Lay My Hat

We had guests last week who didn't know to press the button on the smoke alarm to make it stop. The alarm went off intermittently all night and they didn't sleep.

They said they were afraid to touch it as they thought it could be wired into the mains and they might be electrocuted.

They have my number and the next door neighbour who is our property managers number. They didn't call. They thought it was too late.

Now, I would have taken the batteries out myself, or called to ask what to do.

I am really worried that they will give us a bad review. It is air b and b and every review counts. We have had 5 stars for everything so far, apart from 2 4 star reviews for location. This already has given us only 4 stars on our page. (Location is an odd one. It is walking distance to village/beach. Our 'rivals' are a drive away from everything but have all 100% 5 star reviews!)

I would have got someone to take wine or cake up to them but they were checking out anyway so I couldn't.

Why did the alarm keep going off? Is it faulty? Were they setting it off somehow?

You need to have clear instructions about what a guest can do to deal with the alarm themselves if it goes off at night and they don't want to contact you. In light of their comment about fear of being electrocuted you probably need to state it is battery operated.

I don't think you can worry too much about a bad review yet. They may, they may not. They could have called you and decided not to do so. If they do leave a bad review I'm sure you can respond with an apology about the alarm (if it was a fault and not them doing something to set it off) and explain that you would have welcomed them contacting you - no matter the hour - so that you could sort it out for them.

Sometimes, s**t happens and it is no-one's fault!

Why worry now? What has happen has happen. No injuries, no damage. You cannot change anything.