@Ann3, but they only pop up, if you already have chosen 4 stars (not yet submitted).
I had one guest complaining over a long review form, where he or she gave up mid-way. The same guest reviewed me however, with 5 stars throughout, maybe that was shorter.
Usually most guests review me, but now I'm missing 2 this year, which are already past delay and one a week out. As they were the type where 5 stars would be surprising, maybe it discourages the nitpicking lazy ones?
or else I did not have any guests under the new system yet and will be hit over the head with complaints from tomorrow on 😉
@Robin4, sorry to hear that this system backfires for you and incites people to find flaws with old places. Maybe you need to pepper the description with words like Character, Authentic, Antique, Charming etc. And tell stories about the cracks and flaws: that concrete was poured in the great draught of 48 (or whenever), there was not enough water, so it got those characteristic micro -fractures. But this bigger crack, later polished and repaired, apeared when uncle Kevin saw an opossum and tried to hit it with a shovel. 😉
My stars are better, when I tell stories over breakfast, show a picture of the place when we arrived (no garden at all) and tell storiesabout the renovations over the years. If I get around to find all the pictures and order them, I'll do a folder / scrapbook of the transformation. You could do that, Robin. When people understand how much work it was and that you deliberately leave some things looking "old", they value the place higher.
Sometimes, you get surprise reactions though. Guest: did yourenivate yourself? Did you installa that?" Looking at stsirs, loft, blue rafters supporting a glass roof/table.
Me, proudly "We did most of it."
Guest, nearly barking: "but you need a carpenter for that!"
me: "my husband hadrenovated a wooden building before...."
guest, interrupting me: " you need to know carpentry to install such things. Otherwise it may all fall down!"
Me, mildly: "don't worry, you will sleep on the loft installed in the 60es. It will stay up another night."
Still waiting for that review.
And I did not mention that I chnge a step from time to time, without being a carpenter, and may be obliged to do so again soon, as Auguste chews the wood 😉