When it comes to your rental property, you want only the best. Sometimes that means hiring professionals to clean your property, manage your landscaping, or perform repairs. It’s frustrating when you spend the time, money, and energy to hire a company to service your vacation home only to have them perform subpar work or stand you up.
A vacation rental host should be able to rely on a vendor to do the job they were hired for, so it’s not surprising if you feel blindsided when something goes wrong. Fortunately, one bad vendor experience doesn’t have to ruin your day. If you’ve encountered an unreliable service company, here are 3 things you can do to recover.
1. Reach out to the company.
If you’re unsatisfied with a vendor’s services, the first step is to reach out to the company. Explain what went wrong and express your disappointment. If you’ve already paid for their services, ask for a refund or a partial refund for the inconvenience. If the company isn’t willing to refund you for the poor service they provided, ask for a discount or, if the services were not performed, refuse to pay.
Pay attention to how they handle your complaints. If they are mortified and apologetic, there’s a good chance the poor service you received was a fluke. If they are snippy or dismissive, it could hint at deeper issues with the company itself. Their reaction will tell you a lot about the integrity of the vendor.
2. Leave a review.
This step is optional, but depending on your interactions with the vendor, you might want to consider leaving a review detailing your experience. Consider this: As a host, you appreciate reviews, right? Even “negative” reviews can help you improve things for your future guests’ experience.
Here’s how to leave a helpful review – both for the company (if they’re open to making changes based on their customers’ experience) and for others considering the company’s service: If your complaint was resolved in a timely and satisfactory manner, you should point that out after detailing your problems with the service. However, if the company did not try to help you, that’s important to note, too.
Many people might feel guilty about leaving a negative review. While you shouldn’t do it lightly, other potential customers deserve to know if a company will deliver subpar service and then refuse to make it right. A negative review isn’t revenge, it’s doing your part to warn other hosts about a potentially predatory vendor.
3. Do your research for next time.
Now that you’ve had one bad experience, you don’t want to have another one. Before choosing a new vendor, take the time to do extensive research into the company you’re hiring. Look at their reviews and note especially how the company responds to negative reviews. While mistakes happen, a good company will do everything they can to make it right.
Many companies will allow you to contact past clients as references before you make a decision. If you’re planning on investing in their business, you should take this extra step if it’s available. Otherwise, a thorough investigation of their web presence should do the trick.
At the end of the day, you should be able to trust your vendors to deliver on their promises. If you’re consistently let down by the service companies you hire, it’s time to take a new approach.
At MaidThis! we pride ourselves on the quality and reliability of our work. For a cleaning service you can rely on time and time again, check out what MaidThis! can do for you.
