rental property reviews

hoppies · Post by **hoppies** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 1:35 pm

Over the last few years we have booked a few properties through this site and I wondered if it would be useful for folks to post reviews in the same way as we do for restaurants. Sometimes its a bit of a lottery booking a place to stay and maybe this would make it easier. Advantageous to the good ones but maybe would get rid of the bad.

widge · Post by **widge** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:55 am

Good idea but I wonder if it could mislead people. Restaurant food and service can fluctuate in quality from one day to the next and diners views are very subjective depending upon their personal likes and dislikes.

Property descriptions should always be accurate and factual and are not subject to the same changes. It follows that providing the advertiser does not mislead the renter you should get what you ordered. whether you liked it or not is down to your personal opinion and not really helpful in making an objective decision.

Globetrotter · Post by **Globetrotter** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 12:38 pm

I disagree. Some advertisers aren´t exactly truthful with what their property offers. Sure a review is subjective, but when is it not? An extremely popular site for travelers is www.slowtrav.com They have a great villa rental review site that works well.

widge · Post by **widge** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 5:07 pm

Had a look at the reveiws on Slow Traveller & I agree some are very descriptive and informative. However, i looked at six different countries and only found one negative property review. Maybe people only write when they've had a good experience or maybe there's some careful editing, in any event you won't identify many bad rental properties using this site!

hoppies · Post by **hoppies** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:28 am

Thanks for replies but the sort of review I was suggesting was whether the property was in any way not up to the standard you would expect, not whether folks actually liked the property or not. Example , the property we rented last year could have been great but we spent a good few hours hosing down and sweeping the terrace around the pool. It was really dirty and on the far side was covered in black midew, making it virtually unusable and also the rug in our bedroom was dripping wet. We had to hang this over our balcony to dry. No mean feat as it was a very large rug and was heavy. Also one of the bathrooms flooded each time the bath was emptied, water coming back up through the drain in the middle of the room. These are the sort of things that should be checked before you arrive. I think that if owners were aware that reviews would be posted for everyone to see these sort of things wouldn't happen.
I would like to add that other properties we have rented through this site have been fantastic so the system would work both ways.

VON VON · Post by **VON VON** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 5:23 pm

I agree it would be helpful as when we were having to rent while ours was being built the last one we rented was definately not up to the standard we were expecting, we had to literally hose the place down inside and out the sheets had holes in them the towels had been washed so many times you could not see the pattern on them. The maid as advertised as twice a week never turned up, all in all it was a distaster and when I complained on returning home was told by the owner, obviously the English can not expect what they have at home. Well we do expect basic cleanliness - So yes for some people this would be helpful.

von von

hoppies · Post by **hoppies** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 5:47 pm

Von Von, Oh boy, You've got me started now! At least you got a reply from the owner. When we wrote and mentioned our complaints we were ignored. Incidentally, our maid was supposed to be there twice a week and she turned up once and was there for around twenty minutes. Not long enough really for a largish three bed villa. I am wondering if some of these management companies ever bother to check the properties they are looking after and maybe in some cases the owner is unaware of the situation.
We have just put it down to experience but if we could all help to stop this happening to other people it would be great. After all, when you have looked forward to a holiday for months it's very disappointing when things aren't as you would expect them to be.

widge · Post by **widge** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 9:50 pm

Sounds like you are advocating a web site that gives consumers an objective appraisal of what is on offer and value for money. "Does it do what it says on the tin". They seem to be popular in the insurance & energy markets right now.

I still think the holiday experience is too difficult to measure but ....who knows?

Post by **Steen Jakobsen** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 11:08 am

Over the last few years we have booked a few properties through this site and I wondered if it would be useful for folks to post reviews in the same way as we do for restaurants. Sometimes its a bit of a lottery booking a place to stay and maybe this would make it easier. Advantageous to the good ones but maybe would get rid of the bad.

I've considered this more than once over the years;

The advantages are obvious; the caring owners are encouraged and the prospective client will feel confident booking.

However..

