Wooden Duck B&B

Thank you for notifying us of the negative review that was submitted by a former guest. Dr. W--- submitted the identical review to every Internet site which he has found, and we are grateful when these sites have let us know that the review has appeared. At the Wooden Duck, we take online reviews very seriously and we try to learn from them. Dr. W--- and his wife stayed with us for two nights in the fall of 2006. At breakfast the first morning, Saturday, they told us that they did not want our housekeeper to come in to tidy their room. Since our B&B tends to be a place where stressed-out people come to relax in private without being disturbed by other people, noise, and timetables, we respected their request and did not have the housekeeper enter their room until after they had checked out on Sunday. The mess she found was sickening. It appeared that an entire bottle of red wine had been spilled on the white bedspread, white blanket, white duvet cover, white sheets, mattress pad, white dust ruffle, and carpet. Rather than notify us of the accident, someone then took the brand new white towels and attempted to rub the stains out of the carpet. The towels were left in a heap in the 2-person soaking tub. I have a feeling that the wine was spilled on Friday night, not Sunday morning as the letter states, and that's why they did not want the housekeeper to come in on Saturday morning. And since they had soiled towels from trying to clean up their mess, they probably were not very comfortable for the remainder of their stay. Had they told us about the mishap, we would have cleaned it up immediately, changed their linens, and NOT charged them a penny extra. Afterall, accidents do happen, and our business depends upon keeping our guests happy in the hope that they will return. I have attached a copy of the letter that I sent to the W---s. He refers to this letter in his review. I will let you decide whether this is, "the most rude and disrespectful thing (you've) ever read," as Dr. W--- asserts. Sincerely, Beth Krummel Owner, Wooden Duck B&B November 11, 2006 Mr. and Mrs. Ari W--- Summit, NJ Dear Ari & Tzivia, I’m sure that it must have been apparent to you while you stayed with us at The Wooden Duck Bed & Breakfast that we take a lot of pride in our establishment. We attempt to do everything in our power to make our guest rooms as clean and comfortable as possible for our overnight visitors. After you checked out this morning, our housekeeper was both sickened and dismayed by the condition in which she found your room. She is accustomed to some guests leaving a large amount of trash and food debris all over the room, but it was the spilled wine that appalled her. It was obvious that a bottle of red wine had been spilled along the far side of your bed and onto the carpet. Had you told us about it immediately, it may have been possible to salvage everything: the bedspread, the duvet cover, the blanket, the sheets, the mattress cover, the dust ruffle, the towels, and the carpet. But rubbing the stain into the carpet with the bathroom towels, and then allowing everything to sit for several hours to dry, created damage that should have been avoided. You are fortunate that Carol was able to pre-treat and rub out the stains in most of the items. Unfortunately, though, the towels were ruined—probably because you rubbed the stain into them in an attempt to clean the carpet. We have charged your credit card in the amount of $80.25 to cover the cost of the towels and the extra labor it took for our housekeeper to clean everything up. If you don’t remember what the damage looked like before it was cleaned up, I would be happy to share with you the photos we took of the room’s condition upon your check-out. Very truly yours, Beth Krummel Owner/Innkeeper