Missed a private message - wish I'd never found it

[TheBeachHouse]

Just found a long lost pm on TA. From a restaurant owner in town.
"Really? Nice rave about Othertown eateries,? nothing like deverting Ourtown visitors to Othertown, we have plenty of very good eateries in town, shame."
I had put a nice review on a brand new restaurant in the next town over in July and it came up under the inn name instead of my own profile. He took offense. Yikes.
I responded:
Just found this. Sorry for the delay in response. We send our guest to Ourtown restaurants whenever we can. It is often difficult because Ourtown restaurants tend to close early or several days a week. We also occasionally go out to dinner and are pleased to find new retaurants to enjoy. Nothing shameful in that. We enjoy YourRestaurant and wish you only the best.

 

[JBloggs]

I can see it from both perspectives (my own POV is in the first set and #4 from the 2nd):
#1 treat me nice dude or I won't send anyone to you. #2 what have you done for me lately? I send guests to you, not the other way round #3 I will like whatever place I like. #4 Butt out!
and
#1 he saw it as taking the shirt off his back and reacted, before thinking.
#2 he should have considered his words being harsh, but he didn't care what repercussions were
#3 if you are involved in your community then you shouldn't be sharing outside the community and recommending them.
#4 let him get mad, it is okay, people get mad.
I am promoting packages in a nearby city. Stay here and play there. I have run the gamut here. I am SURE people are talking about this, I got a cold shoulder from someone already. My job is to bring visitors in and to put food on MY table. No one, and i quote, no one is helping us, never have done. Any guests we have is because of our own marketing. Period. Full stop.
Packages: What is unique that you can package? I inquired about the distance thing, this whole area is MY PLAYGROUND so why can't it be our guests too? And btw, it is, it always is. We have two large lakes in our county, if the guest slips over the county side, for shame? I think not. Counties aren't on map people. They come to your town and your AREA.
The more there is to do the longer they stay and everyone wins
So tell him to go take a hike (if there is a place to hike in your town, otherwise don't send him out of town to hike).
Nice to write it anyway.

 

[TheBeachHouse]

The best part is he used a short form name so I wouldn't know who he was, but it was beyond obvious. Small town and all.
LOL at hiking spots. Plenty in town, so all good.

 

[gillumhouse]

I drew a 60-mile circle around my town when I opened. Anything in that circle was "fair game" to use for marketing. That is why I have the Covered Bridges Package and others. I list on my restaurants page restaurants by City - starting with Shinnston. There are some high-end restaurants in the County Seat that I took comments from a friend who can afford them since I cannot.
There is not much in my City other than the 1778 log house and the rail-trail that is less than 50 feet from my house and the events we have during the year so I have to give people a reason to com stay with me. I have mapped out, turn-by-turn to sites, day trips, and some of my day trips go through many counties depending on the direction they are going. I have one day trip that goes into 7 counties and several go into 5. I even do inn-to-inn that goes from me to the southern part of the State and used to have one that went to Ohio.
My thinking is - if it is there and can be made into a circle that brings them back to me for a second night - I USE IT.

 

[JimBoone]

Maybe he is struggling financially or just had a bad day, I figure our first obligation is to our guests and suggest food and activities I hope they would like, most of us like a variety and not the same place everyday anyway.
Mama used to say you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, seems the smarter move would have been for him to call on you with an invitation to try something new on his menu or offer some insentive for your guests.
I want my business to be busy, but I don't hesitate to suggest another property if it better suits the needs of a prospective guest, in the long run I think it has been good for me.

 

[EmptyNest]

After all this time I would not even bothered to reply. But you did honesty so the ball is on his court now. Just forget about it

 

[JBloggs]

and another thing--
You almost wish you could say "awwww do you want me to write something for you too? shaming me is not the way to do it fella" Actually I was going to say, the timing was right you may have seen it on a very busy or bad day and wanted to throttle the person. So all is well at the inn.

 

[TheBeachHouse]

After all this time I would not even bothered to reply. But you did honesty so the ball is on his court now. Just forget about it.

He's a neighbor and I see him with other friends. Not cool.

 

[Morticia]

Darn. It is too bad you found it because your total nonchalance was probably either driving him nuts or making him thank his lucky stars you hadn't seen what he really didn't mean to say.
Funny, I stopped to talk with a restaurateur while carrying take out from a different restaurant. I joked about it and he said, 'there's room for all of us'. And I know it's a struggle in this town over the winter.

