The one thing vacation rental guests should never complain about

Warning: If you’re a sensitive type of personality, don’t read this article! You won’t like it! As Rafiki in ‘The Lion King’ says after hitting Simba in the head with his cane; “Yes… the truth can hurt sometimes!”

The one thing a vacation rental guest should never complain about?

They don’t like the decorating.

This has got to be, without a doubt, one of the most silly complaints I have ever heard about a vacation villa.

You don’t like the way the villa looks? (Yes, shocking isn’t it? There’s just no explaining some people’s tastes! Hah hah hah!)

I have one question for you… Why did you book it?

Realizing that this is an obvious question before it is even asked (although we wouldn’t actually do that) the most common excuse for this attitude is to claim that the villas are ‘out of date’.

Our villas are not ‘out of date’. The decorating may not follow the latest current silly trends, which within ten years won’t look so hot, but they are not out of date. (That can be factually proven.) They’re just different from what some folks consider to be ‘in style’ right now.

We’re totally fine with that.

Don’t believe me? Some folks think, sparse ‘modern’ home decorating and 1960’s furniture looks so cool and ‘today’ right now, along with long hair on top of their head next to it being shaved on the sides…
but trust me, ten years from now…
that will all look just as good as a mullet, or 80’s big-hair does now.

We don’t go for short-term decorating trends.

Believe me, this is our business. We have to design and decorate our villas to appeal to the widest possible audience, so that the largest group of people will be comfortable booking and staying with us. And we do.

So if you think our decorating is not to your taste, that’s okay.

We can’t possibly please everyone.

But then you should have booked a different place to stay.

Why book a villa that you’re not going to like the look of?

And if you arrive, and you don’t like the style of the villa, who’s fault is that exactly?

We post photos of the villas everywhere we advertise them. Lots of them. They show the villas pretty much as they are.

And frankly, while very close, the pictures can’t be 100% accurate because we are always updating and improving the properties, so if anything, the villas will naturally be more contemporary and up-to-date than they look in the photos we show of them.

(We can’t actually make them look OLDER than they do in the photos! We’re not set-decorating here.)

To be fair, it is possible that we may have added one or two things since photos were taken that a guest may not think is an improvement. We get that. But let’s keep it in perspective. These types of changes are going to be pretty minor, and certainly not so drastic that they will affect the overall appeal of the villa. Two sets of drapes does not a villa make!

Let me repeat that. We’re constantly improving and updating the villas, so if anything, the properties should look better and more contemporary when you arrive than they do in photos.

If they don’t look that way to a guest, who’s fault is that exactly? Certainly it’s not ours, and it’s not the photos fault.

The cause of this can only be in one place.

And that’s the guest who obviously didn’t pay any attention to the photos of the villa, or is disappointed when they arrive for some other reason, and are trying to place blame for that any place else they possibly can except where it belongs… with themselves.

Ouch. That may hurt, but it is the truth. Thanks Rafiki!

Complaining about a villa that one has booked after arrival… one that reasonably matches its photos and text descriptions (and ours do, were very careful about that) is simply ridiculous. You may not like what you chose, but you’re the one who chose it. No one forced you to decide to stay with us.

If you’re disappointed, accept the fact that you couldn’t have been paying close attention when you made your booking, and accept responsibility for making the choice you did. It’s nothing to complain about.

Oh… If we deserve a great rating and review because we delivered exactly what we promised, then make sure that you provide us with that. It’s the only fair, decent and honest thing to do.

Part of The Crash Course in being a Great Vacation Rental Guest!