Holiday let, disrespectful guests.

I have just been reading that “Chelsea on Sea”, ie Burnham Market in north norfolk has held a referendum and it has been decided that no more properties can be sold as holiday lets or to non locals. The average price of a house there is £1 million.

Doodledog I would think it's also maybe because a farm is a business so putting a home there is not part of the business but a change of use...
I think we need more info from Gwyllt.

I also think that if another person was needed to work the farm and was going to live there the planning may have been easier.

Doodledog

Gwyllt

Also about ten years ago a friends daughter wished to convert a building on the family farm. They had been born in the county married a local guy children attended local school and both had full time employment They were refused but told they could convert to a holiday let. They are all Welsh speakers They were not on their own

Would there have been a difference in the conversion had they made it into a permanent home? I’m thinking maybe adding far more square metres or building an upstairs - that sort of thing, whereas a holiday let might retain the original footprint and stay in keeping with its surroundings.

If the objection is to changing the landscape rather than to who lives there it does make a huge difference. If not it seems insane to prevent people from making homes for locals (or anyone who wants to live there as a resident rather than a holiday maker).

Reminded me of Dominic Cummings family farm

It makes you wonder what people's homes are like. I hate housework & am not the tidiest of people but I would never dream of treating anywhere like the stories on here. We have just stayed in a lovely air b n b in Normandy. The homeowner greeted us with a bottle of Normandy cider & was very helpful when we had a problem with a car seat for my husband's granddaughter when she & her mother came to stay with us for a few days from their home in Paris. I did strip their bed & cot & wash the bedding & their towels, but left ours. We left everything clean & tidy but didn't vacuum as we paid a cleaning fee. The owner texted us to say we had been perfect guests & we left her a 5 star review. If anyone wants details of this lovely property I can highly recommend it.

NotSpaghetti

Doodledog I would think it's also maybe because a farm is a business so putting a home there is not part of the business but a change of use...
I think we need more info from Gwyllt.

I also think that if another person was needed to work the farm and was going to live there the planning may have been easier.

Yes, but a holiday let is a change of use too. I agree that we probably need more info though.

Who knows what goes on in the minds of the planning department.
There seems to be no rhyme or reason in many of their decisions
I could be cynical but I shall refrain

We’ve been away for a long weekend to Warners Leisure hotels. We didn’t strip the bed and there wasn’t anything else we could do. Then we came home to do changeover for our holiday let and you would hardly know anybody stayed, lovely and clean. They left us a 5* review too.

True Doodledog but the holiday let is a business add-on and not a permanent residence.
I know of one farm which was allowed to convert an old milking parlour for "business purposes" as a holiday let - where a neighbour had been turned down a permanent residence conversion.

You are right in that a holiday let might retain the original footprint though and that might have been a factor.

In my earlier post I mentioned some visitors who left us a rusty old mirror and the whole house needed a lot more cleaning than usual.

They have just left feedback. 5/5. Fantastic holiday. Very friendly owners. 😉

Turning old farm buildings into holiday lets is a standard farm business diversification. I have, however, never quite understood why local authorities should object to a few scattered homes for locals in the countryside. especially when we see the damage holiday lets and second homes are doing to many tourist base dcommunities.

We have just got back from using a Sykes holiday let. Never again. We had no lights in the bathroom whatsoever for 6/7 nights and had to trail a lamp in there. Health and safety would love that. When we tried to claim a small token as refund we were told no and to take the owner to small claims court. We are not going to do that but will never book a cottage with Sykes again

The lettings agency my partner used to use was taken over by Sykes. There are massive delays in the homeowners being paid and they’ve increased the commission.

We went to clean our holiday let today. What a mess! Worst in 3 years. Wheelie bin not put out so that now sits there 2 weeks. That is the only thing we ask visitors to do.

OMG The kitchen! At least a week’s worth of washing up on the side. They have been in 10 days. 3 saucepans with burnt on food, a frying pan with burnt on food soaking in water, a couple of big mixing bowls full of congealed food. They must have had the hob up so high that it has now badly marked the hob which was immaculate. Fridge full of food to be binned. Lots of spillages on kitchen floor. Crumbs everywhere. Cooker very dirty.

Everywhere smells of cooking. They were East European judging by their name and also the fridge contents. Lord knows what the culinary delights were in the mixing bowls but it was set like cement.

Upstairs we found blood soaked pillowcases and pillow protectors, a blood stained duvet and duvet cover. I mean lots of blood not just a few spots. A very nice little upholstered chair had make up stains. In the bathroom the newly painted walls had black marks and dribbles of toiletries so that will have to be painted again. Lord knows how they even managed that!

We had recently given notice that we will go back to having proper tenants from October so I know we’ve made the right decision.

