Holiday let, disrespectful guests.

maddyone

Oreo

You are all very lucky to have holiday homes.

I was just thinking that Oreo.
We couldn’t afford a second home.

Proud to say we have always worked and worked hard. We didn’t have foreign holidays until I was 40 and we always saved up for things we needed, not getting them on tick.
There were many times when I was first in the queue at the PO for my family allowance after we just had enough to see us through the weekend.

We had no financial help from anyone. Husband’s family were well off but hung on to it. When he started driving he asked hisDad to lend him £250 to buy an old car but he refused and said he would have to get a bank loan which he did!

Our second home we call our private pension! 😉

Primrose53

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.

I haven’t heard that, how could it work without some sort of official ruling?
If I wanted to sell my house and the only offer I had was from a second home owner I would go ahead.

Oreo

You are all very lucky to have holiday homes.

I was just thinking that Oreo.
We couldn’t afford a second home.

PoorJenny

Hi Primrose 53.

That sounds a very good idea. It must be hard work sorting things out for short let customers.

We have mostly enjoyed it and have excellent reviews and won 2 awards but people who try to get out of paying for dogs (which is pretty standard now) or steal stuff or leave it in a filthy mess really bug me.

I go out of my way to make sure it is spotless, if the house is going to be ready before 4 pm I message them to say they can come earlier, I leave milk, nice biscuits, tea, coffee, hot choc, sugar, usually some porridge pots for breakfast in the morning. If they book a dog I leave treats, towels and dog bowls.

It’s nice reading lovely comments in the Visitors Book but people who bring dogs but don’t pay or who pinch stuff never write in the book. Maybe a twinge of guilt. 😉

Hi Primrose 53.

That sounds a very good idea. It must be hard work sorting things out for short let customers.

PoorJenny

The main problem is, in this day and age of social media, if you make a complaint about someone, you will find that these keyboard warriors will be on social media slagging you off and this could in turn hurt your business.

It is best to blacklist them and hope it never happens again.

Thanks PoorJenny. They can slag me off if they like but it won’t have much effect as we are going back to long term tenants in Oct.

My late Mum had a sister who she always called Poor Babs. In later life I asked her why she called her that and it went back to when she was newly married, lived in a caravan and had 3 babies in quick succession. Poor Babs was actually very happy and loved her family but always laughed at her nickname.

The main problem is, in this day and age of social media, if you make a complaint about someone, you will find that these keyboard warriors will be on social media slagging you off and this could in turn hurt your business.

It is best to blacklist them and hope it never happens again.

Cabbie21

Absolutely awful.
My daughter runs a holiday let but fortunately has had very few bad experiences. It helps that she lives next door.

We live literally a two min walk away. We let people enjoy their privacy and don’t go near them unless there’s a problem.
Oh well, we finish end of Sept.

We have people booked in for 2 weeks. One week gone. I rang them today as arranged to deliver fresh linen, towels etc for second week.

As we were talking I could hear a dog barking but they had not booked a dog which is an extra £20 a week. I asked her and she said it was only a small one and she had put it on the booking form. Well I’ve heard that one before!! It certainly wasn’t on the booking slip I had.

If I know a dog is coming I always leave clean dog towels, dog bowls and treats.

I just hate thinking that people think we must be stupid. We are £40 down ……. For now! 😉

Grannynise

We don't stay in holiday lets as we are bondholders in an organisation which has properties in the UK and abroad. It used to be, maybe still is, advertised using Judith Chalmers as a spokesperson. We have never had any unreasonable demands about cleaning and, as we and other guests are 'members', we have never indulged in the type of behaviours I see described here. I hesitate to use the name of the organisation as this might be viewed as advertising - but I think if you look for Chalmers and holiday bond you might find it!

Have a family member with a HP property and you could only access property quite late and be out quite early . Plus, they were always a bit far from beaches or places of interest . Wasn’t impressed .

I’d hate to cause you extra worry but I’d have reported the blood evidence. It does not bear thinking about what people might use rentals for but what you describe is not normal rental behaviour.

Absolutely awful.
My daughter runs a holiday let but fortunately has had very few bad experiences. It helps that she lives next door.

It just beggars belief.

Germanshepherdsmum

All that blood is seriously worrying.

We checked the shed this morning, no bodies in there!🤣. Only place left is the loft.

Can you even imagine stuffing blood soaked tissues behind the loo? Why didn’t they just flush them. Unless they were wet wipes. I do ask people not to flush those as they cause blockages. Still, there was a bin there.

I get the impression that this sort of behaviour happens a lot with holiday lets. Almost every time we’ve stayed in an AirBandB we’ve had a comment from the owners thanking us for leaving the place as we’ve found it. I don’t think they would bother if it was the norm.

When we rented out a house (to a trainee vicar and her accountant husband) we couldn’t believe the filthy state of it when they left, plus the graffiti (they called it wall art) they had allowed their children to draw on the expensive wallpaper

One of the ironies of areas with a high percentage of holiday lets/airbnbs is that it prices out the people who would normally do the cleaning (as well as gardeners, doctors, care home staff etc). So owners and holiday cottage companies end up paying more than they used to for staff and those staff have less time to spend per property - hence the requests for customers to clean as well as tidy.

A friend of mine once wanted to open a cafe but one where only 'nice' people would go.

All that blood is seriously worrying.

Just got back from Part 2 of the clean up and discovered they had pushed loads of blood stained tissues behind the toilet. No idea why because there is a bin in there! Make up spilt on a fabric storage box. Loads more blood under the bathroom shelf. How did that get there? Cooker was pretty bad so that’s all done. I just don’t know how people can make so much mess!

If we had had people arriving on same day, which we often do, we would never have managed to get that all cleaned in time.

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.

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.

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’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!

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.

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.