I am not comfortable with my neighbors or the entire town knowing my business, or that I rent my home out.
With these public reviews, it seems as if any Old’ Joe off the web can look up my past feedbacks from customers, decide they don’t like music coming from my house, and file a complaint against me.
Peerspace needs to keep reviews private and only available to registered users. Also, it should not mention that if you register that you can see all the feedback and ratings. Otherwise everyone will just know they can register and all you need is an email address to be verified.
I’d like to keep my business private and not open to the public. We hosts need this option. Thank you.
I’m not sure how it would kill your inquiries. Your space is in demand, people will sign up if interested, they have to either way, to contact you.
Again, they already have to sign up to contact you.
But the public displayed feedback… I’d prefer there were an option that privately conducted business deals are not available to the public.
Having the option would make a huge positive impact for the site. The reality is, most people want privacy of their business affairs from the public. And with public displayed feedback, any Joe knows exactly who did what in your yard and for how much.
I agree. I bend over backwards to have as small an impact/footprint on my neighbors as possible. I’m very successful with that but the large numbers of public reviews effectively sabotages my efforts and discourages me from taking more bookings on PeerSpace. I could do lots more small engagement/wedding/influencer shoots but don’t want to look like I’m overdoing it by having too many reviews. Nothing good can come from having the details of my bookings placed into the public domain.
Whether or not you have your reviews on Peerspace, it’s fairly likely that in time your neighbors will know what you are doing. If you have the nosy, complaining type of neighbor, they will probably figure it out. If they call the police for excessive noise, for example, the police will poke their heads in. If your neighbors know enough to look on Peerspace, they probably know enough anyhow. So . . . I really don’t think it makes much difference one way or another. Also, at times, the crew may want to get a permit. If they do that, the neighbors will be advised. Personally, I live next door to a +&^^*(^Jp who will do whatever he can to get me in trouble. So, I must get permits. He hasn’t figured it out because I am on Peerspace. He figured it out because he spies on me. So, if your neighbors are easy going, you have nothing to worry about. If they are like mine, again, your listings on Peerspace will make little difference.
If you rent out a home as a business, either get a business tax certificate, or it’s not a business and you should expect your neighbors to reasonably and lawfully complain about noise and other impacts to the neighborhood.
There is a reason we have zoning laws and residential districts with noise and use ordinances. Those of us with event centers and film studios have had to go through a lot of red tape, file a lot of paperwork, get inspections, and pay for permits to operate our businesses…have you? Did your fire department inspect and post occupancy? Do you have commercial liability insurance? What have you done to earn the right to be concerned about your neighbors complaints?
If your home is indeed a business…you still have no right to privacy regarding reviews of your space unless you have agreements with your customers to uphold some level of privacy. Being in business is being open to public scrutiny - you’re trading certain privacies for the right to sell things to people. That right is not inalienable. Technically, if you don’t have a business license and permission from your city to rent your home out as an event center (or conduct any business at all) you are breaking local, state, AND federal law so either way, your complaint that your neighbors might complain about noise and damage your revenue is legally and ethically irrelevant.
I think Peerspace should completely get rid of reviews being public, and simply put a satisfaction percentage based on good, medium, or negative. Like eBay used to have…
I don’t want my neighbors knowing exactly who did what in the privacy of my home.
Also, the fact that you’re held hostage to a good review… It’s ridiculous.
Get rid of reviews, we have photos and people don’t need to read the details of the reviews…