What to do with a bad review?

Question

We have been renting our beach house vacation home out for quite some time.  It is a LARGE beautiful home that we have been lucky to have only a couple open weekends all year. The home is located in an HOA area with strict rules - one being, no more than 12 people in the home. With this being said, we purchased the home with outdoor security cameras installed.  One at each end of the driveway that run off of wifi.

We recently had some guests come in that brought 21 people with them.  When we tried to inform them that it wasn't our rules and the community security guard could ask them to all leave without a refund, they disconnected the wifi to shut off the security cameras.  They broke the microwave, somehow turned our hot tub green, broke one of the burners on the stove.  And when we attempted to turn in the damage to the insurance, the completely trashed us in their review on VRBO. They said that we have the house lined with cameras and that we use the insurance to just buy new appliances. We only have 9 reviews on VRBO, and they were all five stars, but this renter just gave us a 1 star review.

WHAT DO WE DO?! There is a review that says we have our home full of cameras on the inside (in the private areas they state) and VRBO refuses to take it down because it's "their opinion".  Should we delete our listing and start all over? Or do you think that people will look past this?

Any advice will help! Thanks in advance.

John Underwood · Answer

I would contact Vrbo about this and see what they say. If nothing can be done I would reply in  a professional matter in response to their review about what happened. I think most people will be able to look past this.

Nancy Bachety · Answer

Definitely post a polite, professional response immediately, if you haven’t yet. People will see through one scalding review. Help them, though. Point out your glowing prior reviews. Do not trash them publicly but short and sweet truths speak volumes. It’s probably better that they were way off base instead of just a little. Makes them less believable when it totally contradicts your other reviews. Good luck with VRBO.

Eric P. · Answer

Sorry to hear all of this. I would do 2 things:1) Do you have contact info for the guests? If so, I’d pay a lawyer $150 to write a strongly worded letter to them, accusing them of slander, pointing out that it’s a crime, and requesting certain actions (such as that they ask VRBO to take down the review or they will face criminal charges).2) I would also write a comment below their review pointing out the truth - keep it brief & keep it professionalGood luck!

Anand S. · Answer

This is why I always take a $500 deposit in cash in addition to the $99 damage insurance. When it comes down to me keeping the $500 or them copping to the damage and having it come out of the insurance, they always choose the insurance.

Michael Baum · Answer

HI @Cheyanne Murdoch, so sorry to hear about your issues. I would also contact your HOA board and see if you can get them to help back you up with VRBO. A third party that might have witnessed what was going on, neighbors, security etc can carry some weight.

Don't let up on VRBO. Keep on them until you get this fixed. I would also, in the mean time, put in polite answer covering everything. Tell the truth and call them out for their terrible behavior. Did you give them a 5 star review? I don't know if you can update that, but if you can, drop it to 1 star.

Cheyanne Murdoch · Answer

I would think their comments are slander - and that's not allowed.  I even asked "If they state that there are cameras inside of the home.. Wouldn't it be your job to temporarily suspend the listing and look into these claims? Because if that were true, and someone were to post these videos of inside the home, I would think that VRBO would be held liable for this since they didn't look into it."

Cheyanne Murdoch · Answer

I have contacted VRBO several times and they keep denying to take it down.  But another this is that the insurance contacted the tenants to ask if they did the damage and they denied doing it.. Even though we sent pictures, receipts, everything they asked.  But since the tenants won't admit to it, they will not go through with our insurance claim.  We filed the claim as soon as the people left, but it took VRBO a month to call them, and as soon as VRBO did contact them, that's when the renter blasted the comment online.  Yet, the money isn't even coming out of their pocket.  They paid the $79 - all they have to do is admit to it, but refuse to.

Luke Carl · Answer

Keep calling VRBO until you get someone that’s not a moron. Could take several tries. Use the following language “indoor cameras are illegal and they lied about it in their review”

Guests are not allowed to state non facts in the listing especially if it’s something illegal.

Again just keep calling until you get someone coherent. Don’t bother calling off hours. 9-5 mon-fri central time.

What to do with a bad review?

Most Popular Reply