Holiday let, disrespectful guests.

I am on both sides here. The 10 am - 4 pm is a bit of a pain for guests, I agree, but I can vouch for the fact that that time is needed if you want the house spotlessly cleaned to the highest standards. I won't bore you with my cleaning list, but for a 3 bed house I would allow the full 6 hours to remove shelves from fridge and wash, clean mirrors and windows, swap linens etc to mention just a few. Then, scrub the barbecue and outdoor furniture.
Most hotels I stay in state the arrival time as being around 3 pm so like a house you do lose some of your day anywhere.

My neighbour has a holiday let and i was horrified when they said someone had left a poo in the shower!!!!! They let the property through an agency and that wasnt the first incident. He is expolice and said it is difficult to do much about such behaviour. They could use different names on booking and different bank card etc. Disgusting!

Oh I meant to add, taking out the rubbish and putting it into the recycling bins was something else we'd do when we exited. I always remember just how many wine bottles we'd dump when we used to go regularly to France

Why would people move things round? I can understand moving a chair if it didn't have a view of the TV, but why change pictures round, or move ornaments? That's just odd.

Weeing into a jug is horrible.

I've had various experiences, of late all good, our holiday lets, two in Wales and one in South Hams Devon have been very satisfactory. On entering the properties all have been immaculate, basics such as tea, coffee and milk provided plus some goodies such as home baked scones, Welsh cakes etc. No complaints. On our exit we were asked to strip beds, dump towels in shower and make sure any used crockery, cutlery etc were put through the dishwasher, which we did, it didn't take us very long to do those things. I would add that I wouldn't dream of moving fixtures such as pictures around.

When we were a young family we did some holiday rentals, here in the UK, France, Italy and America with mixed results. Somewhere, I can't remember where now, wanted a full clean, which we didn't really do, as far as I'm concerned this is a business and as such factored into the price should be the cost of cleaners coming into turn the place around before the next people arrive, and that means a heavy duty clean throughout, it's no good asking exiting guests to do that, happy to strip beds. The holiday rental that annoyed me the most back then was one in Devon that hadn't been cleaned particularly well, the owners had left all their food in cupboards as if they'd cleared off for the week, had the cheek to ask us not to touch it. I complained to the letting company, that if this is how they presented their let, they should be charging "mates rates" rather than the commercial fee that applied, I was also really annoyed with the holiday company for being so lackadaisical as to what they expected from their client owners. Never used them again!

Generally the holiday lets we had in the US were of a high standard and were often in a condominium, wooded estates with use of communal pool. The gites we rented in France were a bit more basic, one down in St Jean de Luz was quite damp which didn't do one of my asthmatic children any good at all. So yes some varied experiences back then.

Sago

People never cease to amaze do they.

The lack of courtesy and good manners is just so depressing.

As for pilfering the hand-wash and coat hangers - that's just stealing for the heck of it. If they can afford a holiday, they can afford toiletries and coat hangers.

They sound like middle-aged louts - uncouth, uncivilised, disrespectful and choc-full of a sense of entitlement... to other people's belongings.

... and this...

These guests rearranged furniture, couldn’t aim into a lavatory, left crumbs everywhere, the mattress protector was stained,they had emptied the information file and left all the instructions and leaflets everywhere.

... confirms it! Moving things around is one thing - people have their odd idiosyncrasies - but the rest, ugh! It's just slobbish.

I heard of one instance where cleaners had arrived to do the swop-over clean to find what they thought initially was stale orange juice in a couple of glass jugs - only to discover that it was in fact urine...

That was a small point in the context of the post - tbh it was something on a longer list that just stuck in my mind. It wasn't a case of having a triple-compartment kitchen bin so we could sort as we went (as we do at home), it was glass in the basement, plastic decanted into an orange bag to be left at the back door, household waste to go in the black bin at the bottom of the garden and so on.

Of course I wouldn't want cleaners to manually sort rubbish - the could have emptied a triple bin with three separate liners and disposed in the relevant outside bins though?

I agree with most of that but, for the sake of the environment surely you would have been putting recyclable items in the correct places anyway? There are big penalties here if items are put in the wrong bins and all areas seem to have different systems; would take cleaners quite a long time sorting through all the rubbish.

Oreo

No Monica that isn’t what anyone is saying.Leaving the place tidy by no dirty pots in the sink, wiping down the table and leaving everything in it’s right place is one thing, but being asked to hoover round and strip all the beds and leave the bedding in bags is a step too far.Covid rules suit a lot of people.If you pay £1,000 for 4 for a week or less you expect the owners to do all that.
Another hate of mine is pinned up notices in many rooms with do’s and dont’s.

