They fell below the standard and they would compensate us, ONLY if we were fine with leaving them a 5-star review.
This is unsettling because it leaves room to question whether people were “bought” into leaving a 5-star review. Which, like others, we rely on reviews as the impetus for deciding whether to stay at a certain place or not.
We arrived at our rental cabin slightly after the 4PM check-in and it was literally trashed from the previous guests. They relayed that it would take about an hour and a half, but we ended up having to wait for 3 hours. With the significant increase in price due to it being the holidays, we had much higher expectations. We were informed part of the longer wait time was because the previous guests had urinated on the bed (no, they did not replace the mattress). Our entire evening was pretty much wasted because by the time we settled in and after they resolved the hot tub from flooding, it was pretty late for us.
We were placed in a difficult position because we had no other place to stay and we were all from out of town. It was also our first time our family was able to reunite in years because more than half of us have been away at overseas military assignments.
We were in constant contact with management and they agreed to give us a small refund with a little more in credit for a future stay, which equated to a fraction of a night’s stay. We asked for the offered compensation amount to just be in the form of a refund (no future-stay credit because we’re not from here). They met in the middle, but they would only do it AFTER we left a 5 star review, which was a little insulting.
Us receiving compensation because they failed to meet the standard should not be contingent on us providing them a 5 star rating. We were looking for compensation out of principle alone.
Giving them the benefit of the doubt, it may not have been their intent, but It felt too much like a bribe and we did not feel comfortable setting aside our morals, especially if our experience could prevent someone else from going through the same situation.
We’ve decided we aren’t comfortable discussing the issue any longer with them. None of this was a surprise to them, we were timely and open about our issues, just simply not really willing to sacrifice our integrity. How they respond to this review will show their character.