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Joe's Lookout La Maddalena (Sardinia) Italy
A self catering elegant secluded apartment located in the middle of a national park with 180 degree views of the sea and a 2 minute walk to the beach below it.
Katerina, great advice on this and I just implemented it!
M Adamopoulou - I listed my property bang in the middle of high season last year (August for Sardinia). I cleaned it up and had it ready and got a same day booking at peak price. It was someone whose accommodation elsewhere had fallen through. I hear you about same day being difficult, but you can also advise them they will need to check in a little later as soon as they book. I didnt need to do this as my apartment was available before that. I just read the stats that same day bookings are increasing!
Delta16home - how about a picture of the breakfst basket in the room with a caption?
WOW. What a situation! Thanks for the heads up. It has happened to me, only once mind you, years ago I let out a luxury home for thousands fo euros, for a month, and the family came and said the house was dirty. I got the director of a competing real estate agency to come and check on it and he found it to be spic and span. So in the end the family had to admit that they were city dwellers that found the location too remote and the house too rustic (it was by the sea) and built in the 60s. They paid half the rent and I didn't recover the rest. These days things would be different and we have platforms like Booking to show the property and the location etc (though I am learning that guests don't read...)
So I think it can happen that sometimes people use cleanliness as an excuse when they don't like the place and want to leave. But I wasn't aware of the scam in this situation. How are owners responding to the scam?
Katerina I have never had such a situation. Is this particular to certain type of accommodation? I do hear colleagues on AIRBNB say that some guests will always complain about cleanliness. The only 'retort' is they will send someone to clean it again, and the guests usually say 'no I will clean it myself' but they don't get abusive.
Sannservices, am sorry for you it cannot be a nice thing to deal with. Sounds to me like your presentation (online) of the property and your physical presentation (what the place looks like and feels like) might differ somewhat and that guests like it enough to book it but not enough to stay.
No need to be upset about that, this is all helpful feedback for your business. I would look back at when this happened and write down the feedback they gave and act upon it. If you have bad reviews for cleaning, you might need to clean more and address the specific concerns. I would even mention in description that you have new cleaning contractors. Because most guests won't stay in a place that has been rated as dirty. Secondly, when you have guests from all over, their standards of what is clean might differ from the property owners' or yours. So, can you get some other people to come and have a look and give you feedback (some locals). Are your pictures too nice? Do they actually represent the rooms?
Best of luck to you. And keep going
AAltje our place is in a rural area too. Some people drive around in circles even though there are not many places to go. We use landmarks (one is another accommodation) and sometimes we put up coloured ribbon on some bushes. I have a property manager that generally greets guests in town and then drives them to our property (unless it's at night). But they stay min 5 nights...so might be different for you. I like the ribbons though...
Thanks Blue Canary I don't mind doing it, I just wonder what else they need to know.