Agreed.

My friends and I use cottages as we are a group (similar to a reading group) and we need communal space to do our thing together, particularly in the evening. We don't go out to eat, as that would take time from the purpose of the visit.

As I said in my post, a quick tidy is absolutely ok, and none of us would dream of leaving mess, but vacuuming? Stripping beds? Emptying the dishwasher? Why should we be restricted to cereal for breakfast on the third of three mornings so that we can leave by 10.30 with an empty dishwasher? The last place we stayed wanted the recycling sorted so that bottles went to the basement and the rest sorted into other bags that were left in various places, and other things I forget now. It was a list of chores, not a quick tidy and clean up. We had to get up early to get it all done in time to leave (and as has been pointed out that is hours before the next guests can check in). Rather than say that we should have stayed in a hotel (which wouldn't work for what we wanted anyway) I would say that if the owners don't want to clean up they shouldn't be renting as a holiday let. What's the difference? A hotel employees chambermaids, so why can't holiday cottage owners do likewise?

This didn't happen before Covid. I repeat - we always left the place tidy and cleared up after ourselves - but weren't expected to actually clean it. There has been no reduction in price to cover the cleaning we now do - far from it. It does feel as though the owners are pulling a fast one, to be honest. What next? Weed the garden?

As you are usually asked to leave by 10 and arrive by 4 that is 6 hours for cleaning/changing beds etc. - I assume that is why people are asked to leave at that time. I always feel I have lost a day, which is galling, especially when the cost of lets has rocketed.

I leave places tidy with things put back where they belong etc., but do not expect to be doing a big clean.

The request to strip the bed seems to have become the norm since covid.

No Monica that isn’t what anyone is saying.Leaving the place tidy by no dirty pots in the sink, wiping down the table and leaving everything in it’s right place is one thing, but being asked to hoover round and strip all the beds and leave the bedding in bags is a step too far.Covid rules suit a lot of people.If you pay £1,000 for 4 for a week or less you expect the owners to do all that.
Another hate of mine is pinned up notices in many rooms with do’s and dont’s.

If you do not want to clean up and tidy after a stay in a holiday let, then stay in a hotel.

We’ve used Air BNBs we leave the place tidy and the bed stripped, we don’t clean that’s up to the owner, I do recognise that some will abuse the place.
The last one we used was average, an inconvenient layout, uncomfortable bed, although that’s typical of many. To be honest a Premier Inn is a better choice for a couple like us, but when everything is booked up an Air BNB fills a gap

Are you expected to arrive and make up your bed from a pile of bedding left out in your holiday let?

If not, then why should you have to strip said bed when you leave?

I think everywhere should be left tidy, no dirty crockery, surfaces wiped down and uncluttered, nothing left behind in cupboards, wardrobes, drawers, but vacuuming, bed stripping, actual cleaning -no.

That’s what you are paying for.

Normally we would eat out or get a takeaway on the last evening before departure, leaving just two mugs and two cereal bowls to wash up by hand next morning - not a big chore.
Stripping the beds seemed to start with Covid rules. Again not a big chore.
The smarter the place, the easier it is to leave clean and tidy. Some older country properties are full of nooks and crannies we would not touch during our stay.

It hardly ruins the last day of your holiday spending 20 minutes doing a quick clean around

The thing is biglouis most guests don't read pages of bumpf with rules, either before or during their stay. I agree that terms and conditions must be binding so there is no argument here, and I think that swimming pool rules are also vital. But I am against lists everywhere around the property. Most guests don't need to be told how to leave the property clean. However, useful info on rubbish removal, bed stripping etc can be fitted onto a laminated A4, and if advice about using a macerating toilet needs to be made, then it should be displayed with humour next to loo!
It's all a fine balance.

Ive never stayed in a holiday let - always hotels. However I have always left the room clean and tidy with anything that needs to be discarded in or by the bin. I check every drawer to make sure I left nothing behind.

There is no excuse for leaving a letting like a pigsty and not complying with the terms and conditions which were agreed to at the time of booking.

However I read many accounts on Mumsnet where guests have arrived at a letting to be confronted by a long list of arbitrary "rules" for checking out which were not mentioned at time of booking. These lists have ruined the last day of their holiday by compellig them to do housework, even though they paid a "cleaning" charge.

So I am wondering how many owners of holiday lets know the law in this respect. Or know, but choose to ignore it.

When booking a good or service online ALL terms and conditions MUST be available for the buyer to read no more than one click away from the main screen. Any which are introduced after the fact (of a booking being accepted) are illegal and do not need to be complied with.

