Ananymous reviews
The Reinhold Guesthouse Bali
2 February 2020 - 05:16:20
On January 25, a review was posted to our "guest reviews" page by an anonymous person, without a booking number identification.
So, please understand that we do not know if the booking number we have quoted is correct.
The review reads as follows:
1.0
Anonymous
25 Jan 2020
Staff
2.5
Cleanliness
2.5
Location
2.5
Facilities
2.5
Comfort
2.5
Value for money
2.5
dark, quiet and not as describe
Nothing
The building that they used for the main guest-house was a different building like the one on advert. Most of the room were emptied and it seems a bit spooky. The light not really bright either. The breakfast was only a bread and nothing else. I wouldn't recommended this place to anyone.
===========
In consideration of our long years of high ratings from booking.com guests, the Reinhold Guesthouse Management finds itself at a loss of understanding of how this review was possible.
Can you assist us please.
Thank you
Reinhold and Raghiel
the Reinhold Guesthouse Bali
Reservation ID: ***
Hi
So a similar question came up recently and I tried to attempt to leave a rating for someone I had not stayed.
what I discovered was it was not possible, but if someone actually pays for or has option to not prepay they potentially can still leave a review.
It would be good if BdC can confirm if no shows are allowed to still review.
You can call support direct with the info below.
Note: this is not direct support team you should call them directly.
Kind Regards
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Barry, how can no shows review if they dont show???
Good day M Adamopoulou,
We have followed many of your comments in this Forum,- you are an intelligent person.
May we ask for your opinion and thought on our recent experience,please!?
A anonymous review with a rating of "1" was recently posted to our BDC site with the following justification:
" Most of the room were emptied and it seems a bit spooky. The light not really bright either. The breakfast was only a bread and nothing else. I wouldn't recommended this place to anyone."
Although the review was posted anonymously, we are almost 100 % certain about the identity of the writer, because no "sole traveller" stayed in that particular room during the past 3 months.
The interesting part in this example is, that the ( suspected) writer, with whom we never met, was only the "Booker" of the reservation, and not the actual guest, who did not speak English, and never showed up for breakfast during his two night stay.
We would be grateful to hear from you, as an experienced host, how you would react in response to a rating and comments like those.
( BTW, - our overall rating is 9 now, <it was 9.2 before the review>)
Many thanks and Greetings from Bali
Reinhold and Raghiel
( PS. we posted our original query in regards to this issue on Feb. 2nd, and we also communicated with BDC, who referred us to the "Guest Reviews" link on their website )
https://partner.booking.com/en-us/help/guest-reviews/what-are-guest-reviews-and-who-can-write-one
Dear The Reinhold Guesthouse Bali & Barry Reilly thank you for posting in the community.
We send review invitations to guests within 48 hours after check-out and only to the guests that they have stayed at the property. Please keep in mind that if the guest is a no show is your responsibility to mark it in the system in order not to receive the link for the review. If you do not mark it then the guest automatically will receive the review link.
You can also find useful information here: https://partner.booking.com/en-us/help/guest-reviews/what-are-guest-reviews-and-who-can-write-one
Best of Luck!
Sorry to ask,-- but can you please clarify your statement :::
"We send review invitations to guests within 48 hours after check-out and only to the guests that they have stayed at the property."
What about the case when a friend books accommodation for me and leaves a review without my consent?
Yes, there is a gap there....
Unfortunately, last year I discovered that guests cannot leave a review if their reservation is made by another person....so two of my reviews were lost....
Thanks, for this information...didnt know that a no show guest could receive a review link.
Best regards.
Good point M Adamopoulou
here is the latest conversation with BDC staff on the subject of anonymous reviews:
Booking.com
3 February 2020 - 15:09:42
Dear Partner,
My name is Lina and I will be assisting you today. We can only remove reviews in certain situations. Naturally, reviews are based on guests’ subjective opinions. To remain unbiased, we only remove reviews if they are deemed irrelevant or offensive. To respect our customers’ privacy, we give them the option to leave an anonymous review. We understand that it is unpleasant to receive a negative review, but from our experience a mix of good and bad reviews, make the property look more liable and sets a realistic picture to the future guests.
