Tell them about the Flies!

Is your promise living up to expectations in a digital world?

A bloke at Quobba Station in WA demanded his money back because the waves were too loud. Yes, too loud! He'd booked an ocean-view campsite. On the ocean, where the waves live!

That’s a real complaint along with the flies, the dirt, the lack of mobile phone service and the sand not being white enough on the beach, as documented in a recent ABC article!

Those of us who live in rural and regional areas of Australia are very aware of these fabulous Aussie elements, not to mention, no taxis, Uber Eats and well, services in general that are lacking! But I won’t get on my soapbox about that here.

Expectations get set long before a customer arrives. Increasingly they're set by someone else's content rather than yours. When the promise is more polished than the reality, the gap becomes part of the experience. Being specific about what you actually offer isn't underselling, it filters out the people who were never going to enjoy it.

The drone shot isn't doing you any favours

Quobba's owner reckons the aerial footage out there is so magnificent you could almost blame it for false advertising. He's not wrong. He isn't even talking about his own marketing, but his responses are gold!

Picture what your customer saw before they booked. A drone shot, a sunset edit, somebody's best fourteen seconds. The buzzing flies or the loud waves and the searing heat don’t get a look in, especially when you factor in the trending music overlay.

They've already been, in their head

The co-manager of a roadhouse on the Gibb River Road put it perfectly in that same article: "People are living this for the second time, even though they've never been here before."

Now think about that, I’ve said it before, in a digital world you're rarely making a first impression when they step through your doors, you're correcting one.

Quobba's answer was funnier than the complaints

When the gripes got ridiculous, the station used them to their advantage on their socials. It reminded me of the 1990s movie Crazy People: “...Buy Volvos. They're boxy, but they're good…” That's a confident business. It says this is what we are, these are the waves, bring earplugs if you're precious, but more importantly it is saying: you, my friend are not our customer!

Anyone who finds that funny is exactly the person who should book.

Go and read your own promises

Open your website, your listings and your last month of posts. Read them as a stranger who has never been.

Then find the one promise you can't keep on a bad day in January. Fix it by being more specific, not by being more impressive. "Quiet rural stay" becomes "no traffic noise, plenty of birds and sounds of nature to greet you".

Being specific does two jobs. It attracts the right customer and it gives AI something clear enough to describe when someone asks it for a recommendation.

I've built a free quiz that scores your business on the six things AI needs before it'll confidently recommend you. You'll see which ones are missing, loud waves and all!

Take the Quiz

Source: Entitled travellers and bad influencers take a toll on WA's outback hospitality, ABC News, August 2026