Holiday let, disrespectful guests.

What a shame that is and shame on them.
I have always been able to say that we leave a place as we find it.
My D and I had a cottage in Wales for the last week in July, it was a beautiful place and I could really recommend it as long as you like solitude.
My D got an email from the owner thanking us for looking after the place so beautifully and offering us a discount if we want to go again.

We stayed in one recently and left it in pristine condition as we had found it we got a thank you and great review from the owner it’s only fair I d be ashamed not to

That's awful Sago how people can do this beggars belief , hope rest of break goes ok.

Similar situation. We arrived to find cooked food in the oven, grill pan full of fat. Log store had been moved to another part of the garden. But the bit that really annoyed me was the carefully arranged pictures on the walls in the dining room had been totally rearranged, moved to other walls. Some pictures had been placed on top of the dresser. I still can’t get over the pictures! Bedside table broken and someone had spilt a drink down the side of the bed. As for missing items turning up in odd places, I’ve often had to replace things (eg the toothbrush holder from the bathroom) only to find them in the weirdest places! I am actually going to put labels on some things saying ‘I’m here for a reason’. I dread to think what some commercial cleaners have to clear up. I understand that things get broken: I’m terrible at breaking things, but I don’t understand people rearranging another house.

How very bizarre! Are you able to keep their deposit? I presume you took photos as evidence.
After a lifetime camping, we are just getting used to holiday lets. I have posted on here about places that effectively asked us to clean through thoroughly for them, which I feel unreasonable. Many of the replies echoed what you are saying - that unless you insist that guests to leave the place spotless, this is what will happen.
Now, if we have a long journey ahead, we book a B&B for a night after, so we can clean through before leaving.

My son was letting his flat as an (immaculate) Air BnB. The last people left it in a disgusting state. They were living in a van, travelling, and had obviously used his flat to wash everything they owned and had a dog whose fur was everywhere. The kitchen was filthy, grease all over the place. The carpet was full of unidentifiable dirt, the tablecloth saturated in some sort of oil. In a two night stay I can't imagine how they managed it. They turned the heating up to 30°, presumably to dry the clothes. Sadly it's put my son off letting it now although it was an income he needed.

I'm ok with things being moved (within reason), though it does take more time to put them back. We had 3 houses on site once and the large group mixed everything up between the properties, never again!
The worse thing for me is smelly rotting bathmats and towels, but on the whole we are very lucky.
I hope your parting guests don't give you a bad review, I think people will ignore it if it is the only one.
🍷 you deserve it!

Sadly it comes with the territory.

We stay regularly at the same cottage. We try to put things back as we find them, vacuum the floor before leaving, collect up the towels and often strip the bed and put the things in the washing machine. If friends stay part of the time with us we wash their bedding and towels when they leave.

If you have photos of the mess the "guests" left to help you remember, I'd let them come again but put everything back as they left it previously. When they complain you can say that you thought they preferred it like that!

It is hard to understand the mentality of some people, isn’t it?
My daughter runs a holiday let and rarely complains, but occasionally she has horror stories of guests” trashing the place”.

I always leave the lets we have had tidy, but do not vacuum or wash floors unless there has been spillage or some out of the ordinary dirt. I know that a full wash and vacuum will happen with the cleaners after we have gone. I would hate to do them out of a job!

I can't believe someone moved pictures around!

We only let family and friends use our holiday home but despite that we have had one or two get perilously close to being banned.

Fortunately, no trashing but, as others say, moving things around. We have colour coded sheets for each bedroom with the spares kept in the same room and we went through a patch when we kept finding all the sheets mixed up and on the wrong beds. Another time we arrived on a cold afternoon and could not find a single box of matches or gas fire lighter to light the stove. I discoveed then a month or two later on the top of one of the kitchen units. And items are constantly moved and not put back - and this is people we know and like.

Sago, you say you wish you could give them a bad review but you can't - why not?

M0nica

We only let family and friends use our holiday home but despite that we have had one or two get perilously close to being banned.

Fortunately, no trashing but, as others say, moving things around. We have colour coded sheets for each bedroom with the spares kept in the same room and we went through a patch when we kept finding all the sheets mixed up and on the wrong beds. Another time we arrived on a cold afternoon and could not find a single box of matches or gas fire lighter to light the stove. I discoveed then a month or two later on the top of one of the kitchen units. And items are constantly moved and not put back - and this is people we know and like.

Same here. Only family and people we know well. I always keep some dish wash soap next to the sink because I hate mugs having stains. It’s never there when people have been here. Last time, after a week of searching we ordered some more but then found it in the utility room (which is in the garage). And we keep the toaster on a metal tray to catch the crumbs and the tray usually ends up in the garage. The glasses in the kitchen are usually swapped round with glasses that are kept in the garage and this time they were replaced with glasses that weren’t ours. I think they were for whiskey or something like that. When those people stay again I’m going to hide them in the garage! ( I know I’m being very bitchy about this….)

Jaxjacky

Sadly it comes with the territory.

Some do live messy lives presumably.
The reverse of this tho, some years ago we stayed at a holiday cottage.It was nicely presented, but could have been better in a few ways.The owner left a nice goody pack for us but came round ten mins after we got there and bored us stiff for quite a while with a list of do’s and don’ts for every room of the house. We were tired and wanted a cuppa and to unpack.
Two days into the holiday the washing machine packed up, and the owner said it was old, they should really order another.They did, and told us it would arrive in a fortnight.
So I had to handwash towels, beach stuff and smalls and socks for the four of us.Not my idea of a holiday.They also made it clear we should hoover before we left and strip all the beds and put them in certain bags.Sorry but that’s their job!
It didn’t need hoovering while we were there in any case.
We left the house clean tho and emptied bins.

You are all very lucky to have holiday homes.

Luckygirl3

I always leave the lets we have had tidy, but do not vacuum or wash floors unless there has been spillage or some out of the ordinary dirt. I know that a full wash and vacuum will happen with the cleaners after we have gone. I would hate to do them out of a job!

I can't believe someone moved pictures around!

I have definitely had the impression that we were to do the cleaning, and the "cleaners " job was to make the beds (which we had to strip and place linen and towels in washing bag, in a certain place for laundry collection) and do a quick check. We were instructed to clean all surfaces, fridge and oven, vacuum and sweep. I think that in some popular holiday areas, cleaners are at a premium at swopover times.

Nannarose
Just don’t do it!
Holiday lets cost a fortune now and the owners either clean it themselves or pay a cleaner to do it.
It’s not the job of the tourists to leave it immaculate, what a bloody cheek.

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.

That was to Nannarose.

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.

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.

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.

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.