DEAR MISS MANNERS: My husband and I own and operate a successful RV park in the Midwest. We have spent eight years keeping our park spotless and well maintained. We are friendly with our customers, and help them any way we can while they are staying with us. As a result, we have hundreds of perfect reviews on dozens of sites.
People constantly tell us what great reviews we have, and I never know how to respond. To say “thank you” feels wrong because I would be thanking them for something someone else wrote. Am I overthinking this, and “thank you” is the correct response? Or is there something else I could say?
GENTLE READER: It is not good to parse a compliment. You only seem to be challenging your admirers to flatter you even more.
In this case, they mean to congratulate you on inspiring, and presumably deserving, such good reviews. But not wanting to discourage modesty, Miss Manners suggests your saying, “We are thrilled that people seem to be happy here. We certainly try our best.”