Totally agree Doodledog . I find having to hand wash all the breakfast dishes etc a total pain because our last let had a 10am exit, despite a 5pm entry. Given 7 hours between lets to clean the house, remarkably little had been done!

I have no problem with cleaning up after myself, and would do so regardless of 'instructions'; but I do object to being asked to vacuum, strip beds, leave the dishwasher empty etc, particularly when the checkout time is relatively early. Why would we want to have breakfast so early that the dishwasher has finished in time for us to have it emptied and the dishes put away by 10.30? On the last day I prefer to pack, then have breakfast and go. Obviously I will happily fill the dishwasher and set it going.

Some friends and I often go away for long weekends, and since Covid the demands have got more and more unreasonable. I see no reason why the cleaners can't strip the beds and empty the dishwasher. There are four of us, so changing four beds, washing some towels, emptying a dishwasher and running a hoover round would be less than an hour's work - we don't make a mess. Considering the cost of renting a 4 bed house for a long weekend, that isn't going to make a big hole in the profit.

I don't understand people moving things around though. Why would people do that unless it's just putting mugs in the wrong cupboard because they don't remember where they came from? And stealing toiletries is totally unacceptable.

I do sympathise Sago and you should be able to leave a negative review on your troublesome guests. I, however, have been on the other side. Our latest holiday let in Suffolk, at £1200 for one week, the photos were obviously from years ago. The property was tired and in need of some tlc. The garden was so overgrown the front path had disappeared, not great when it was tipping down with rain when we arrived. The back garden would have been useless if we'd had children who wanted to play out there, grass 4 inches or more in height, and overgrown shrubs. The 'professional cleaners' hadn't noticed the sticky kitchen floor, or the PVC table protector still with jam smears.... or the previous renters clothes still in the wardrobe, or the shower curtain pole that had slid down the wall to be barely 4 feet above ground level 😱🤣🤣
The owner didn't respond with any urgency to emails or texts when there was a water leak from the bathroom but then expected us to make ourselves available to admit and supervise someone to assess the situation. The entitlement was overwhelming! We still obeyed instructions to strip all beds and leave towels etc in a designated area. Needless to say we won't be rebooking, despite the perfect situation of the property. I do think owners should check on the quality of the work their 'professional cleaners' from time to time.

We have a small house we let for holidays done through an agency. We do the changeovers ourselves as it is very close to our main house.

We have CustomerChoice Award because we consistently got 9.5 or more for all of last year.

The vast majority are great. We don’t ask them to strip beds or clean up but we do ask them to put either of the wheely bins out the night before collection.

We had one woman who pinched brand new fleece throws, kitchen scissors and took all the spare toilet rolls. She also brought and didn’t pay for a large dog when we only allow one small dog and charge £20. I rang her twice to ask about the missing items and she wouldn’t reply despite texting me almost every day she was here asking about places to go, what time shops close etc.

Last week we had a couple who didn’t empty bins, stained the bed sheets, moved everything around, left glue like substances around the sink and worktops, stole another pair or kitchen scissors and a large tablemat from a set of four, took all my stash of little bottles of shampoo, conditioner etc that I always leave out for people.

The lady next door said she was a bit concerned because they went out all day every day and left all the windows wide open, upstairs and down, in the conservatory and even the garden shed door wide open.

But the most bizarre thing was we found a big old mirrored door broken off a bathroom cabinet covered in rust spots and rust all down the sides and it was so old it was yellowed. I messaged to ask what it was and the reply was “it’s a mirror, oh dear our loss, please bin.” Can you even imagine packing such a thing to take with you?

I know a couple who let out very expensive cottages with stunning views in a very sought after village. She has a team of cleaners and as they clean each cottage they take about 50 photos of the whole place because she is sick of people making false claims like hairs in plug hole, soiled bedding, dirty grill pan, dirty BBQ, chipped crockery etc.

We don’t ask guests to clean before they leave.

We request that they empty bins and strip the beds.

We pay a professional company to clean, launder etc.

These guests rearranged furniture, couldn’t aim into a lavatory, left crumbs everywhere, the mattress protector was stained,they had emptied the information file and left all the instructions and leaflets everywhere.
The seal on the dishwasher had been removed and left draped on the kitchen work top, glasses had been redistributed around all the cupboards and so it goes on.

GrandmaKT the holiday company only takes reviews from guests not owners.

That was to Nannarose.

I am not sure that it is the case although some owners seem to expect it. Since Covid the couple of holiday lets we have been to have a late arrival and early departure time in order, they say, for more thorough cleaning because of the virus.