 

[user 26]

Beach House, I think your reply was perfect. Actually, I think it's too bad you didn't see it sooner as he's probably been simmering away about it and your explanation is so simple and honest I don't see how he could stay annoyed. It was as a private message, so none of this is viewable by the public, right?

 

[Movingon]

I think you had a good response. As a restaurant owner I stood in his shoes one time, but I never sent any message. A friend, more of a colleague, of mine reviewed a competing restaurant and never reviewed ours on TA. That made me pretty upset and I felt pretty bad, but I never said anything. We have good reviews on TA and are rated higher then that competitor, so that probably offset some of my frustration.
All I would add is, you should leave a nice review on his restaurant, if you like it and haven't done so already.
If he replies still upset, then I would probably just ignore it. He's not justified to act like that imo.

 

[Jcam]

No restaurant in my town and there are 136 now has ever sent me a guest - we do however get used by the agencies if they have an agency chef which I find ironic!
Few have made a bit of an effort but it usually doesn't come to anything - the only restaurant we worked well with no longer exists as they were all arrested for slavery

 

[GoodScout]

Since he's a friend and neighbor, I would have responded personally rather than through TA. A conversation is always a more effective way to communicate than a keyboard.

 

[TheBeachHouse]

I think you had a good response. As a restaurant owner I stood in his shoes one time, but I never sent any message. A friend, more of a colleague, of mine reviewed a competing restaurant and never reviewed ours on TA. That made me pretty upset and I felt pretty bad, but I never said anything. We have good reviews on TA and are rated higher then that competitor, so that probably offset some of my frustration.
All I would add is, you should leave a nice review on his restaurant, if you like it and haven't done so already.
If he replies still upset, then I would probably just ignore it. He's not justified to act like that imo..

I will give him a review. Though he did ask with vinegar when honey would have worked much better.
He did have a point, but he made it with anger (and I imagine, some wine.)

 

[Morticia]

I think you had a good response. As a restaurant owner I stood in his shoes one time, but I never sent any message. A friend, more of a colleague, of mine reviewed a competing restaurant and never reviewed ours on TA. That made me pretty upset and I felt pretty bad, but I never said anything. We have good reviews on TA and are rated higher then that competitor, so that probably offset some of my frustration.
All I would add is, you should leave a nice review on his restaurant, if you like it and haven't done so already.
If he replies still upset, then I would probably just ignore it. He's not justified to act like that imo..

I will give him a review. Though he did ask with vinegar when honey would have worked much better.
He did have a point, but he made it with anger (and I imagine, some wine.)
.

Generally speaking, for their own reasons, TA does not allow business owners to review businesses in their own area. Kind of surprised your original review went thru under your business account.
I have been able to write a review of a biz in town under my personal account, but not sure I'd be able to do that now.
I've sworn off TA, so it's moot.

 

[Movingon]

I think you had a good response. As a restaurant owner I stood in his shoes one time, but I never sent any message. A friend, more of a colleague, of mine reviewed a competing restaurant and never reviewed ours on TA. That made me pretty upset and I felt pretty bad, but I never said anything. We have good reviews on TA and are rated higher then that competitor, so that probably offset some of my frustration.
All I would add is, you should leave a nice review on his restaurant, if you like it and haven't done so already.
If he replies still upset, then I would probably just ignore it. He's not justified to act like that imo..

I will give him a review. Though he did ask with vinegar when honey would have worked much better.
He did have a point, but he made it with anger (and I imagine, some wine.)
.

Generally speaking, for their own reasons, TA does not allow business owners to review businesses in their own area. Kind of surprised your original review went thru under your business account.
I have been able to write a review of a biz in town under my personal account, but not sure I'd be able to do that now.
I've sworn off TA, so it's moot.
.

I didn't realize TA allows businesses to review until I read this thread. I'm a little worried I may have reviewed some places through that account now instead of my personal account.
In my city there are about 600 restaurants and we are ranked about 150~, probably 50-100 of those restaurants are closed. In our category we are ranked 12 of 25. Not really good numbers, We have two 2 star reviews that really hurt us. Even though we don't rank high and never will, we still get a lot of business through TA and I would never consider leaving it. We have no chance of catching or beating restaurants in great locations and that can seat 10X more people.