Whenever you need us, we're always here.
--
Lina R.
Booking.com Partner Support Team
Ask a question or search by keyword at our Partner Help Centre
Our reply to Lina ::
Dear Lina,
-thank you for your response
My name is Reinhold, co-owner of the Reinhold Guesthouse in Bali.
Our query may be somewhat outside of the ordinary ; first of all , although we referred to a particular review, we did not ask for the removal of that message.
Here are the facts:
After receiving a confirmed booking via Booking.com, ( for 2 nights ) the booker,- ( not the guest for whom the reservation was made) contacted us and informed us that the reservation was not for her, but for her local ( Indonesian ) Driver.
The Driver, who only spoke Indonesian, arrived late at night, was shown to his dormroom and informed by our ( local ) staff that breakfast was included in his reservation cost. ( and available between 07:00 and 11:00 every morning )
That evening was the one and only time we personally made verbal contact with the guest, as we became aware that he left the premises in the early hours of the morning and returned very late at night. We never had the opportunity to meet the lady who booked the reservation.
After his two nights at our premises, the guest disappeared early in the morning, without checking out.
Now, the problem in this case is the following:
1)) The day after the (Driver) guest disappeared from our premises, the Lady who booked his accommodation, posted a review to our site ( with a rating of "1" ), ** our average rating is over "9" **
2)) The review in question was posted "anonymously", which leaves open the door for speculations and ( maybe "wrong" ) conclusions about the identity of the writer. --- In our opininion, this is unfair to us as the operators, and also to those of our guests who had chosen not to post a review.
Because, in the case of an anonimous review, we can only "assume" the identity of the writer by way of checking through the list of guests who had stayed with us, and who had chosen not to post a review on our page, and then look back at and consider our individual rapport with them.
By the way ( please understand this ) we have NEVER had an "ANONYMOUS" guest staying with us; all guests leave their identity behind when they depart.
On the other hand, it appears that Booking.com allows the "booker" of the accommodation full "anonymous" rights to offer evaluation on a service, or services, that they personally never encountered.
Kind regards from Bali
Reinhold and Raghiel
Dear Raghiel, so sorry to hear about your unfaithful guest and review problems.
I have checked your wonderful property and it is a shame that your guest acted in such an awful manner.
Wish you get no more unfaithful guests.
Dear M Adamopoulous, -Thank you for your kind words,
Greetings from Bali
Hi! Raghiel, massive pleasure. Wish I could visit Bali...but I have visited Bali in Crete Island.
When I visited our beautiful Island didnt know this place existed...so I visited...its a fantastic beach with clear blue waters...
Wish you great guests.
Thank you M Adamopoulou, we like to return our wishes to you
Btw, the BDC support team has been very helpful in dealing with our issues,- and all is fine.
Greetings from Bali
Reinhold and Raghiel
Oh! thats great news...did they remove the review???
Thank you for your feedback.
Have a nice day.
I feel for you Reinhold and Raghiel. We had a guest last year that after unsuccessfully trying to renegotiate the price once she had arrived (my fault as we always insist full payment is made prior to arrival) she then decided her and her partner wanted to leave and if we didn't refund all monies to them she was going to leave a bad review. They had booked for 4 nights and left the next day so got a free night including breakfast and all their money back. I contacted booking. com to get them to cancel the booking so we wouldn't have to pay commission and to open the dates up again. Got no reply and then 3 weeks later she leaves a 2.5 review score and made up so many things. We had the text messages with her threat which we sent in but still booking.com said it was ok for them to leave the review. At that time we were averaging 9.2 and it took us to 8.9. Still makes me mad today. Regards Michael
Good day Michael, thank you for sharing your experience.
