The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
It is unfortunate that I cannot separate the rating of Stay Local property management organization from that of the property we rented. We were a group of three lifelong girlfriends and husbands/partners in Nashville for 4 nights. The property was perfect for our reunion since it had a spacious living room where we could sit and catch up and plan our days. Everything else about the property was what we had hoped for – inviting, clean, spacious, etc. However, it appears that the owner of the property is not represented well by its property managers, Stay Local Nashville.
One misleading aspect of the property was the claim that it is “walkable & literally 5 minutes to downtown.” One morning we walked to Union Street near downtown at Printer’s Alley for breakfast and it took us 30 minutes. Another morning we walked to the Gulch area and it was over 30 minutes. We did use Uber for our evening trips into town and that worked well. However, in no way, is it a 5 minute walk to downtown and the distance is clearly misrepresented.
The evening of our first full day at the property, we were enjoying a dinner and a mellow night of music at the Listening Room when I received a text around 7:15 p.m. from Stay Local Nashville’s guest services team saying the property had “received noise complaints from neighbors that can result in a $300 fine.” That text was followed by another saying that they had “received another complaint that there was elevated noise at the property.” I could not believe what I was reading and immediately replied to the text telling them that we were not at the property, had been gone most of the day, asked them to go to the property to check it out and that I wanted a response. After two and half hours there was no response so I located Stay Local’s telephone number, realized they had hours until 10:00 pm, and called.
I spoke with a staff member who took all the information, said she would look into it and would let her supervisor know. I ended the call stating that I wanted a supervisor to call me in the morning. Later that evening, I received a follow-up email stating she had alerted her supervisor and had asked Noise Aware not to send any more warnings.
The next morning I waited and waited for the phone call I had requested. Finally at around 1:15 pm, I received an email from a director, who stated that Airbnb requests that they keep all communications in the message thread. In other words, there would be no phone call. She stated that she had learned that Noise Aware had accidentally sent the noise violation to the wrong guest. She apologized and said to let them know of any further issues so that we could have a 5 star experience.
At that point I responded that I might have felt like I was having a 5 star experience if someone had responded to my reply to the warning texts as soon as I replied the previous night. The director responded: if I had “replied to the texts, Noise Aware does not receive those responses. The number that they use does not accept incoming messages.” Knowing this made the situation even worse as I had been very upset waiting for a reply that night and the false warnings had really ruined our night. I checked my phone about every 10 minutes hoping for a response that would resolve this situation. It was then that I realized that the text did not really come from the Stay Local guest team. Also making the situation worse was the fact that I did not receive a phone call the next morning as I had requested. In my experience, having a conversation with dialog is a much more effective way of resolving conflicts than emails when tone and nuance can contribute to misunderstandings and additional concerns.
The fact that the distance to downtown was misrepresented would have been reason for a lower than 5 star rating. In addition, the reason for my lower rating is 1) there appears to be no apparent coordination between Stay Local and the Noise Alert system, 2) warnings and threats are sent with no consideration to ever giving a reply to any response by the occupants, and 3) the 18 hours it took to get a response from the supervisor and the unwillingness of Stay Local to talk about the matter in a phone call dialog, resulting in an escalation of concerns. I honestly believe, if someone had communicated to me the evening that the false accusation occurred that the warnings were in error, that the situation would have been resolved. Instead it took nearly 18 hours for someone to say it was an accident. Stay Local would benefit from reviewing these the information they provide and their policies so that they can earn the 5 star rating that is so important to them and which is mentioned in every communication they send after checking in.
All of my previous experiences with Airbnb have been very good, there have never been any issues or any concerns, and all have been worthy of 5 star ratings. There was no middle man (and the associated costs) and working directly with the property owner “super hosts” has always been a very good experience. Rather than being greeted with pages of information about warnings and fines to be levied (early arrival. late departure, missing towels, pets, smoking, parking, damage to the property, etc), the welcome focus has always been on providing information with a positive tone that assures a memorable experience for the visitor. Stay Local Nashville should take note.