"Yuck! Clean it up!"

The words harpooned me, taking not only my breath away, but every semblance of dignity and self worth in our self-perceived successful undertaking of running The Riverside.

“Yuck! Clean it up!”

As we have a limited – and often times non-existent – advertising budget, our life-blood for procurement of new customers to the hotel and restaurant is largely based upon good ‘word of mouth’. We rely on the residual effect of our hard work and exceptional efforts in providing a positive experience for bringing in new customers from the recommendations and kind words of current and regular customers. We’re not unique in this matter – all businesses, especially ‘moms & pops’, thrive on good word of mouth, or die with the opposite. And now with the internet - I was skeptical at first, but I’ll now boldly predict that it is here to stay – good or bad word of mouth is out there for millions to see at the click of one of those linkey things.

“Yuck! Clean it up!”

As of this writing, guests to The Riverside have posted 30 reviews on various sites – Google, Yahoo, CitySearch, Tripadvisor (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Search?q=Riverside+Hotel%2C+Hot+Sulphur+Springs%2C+CO&sub-search.x=7&sub-search.y=12) and B&B.com, and I’m overwhelmed at the kind, encouraging and generous words, many from strangers and guests that I’m sorry to say I can’t remember. Of the 30 reviews, 23 have given us the highest five star rating and 6 have given a four star rating; quick math tells you that one rating and review remains.

“Yuck! Clean it up!”

Reviews #1 through #29 have titles such as “Incredible Find!” “Our best stay to date in Hot Sulphur” “A wonderful lifetime memory” “A rare gem”; and then there’s review #30 - “Yuck! Clean it up!”

Here’s what our friendly reviewer had to say about our hotel:

“What might have been a nice hotel in a convenient spot was ruined by two things: absolutely filthy and smelly 50+ year-old carpeting throughout and grimy, outdated and frankly frightening bathrooms. The folks running the place seem nice enough but, sorry folks, good intentions don't cut it when paying guests expect a clean environment. However much it might have cost to clean up and update this old building, it should have been done before opening up the hotel for business. Whatever the other hardships there may be in converting a ramshackle old clap-trap building into a hotel, there is absolutely NO excuse for not cleaning the bathrooms, miserable though they may be. Beware of this place if you value cleanliness and charm - you won't find either here and this frightful relic just may turn your stomach.”

Oh my God! Who said this about our hotel? The name on the review was ‘Pdoo’, from Chicago. IL, and they stayed in the hotel in May. I didn’t remember anyone saying that the bathrooms were frightening or filthy – most normal people who would be put off enough by dirty bathrooms or carpet to take the time to write such a devastatingly horrible review – no, make such a personal attack - wouldn’t hesitate to make mention of it during their stay. I’ll take this one step further – anyone who would be such a heartless, malicious asshole as to write something so mean spirited, would generally have the balls (read "have the balls" as also having a general lack of social skills) to personally confront you right there on the spot. “Hey buddy, your bathroom is filthy – Yuck! Clean it up!”

I immediately start going through guest registers, looking for someone from Chicago who stayed at the hotel in May. Wait a minute. We were closed in May, opening for two family reunions on May 25th – one family from Denver, the other from New York. Lovely people all of them – totally satisfied with their experience, with nothing even resembling a complaint from any of them. Further investigation into the other four rooms we rented the last week in May have no one from anywhere other than the Front Range – no one from Chicago or even any point east of Denver. So I’m thinking, “Could this person have us confused with another hotel?” “Could this be a competitor, or perhaps a disgruntled ex-employee?”

“Yuck! Clean it up!”

The other part of me wanted to dismiss this as I try to dismiss the previously mentioned bastards in our restaurant; someone whose standards for acceptance aren’t founded in the real world, and are therefore never met by anyone in this world. But I couldn’t put it away, as the more I thought about it, the more I came to the realization that this wasn’t a legitimate review by a Riverside customer, rather, this was written by someone close to us. But for what purpose; to get me to clean the downstairs men’s room more than once a month? Or was the review meant to personally injure us, demean our efforts and “good intentions” and ultimately hurt and devalue the hotel?

Fortunately, the good folks at TripAdvisor take this sort of thing seriously; the legitimacy of their site isn’t worth a hoot if anyone can say anything, anytime without basis or foundation. They also tell me that it can even be classified as libel in a court of law, when proved to be a false and malicious published statement intended to damage someone’s reputation – we won’t have any trouble proving the published part. So they’re going to get to the bottom of it for us, and I’m both anxious and a little scared to find out who the bastard might be.

“Yuck! Clean it up!”

To be continued……..