That is exactly the point, -- as responsible accommodation providers, our primary goal is to make our guest's stay as pleasant for them as possible.
That takes a great deal of time and effort- - and just a single ( "grouchy") guest can ruin our good records.
With all respect to the individual guest's right to express their opinion, ( by way of rating the premises) it should appear somewhat "odd" to any prospective new guest to find a lonely number "1" or "2.5" amongst the accommodation provider's long list of "8's" , 9's and 10's.
During our 10 years of operation, this is only the second time that we have experienced a rating below "5"
Some two years ago, we objected to an "out of the ordinary " rating,- and after a lengthy back and forth communication with BDC, the review was removed.
We fully appreciate the position BDC are defending to be fair and unbiased towards both, the Guests and the Accommodation Providers.
Although it may take several painstaking, and perhaps frustrating, attempts to reach the right channel at BDC which is assigned to deal with an individual issue, it is worthwhile the effort.
Judging the professional support we have enjoyed from the BDC support team during the past years, we are 100% satisfied.
Thank you
Greetings from Bali
Reinhold and Raghiel
Good day Michael, ( 11/02/20)
As we outlined in our previous conversation with you, the only way to achieve satisfactory response from BDC is to stay on their back.
Our guests are our customers who pay for our services, - we (the hosts ) are BDC's customers,-- we are required to pay for their (BDC's) services and should be entitled to equal rights that our guests are enjoying.
Our guests are entitled ( even anonymously ) to discredit our hard efforts to please them all --- our response to their reviews has absolutely ZERO impact on THEIR daily life
( Just a thought)
and we keep fighting
cheers from Bali
Reinhold and Raghiel
Your story is so sad.
I don’t understand why guests must be so hard to please.
Your property is Paradise on earth!!!
Wish you only great guests.
Good morning M Adamopoulou,
If you are a superhost with Airbnb, like us, you most likely have received notification of their planned " Strengthening "their" commitment to community standards " by way of "holding the entire community, both hosts and guests, to the same high standards.
(( BDC appears to completely ignore the imbalance of accountability in regards to host's services versus Guest's reviews.
https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Strengthening-our-commitment-to-community-standards/m-p/1182183
We suggest that BDC Hosts encourage BDC to consider introducing similar policies in their Review System.
Kind regards
Reinhold and Raghiel
Hi! Reinhold,
Thank you for sharing with us very useful information.
It would be very nice if all guests and hosts be educated to be more responsible and trustworthy...
A system tracking infractions leading to suspension or removal of guests and hosts from the platforms would be a great way to minimize bad behaviours from both parties.
Communication is a key to having a good relationship...
One of our responsibility as hosts is to teach our guests to be more responsible and follow our house rules so everybody would be happy.
Wish you all the best.
Good morning M Adamopoulou
Thank you for your thoughts, much appreciated.
Kind regards
Reinhold and Raghiel
Hi! Reinhold massive pleasure.
Please share some pictures of your beautiful accommodation and country.
Wish you a fabulous day.
We had another couple a few years back who just made up lies for some reason in their review.
Privately, via text message, they loved their stay but on this platform, they included amongst other lies "Suggest the owner spray for fleas"!!
Really can't have much worse than that sitting on your reviews for the next few years.
We had 2 villa dogs at the time and they had regular vet visits plus we wouldn't let our beloved dogs be unhealthy so we knew if there were fleas they weren't from our two.
If this wasn't our livelihood it might be funny and I swear it's true. The reason they had flea bites was because for the duration of their stay they befriended a stray puppy which they brought back to our villa and named him/her Fleabe.
How do I know? I found a post the wife did on Instagram telling the story to the images she had posted!!
I screenshot it and gave booking. com the link to the post but it didn't matter and they wouldn't take the review down.
The review also mentioned we hadn't informed them of our 2 dogs despite several text messages where we had discussed them and they had mentioned how much they love animals.
These were sent as evidence as well but the review stayed.
We can imagine your frustration