer has reminded that reality is a little different:

"We had such a lovely time last year and there are lots of places still to see, not to mention the lovely advantage of being able to turn up at a holiday house and be confident that everything will be completely clean!"

[la vache!]

I think that using the word 'horror' is rather over the top to describe the bogus reviews, Margaret, especially in view of the fact they were never published.

[Margaret]

Obviously I am an over emotional person then. That word certainly describes how I felt about a malicious review being posted by people who never stayed here citing total untruths and no direct power to ensure that they were not published.

[la vache!]

'Over emotional' is not how you come across in the majority of your postings, Margaret. And you do have the power to stop the reviews being published, you respond to the emails within 48 hours and then they will be put on hold. Or have I missed something? That is all I had to do, anyway. I'm not saying I like the H-R system, on the contrary, but let's keep things in perspective.

[Jimbo]

La Vache wrote:

And you do have the power to stop the reviews being published, you respond to the emails within 48 hours and then they will be put on hold.

Unless you don't receive the email because you're on holiday, or it doesn't arrive or ends up in the trash. And you only find out a few weeks later after punters have refrained from booking or bookmarking your property because of the poor review. And you have lost revenue and goodwill but you'll never know how much.

I'm with Margaret on this issue. I work too hard to promote my business(es) to risk having them damaged by sloppy initiatives that haven't been properly considered or implemented.

Jim

[Margaret]

The reply I had was that if the guests could produce 'evidence' that they had stayed here, the review would be published. My point is, that evidence could be faked. As I said, I had no DIRECT power to delete the review.

[la vache!]

Jimbo, my point was, it is not 'horror'. It isn't professional, it isn't a well thought out initiative, I don't think I said once that I agreed with H-R's policy on reviews, I just think that Margaret's response was a bit OTT and if it is someone from LMH they will think they have won.
Margaret, if they fake evidence, then worry about it then, why now when no-one has attempted to do this? I'll be interested to see how they fake an e mail from me to them. So far the scammers haven't done anything technically difficult or impressive.
Edited, sorry Paolo.

[paolo]

Forum Rule #1. It's fine to attack an opinion but not the person expressing it.

[Margaret]

Or to put it another way: how I describe myself is my business.