Bump

Sorry to hear this Primrose.
Obviously I know how it feels!
We have not had any bad guests since I started this thread (touch wood) but it’s so awfully upsetting when someone is so disrespectful.
The one advantage of holiday let guests is that it’s never for long.
We have had a rental property but as everything is now weighted toward the tenant we decided to sell.

On the whole our tenants were OK but the last one was not clean, he also was subletting a room without permission I suspect!

M0nica

Turning old farm buildings into holiday lets is a standard farm business diversification. I have, however, never quite understood why local authorities should object to a few scattered homes for locals in the countryside. especially when we see the damage holiday lets and second homes are doing to many tourist base dcommunities.

Our council won’t let many conversions be used for residential, several reasons, they want to promote tourism, previous conversions have been poorly done, higher construction standards for residential.

Nevertheless quite a few holiday conversions are let or used for residential, that’s difficult for the council because if they force eviction they often have to find alternative accommodation.

That’s horrific Primrose53 What a shock that must have been for you to have your holiday home violated in such a dreadful way.
I presume you don’t let out through an agency?

JenniferEccles

That’s horrific Primrose53 What a shock that must have been for you to have your holiday home violated in such a dreadful way.
I presume you don’t let out through an agency?

We do actually JenniferEccles but they never want to know. Same as when we had some lovely throws and other bits stolen they just say it’s between us and the visitors.

They take 20% of bookings plus a yearly fee of about £150 so they do well out of us. Most agencies charge similarly.

As we left there yesterday husband jokingly said “perhaps he killed the wife and put her in the loft.” there was so much blood it makes you wonder. 😱

That’s awful Primrose. It’s really not worth the hassle is it?

Regarding conversion of agricultural buildings, change of use to a holiday let is often permitted as it is recognised that farmers need to diversify, but the use of such buildings as permanent dwellings often will not meet sustainability criteria (access to facilities by public transport) and would set a precedent for random new builds in the countryside.

There are good and bad owners, agents and renters for sure. We’ve used holiday lets on and off forever. With my parents before marriage and during the 55 years we’ve been together. My parents always ensured everything was left in a clean and tidy condition so I carried on in the same way.

In recent years we’ve found some owners getting more and more demanding around cleaning. We now now avoid any let with an inbuilt cleaning charge that comes with an expectation of a total clean by renters while being happy to pay a deposit against any major damage. So far always returned.

On the flip side there have been excellent owners. Some leave a welcome pack of basics, others wine or an afternoon tea, some have made a call the next day to ensure we have found everything we need, others tell us not to do a major clean, just switch on the dishwasher and head home. Any minor maintenance issues have 99% of the time been sorted immediately.

One let we had a few years ago is a good example of an excellent agent. A tiny downstairs apartment on a harbour side was immaculate other than a rug full of dog hair. So much so Mr C began to sneeze and we knew he’d not stop. I messaged the agent asking if they could help as the vacuum left in the property wasn’t touching it. 20 minutes later two cleaners arrived with a much more powerful machine. The rug was put on the patio and cleaned until not a hair remained. They apologised, gave us a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates. We’d be more than happy to rent from them again and yes, we left the apartment immaculate before we headed home.

I’m not sure I could bear rent out anywhere I owned, any damage would feel personal rather than a business issue. Such a shame so many renters are thoughtless.

I’m really horrified that the agent wouldn’t support you with this. Shocking. As the people were Eastern Europeans though I guess it would have been difficult to pursue things.
Unless they live here though which is entirely possible.

The blood in particular would have worried me. My husband would probably have made a similar to yours!

I have stayed recently in two different Airbnb’s . I havent had to clean at all. One had a dishwasher one didnt. I did the breakfast dishes by hand the morning we left in the one, stacked the dishwasher and put it on in the other. Did no other cleaning but left everything clean and tidy .

I certainly didn’t move anything from its original places or steal anything that is appalling behaviour. Both owners said thank you for how well it had been looked after and said they would have me again.

Some of the people mentioned must be mad!

JenniferEccles

I’m really horrified that the agent wouldn’t support you with this. Shocking. As the people were Eastern Europeans though I guess it would have been difficult to pursue things.
Unless they live here though which is entirely possible.

The blood in particular would have worried me. My husband would probably have made a similar to yours!

They live in London.

TwiceAsNice

I have stayed recently in two different Airbnb’s . I havent had to clean at all. One had a dishwasher one didnt. I did the breakfast dishes by hand the morning we left in the one, stacked the dishwasher and put it on in the other. Did no other cleaning but left everything clean and tidy .

I certainly didn’t move anything from its original places or steal anything that is appalling behaviour. Both owners said thank you for how well it had been looked after and said they would have me again.

Some of the people mentioned must be mad!

I've used Airbnb a lot. Last week, for a group reunion a friend had been told to sign up. She thought it was a hassle. I explained it was to protect her and the landlord. Imo the beauty is that you rate them and they rate you. There are consequences if the place is not what they advertised, or if the guest leaves the place in a state. Win, win.