Reviews...and other opinions

All reviews quoted in this article are real, 

from guests that stayed at Toad Hall.

They are all published and available to the public, though for the purpose of this article I have omitted names, or changed them....

Cause there are Karen's and Brian's in this world.

Names marked with * are made up names.

This week I had a discussion about how to calculate a review score. The discussion came about after Gareth, me and Jo shared an Uber to Reece and Dayna's housewarming gathering. Congratulations guys. Great house! Great night!

Party bound Uber - Little lolly baskets and every type of charging cord ever invented for passenger use. Friendly guy. Safe driver.

So...Gareth is offered via the app, to give a 'score'. In this case it's from 1 - 5 with 5 being super awesome and 1 being rubbish. Gareth didn't consult Jo and I, totally confident hitting the 5.

Home bound Uber - Not so friendly. Got us home. G-force experience from the back seat, not so pleasant.

What score should we give him? Gareth asks
I say - 3 - he got us home.
Jo say's 1 - his driving was terrible!

That got my attention. 

Oh really? 

I thought a couple of corners were a bit quick, but was he really un-safe?

Gareth - whom had sat in the front passenger seat - He drove too fast and made some un-safe moves but he did get us home. 2 it is.

I guess if he'd crashed or ran out of petrol we would have got to a 1 - not sure if you can choose 0. Also, I'm pretty sure there is no free text field on the Uber app.

One of the things I notice in Toad Hall on-line reviews is that if a free text field is offered , people will use it. This applies to the opportunity to write something negative. Not everyone, but a significant proportion use it. It's why they have free text fields. 

You may be given an opportunity to choose a number from say 1-10 for various sections and then an overall experience. 

Then you may be given a free text field to tell the world what you really think. These fields might have neutral, politically correct labels such as icons of happy face, sad face.

I get to read these reviews over my morning coffee.  I imagine guests typing quickly as the list of good stuff comes to mind.

 
Overall score 7/10
😀The baked goods were delicious! Wifi was very fast Bed linens and towels were very clean Very spacious hostel

Next the sad face opportunity.
I imagine the guest pausing momentarily, fingers hover over the key board, eyes flick up in an effort to recall what could go in the sad face box.

😞A little warm in the room

Or this...

Overall score 8/10
😀Included baking and breakfast. Could walk into town. Games and puzzles available.

😞A little noisy but comes with location. A little expensive for what it is. Couldn't stand the smell of the room reed scent downstairs.

I did think to myself, lucky he didn't have to buy breakfast, or afternoon tea, or get a taxi. This review did not lead us to review our pricing. Or change our room reed scent. I did buy more puzzles.

I'll just pause here to say, most of our reviews are positive. Our highest performing score bracket is 7-9 with 277 reviews to date. The next category is 9+ with 276. The drop down to between 5-7 is all the way down at 86 reviews.

The two categories below that have only 13 reviews each to date.

But like watching action sports, we don't watch to see things go well. We're waiting to see the crash. You can look up our reviews and read all the good ones, the fun stuff is, without a doubt, in sad face free text fields.

This is my 'favorite'  bad review. Keep in mind we can look up exactly who the guest is.

1/10  

😁Nothing. We left a day early

😞The host's rude attitude and the fact she avoided me 3 times when I tried to approach her.

When I read this, over my morning coffee, I nearly spat coffee all over the laptop! Hosts' rude attitude?

I would have remembered that! I know how to be rude. I'm quite good at it even. And avoiding .... ok - anyone that knows me will know - I don't avoid. Bring it on. Let's talk.

There are some things I can fix and some I can't. But I don't avoid! 

I don't often, but I was so incensed by this review, I replied! 

This is a disappointing review. We understand that a shared house does not suit everyone. Some folk are better suited to a motel model. As for avoiding Karen*, I can confirm that we were in the same breakfast room for over 10 minutes and unfortunately she did not make contact with me while eating her free breakfast. Our reception bell was out all day...just takes a press of a button to gain staff attention. Other guests have managed this without any issue. We shall continue to make improvements to our service. Being present, in this case, was not the issue. Regards Ruthie Owner-operator living on-site.

And how's this for a gem of a review....I had to go back to 2020 to find this.

Overall score 2/10

Not impressed but would likely stay again

😀Service was great. Rooms were shabby, beds were uncomfortable but then I suppose you get what you pay for.

😞Pool table needs leveling. Rooms need to be away from smoking area,

Our manager at that time replied...good on her!

Hey Brian*, I think you have given us a review by mistake talking about a different hostel. The room you booked was a new double bunk bed and yet you got drunk and slept on the lounge sofa,  I had to wake you up to move. We received many complaints about the noise you made while drunk, which is not acceptable. Also the room you booked was no where near a smoking area. You had a room in the middle of the building with no outside areas anywhere near you. However, I did find that you had smoked out of your window on our fire escape while in the room, which is absolutely not allowed at Toad Hall. We are not a party Backpackers and this was unacceptable. Unfortunately you will not be welcome to stay with us again. Thanks (name omitted)

What are we really trying to do when we write a review?

Our discussion over the bad Uber experience raised feelings of needing to warn others. In a small way, we were saving the world from a manic driver. But mostly - he wasn't friendly, we didn't like him, we want to tell him without telling him. Remember, no-one in the car asked the driver to slow down. Yet, 10 mins later we were happy to give a bad review score.

Karen has done this - not told me what's wrong but happy to be behind a key board. Brian is clearly just a dick head.

Sometimes the sad face text field actually has useful information rather than opinion or blatant un-truths 

Overall score 5/10

😀It was convenient to town.

😞Not being aware of having to go up two flights of stairs to our room. It would have been difficult for those physically unable. Also our room was on the same side as the Bar downstairs.

Stairs - that's information that will be helpful to someone. It's on my 'To do' list to add a note to the web site.

It's been a little topical of late, the free speech v's hate speech v's human rights v's being a dick-head.  Many of us will remember being told as children 

'If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything'

This appears to be irrelevant in our digital world. We are more confident to at least indicate what we think from the safety of our phones and key boards. 

This goes both ways. I have had guest leave that I thought did not enjoy their stay...and then they score us a 10/10 and free text how wonderful their stay was. I was right here when you handed me the keys....

Overall score 10/10

😀Great staff very friendly. Facility was exactly as advertised

😞Nothing it was perfect

We get excited about reading reviews. They help to build our confidence and for the most part, reassure us that we're doing a good job. They help us develop improvements. 

They can also create near-miss situations of spurting coffee on my laptop.  

On the more serious side of this subject, harsh reviews can smash my confidence in a single click and bring my mood to needing gardening time or a really long run! My go-to activities when things get hard. (hahaha some of you thought it was wine!...that's my happy place when things are going well.)

If you're a reviewer...carry on. Just keep in mind that someone, not something, is reading it.  Are you reviewing to provide useful information to others or are you venting your opinion?

As a business owner - know what you can do and what you won't do for your customers. Stick to it.

Creating consistent service for your customers is a really important part of service continuity and sustainability.  So, if you're going to be rude, be rude to everyone!

Harry Gordon Selfridge, in 1909, coined the phrase

 'Rightly or wrongly, the customer is always right'

Rest assured, in todays world of customer service - 

they're not!

This came in this morning. No sad face comment. It's a good start to the day.

Overall score 10/10

😁Amazing welcome from Ruthie ! Very suite place to rest, clean, with breakfast served and a big kitchen available. Many outside place to eat and rest too