We just got a 3 star review from a woman who was perfectly friendly and pleasant in person (and I left her a great review), but was a complete asshole in her review of us.

Now, the one legit thing she mentioned - we ended up having work done on our house while she stayed. Two of our stairs abruptly started sagging severely and we had a contractor in to look at them, who suggested immediately bracketing them/looking at all the stairs ASAP to make sure there weren't other failures about the occur. We got this diagnosis the day before she arrived, and I told her that day. I can absolutely see her being unhappy about that, and I apologized a lot (should have probably also offered a discount), and told her that if she wanted to find another place, I fully understood. She didn't.

That seemed to be the least of her complaint. She complained that the area didn't feel safe; don't really know what to say about that one, yes, there are brown people here, but it is a safe area and we've had plenty of white women (which I also am) stay here and not feel unsafe.

She complained that the (shown in the images) windows weren't as big as she liked in her room.

She complained that there weren't any sit-down restaurants in the area. First off, there are. Not many, but there are 3 within a 5 minute walking distance. We specifically mention in our listing though that there aren't many sit-in restaurants nearby, but there's 100 places that deliver online.

Lastly, she complained that it smelled strongly of cats. In my 100 reviews, we have NEVER once had a complaint about it smelling of cats, because it doesn't! We clean the litters (all 4 of them) at least once a day and regularly twice. I have an extremely sensitive nose, and if I walk by a recently-used litter box and it smells, I clean it immediately. We also vacuum a few times a week, sweep daily, AND have air purifiers (not because of the cats, but because of allergens). So I call bullshit.

Obviously, this review really was infuriating, and the most upsetting part is that it's the second review on a new room and the current person staying the room will be there for 5 months, so it's going to be a long time before we get more reviews.

Does anybody have any suggestions or guidance on what to say? I was thinking something like this:

We're very sorry we were so below your expectations that you felt justified in leaving a 3 star review. Some of what you commented on wasn't listed as a perk here, and some was beyond our control, as our stairs had become unstable and required immediate repair, which we learned of the day we messaged you. The other issues I could have addressed I would have happily addressed, had you brought them to my attention.

But I don't know if responding would be better than ignoring, and the main thing that I'd like to address is the cat smell thing, which I can't figure out how to address without flat-out calling her a liar.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!