As the client deal directly with the owner I / the reader would have no idea if the reviewer had actually stayed in the property, at least as a regular paying client.

and..

In theory a "filter" is already in place; if a client having rented through this site was sufficiently disappointed to write me I'll mediate to the best of my abilities. Both the owner and I are aware that the same client could use this forum, so it would be in the interest of all to find a solution.

I would not hesitate to remove an advert if I received more than one complaint but I am not sure I've even averaged one complaint per year over the past nearly ten years.

Rule number one must be to contact both the owner and his local representative immediately so they get a chance to fix the problems.

This said it would be a nice feature for the rental site provided the right solution is found.

e-richard · Post by **e-richard** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 1:36 pm

I think its quite a good idea. It has been done on other listing sites, with mixed reactions.

Here are some issues that Steen may wish to consider:

1. There has to be a "cooling-off period" during which time the owner has "right to reply" before the review is published.
2. I do like the idea of mediation. Protects both parties from vindictive postings. This need only be brought into action by request from either party, during the cooling off period and it need not be an onerous chore for each and every posting/review.
3. The reviewer would post the dates that they stayed at the property which enables the owner to verify that it was genuine, and any reader to ensure that its relatively up to date.
4. Reviewers may remain anonymous - in a similar way to the anonymity afforded by user names on this forum i.e. only webmaster would have access to a valid email address. Yes, owner would know the name from the dates stayed, but I feel thats acceptable.

And here's a final contentious thought:

5. Are these reviews limited to properties advertised on this website ?
There must be thousands of visitors to this website (not just the forum) who are renting thousands of Villas not advertised here. This would enhance the value of the website property, but carries loads of other issues notably related to my items 1 and 2 above, but I do have ideas on how these can be overcome if the concept has any interest.

Post by **Steen Jakobsen** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 2:00 pm

3. The reviewer would post the dates that they stayed at the property which enables the owner to verify that it was genuine, and any reader to ensure that its relatively up to date.

The owner and the reviewer could then, in theory, be the same person?

Maybe a form on the rental site could solve the problem;
I have booked "Casa ..." between the dates "" and would like to participate in the review program. to be used before the booking period starts.

Gambrinus · Post by **Gambrinus** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 2:31 pm

This probably comes down to subjective versus objective. After a holiday that was fantastic or grotty, a reviewer will inevitably post a subjective positive or negative review if given the tools. Whilst the positive reviews may lead to the following clients to feel objectively different about the house and possibly be disappointed with the real thing, the negative reviews can do real economic damage to the houseowner/agent and this is not necessarily justifiable.

We are not talking about a consumable that, if it were to receive let's say a "star rating" could count on 1000+ votes, therefore diluting the negative impact of an overly disappointed consumer whilst creating a reasonably accurate overall quality asessment. These properties will host, on average, about 10 parties per year out of which possibly only one will bother to submit a review for exacly the reason mentioned above - it was either fantastic or really bad. Though his review may be productive, it is not a statistically accurate cross-section of the opinions of clients that resided in the house.

Gambrinus · Post by **Gambrinus** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 2:57 pm

oops, hit "submit" instead of "preview" there (no, not trying to clock up posts

).

Now you have probably all heard of the "tourist licence"-saga and I would not blame anyone for writing it off as a complete joke, because up to now it has been.
Nevertheless, I have faith in some of the competent authorities and I do beleive that it will come, soon, in some shape or form.

A properly licensed villa will have been checked to some degree and whilst they cannot verify cleanliness or staff hours, there are sets of health and safety rulse that need to be met, so that is a good start.

One of the elements this law in it's current form demands, which I beleive will remain part of the final draft, is the "Livro de Reclamações", the complaints book. These books (you may know them from restaurants or other establishments in the service industry) need to be purchased by the property owner and should be made available to clients upon request.

With this available problems can be handled in a proper manner without running the risk of aggravating things by resorting to public name and shame.

That said, someone who has gone to the trouble of obtaining a license and a complaints book will probably also try to make sure that the clients get what they paid for.