Handling review response (II° help, please)

[Tizfata]

Ciao everyone!
In May you were very helpful in finding an adequate response to a review, so I hope you can help me again.
A former US guest submitted an enthusiastic revew on H-R but only gave us 4 stars:

The only reason I did not give 5 stars was that the comfort of the bed in the main bedroom was not too comfortable.

I have to say it is the first time a guests complain about it and I can't sleep on it due to the high season (but will lay on it during Saturday changeover!). I didn't have plans of changing the mattresses in the apartments in the near future... I will if I find it uncomfortable but if it was that bad I feel someone would have make me notice earlier!
Are the Americans used to very different beds? Only the 3% of my income is from the US...
Could it be a real problem or just a cultural difference?
What should I write in the response to her otherwise fantastic review?
Thank you for your time and your thoughts!
Have a nice day!

[Nemo]

I had this Tiz, but in my case it was the FIRST guest to sleep on my brand new bed!

I have put in a contract bed but that is pocket sprung, so it's firm without being too firm. I should know because I cannot sleep on beds that are too hard and I find this one very comfy!

Comfort is clearly very personal, so if you want to reply I would suggest saying something like "sorry you did not find the bed to your liking, but hope it did not spoil your stay. The mattress is...(say what sort, how old or something) and fortunately the majority of our guests have no complaints/find it very comfortable."

Sorry others will say it better but perhaps you get my jist. You are not saying she is wrong but that others do not have the problem?

[FelicityA]

It could be purely a personal preference for a different type of bed, nothing more, and they may complain about every bed that is not just like the one they have at home. I can sympathise with them to a certain extent as I am the princess and the pea when it comes to beds - nothing can be too soft for me as I get backache from hard beds, but at the same time I realise that others like really firm beds so as long as a bed wasn't coming apart at the seams or demonstrably past its best, I wouldn't complain. Generally I find beds in Southern Europe too hard for ME but my husband loves them!

You can't please everybody! I would respond by saying you are really sorry that the bed did not suit them and you are planning to have a test sleep on it and ask the next few guests for their opinion on it. If they too, think it too soft/too hard then you will replace it accordingly and perhaps go for a 'medium'. In my cottage, I went for 'medium' to try and please everybody. In my apartment I have one medium to hard and one medium to soft and point this out accordingly in the hope that couples (these are two matresses on a king frame) with different preferences will be happy.

Oops sorry, still busy writing and Nemo posted while I was doing it. We are saying much the same thing, I think.

[Hells Bells]

Agree that beds are a personal preference. Next lot may find it the best thing they've ever slept on.

[greenbarn]

"Many thanks for the review and comments. For the benefit of our other guests we'd point out that our beds have soft/firm/orthopaedic/hard/concrete/whatever mattresses which the majority of people find very comfortable, but please contact us if you need specific information."

We had an enquiry a while ago specifically asking about the beds - are they soft? No, but give them a few years and they will be, although we'll have thrown them out long before then. I didn't actually say that of course, but I did point out that a number of guests had given unsolicited comments on how comfortable the beds are, that they're of a standard used in most hotels, and checked the mattress information for the enquirer. Not a peep in reply.

[harcourtv57]

As everyone has said, comfort in a bed is personal preference - we have a mattress in one of our properties which majority of guests say is fab (with a couple of requests as to where we got it so they can get one ). But funnily enough the only negative remarks we did get was from American guests who wrote in the guest book that the mattresses were awful!

[Ju]

Beds are definately down to personal preference, although having changed out several of my matresses this year for v-expensive latex ones I do wish I had splashed out earlier.

We did once have a set of guests comment on the bed in one double room being uncomfortable, but they said that the bed in the other double was fine (or even comfortable). Both beds were the same, bought at the same time

[CSE]

It is not a damming or untrue report of your property. It is just a personal opinion. I therefore do not see why you should respond.

[Big Sis..]

I agree with casa... dont reply, Its a really good review and anybody reading it would be pleased to stay at your place.

well done!!

Rosx

[e-richard]

As if to confirm the above comments, here is an extract from the guest book inside the Apartment (not on a website) we had the following sequence:

Guest 1: rave, rave and the beds were sooo comfortable
Guest 2: rave, rave, but the double bed was too hard
Guest 3: rave rave, and we also found the bed too hard
Written comment from myself: OK, will investigate new mattress.
Guest 4 repeater (4th visit): No Richard, don't change the bed, we love it.

The beds were very old, so we replaced them.

Guest 4 repeater (5th visit): We loved the new beds.

[Big Sis..]

Hi Richard the first 3.....
they werent staying with a Miss Godliocks were they?

[CSE]

Hi Richard the first 3.....
they werent staying with a Miss Godliocks were they?

No they were at a rave.