Being nosy - Holiday home owners - do people steal stuff?

[Polkadotpjs]

On the back of the other thread about what people want to see in holiday homes I wondered if half of it is practical or workable. I was thinking about y work where we have a dishwasher that can't be used because if dishwasher tablets are left for it, people steal them ! Ditto spare loo rolls in the cubicles or nice hand soap! I'm not a journalist so don't think that. Just wondered if there's a balance between nice stuff and risking it going walkabout.
We went away last weekend and was pleased to see dishwasher tablets and laundry liquid but then disappointed there was no foil ! I'd have taken some and left it if there if I'd thought

Ah OK! Didn’t think of that. I’ll leave more! Thank you.

In some places that is the normal. Its a take one leave one system. Some people leave books exactly for that purpose. It's a really good system.

We haven't had serious theft.
Breaking glasses is normal. Scratching frying pans is so normal that I budget for a new frying pan every year.
Ruining towels and staining pillowcases is also normal.
Swapping paperback fiction books is also normal.
I haven't had anyone take our local history, maps and guide books, yet.
I was sad though when someone took our Paddington 2 DVD.
Occasionally a cupboard full of loo rolls vanishes, but that's rare.

In our haste to clear the bathroom of all the kids toys, we accidentally brought the bath plug home from a lovely holiday home once. I put it "somewhere safe" so I could post it back to them. Haven't found it since. I still feel guilty.

I do think you should provide enough dishwasher tablets for the length of the stay, because it is not practical to take half a packet home if you've come from abroad or don't have your own dishwasher at home.

And it's not like you can buy four dishwasher tablets at a time - they come in massive boxes of 100.

Most of our guests are wonderful but the worst guests we have had are unfortunately families. We clean it ourselves and do so much to ensure it's perfect for arrivals with lots of treats and consumables left that it's very upsetting when people treat it (and us) with no care. So much so DH was considering not accepting children.

The worst was a litany of horror

-kitchen left looking like the Mary Celeste: half a loaf left on the side with about 6 jammy knives left dripping on the counter.

• cookies we had left for them were uneaten and crushed into tiny bits all over the kitchen table
• Coffee spilt on the carpet and up the walls.
• chocolate trodden into the carpet
• two books ripped up
• remote control missing and found half way down the garden
• 4 days of nappies piled up on the bathroom bin
• wet towels left on beds
• suspiciously foamy hot tub
• front of a drawer left hanging off
• shower didn't work, the pipe had been pulled from the shower head where it looked like the child had pulled themselves up on it so that had to be fixed.
• they also broke the washing machine. Fuck knows how but it was running almost constantly and they then complained about it not working in the review and gave us 3 stars. They sent the grandmother to complain to us about it on the night before they left at 8pm. Her tone was one of utter disgust that they had paid for a cottage with laundry and it had broken.

Appliance man found a loads of kids hair bobbles trapped in the drum

These were a perfectly lovely couple, grandmother and one toddler. It was as if they did it to punish us for the washing machine.

Finish tablets can be bought in packs of 10 and varying amounts upwards or loose on Ebay in small quantities.

It sounds as if you buy them from a catering supplier if they only come in boxes of 100.

Another thought, buy a small box and take out what you will need for the duration of the holiday, keep the rest for next time.

Same… and I’d im there for a week and run out at the end as Iv only been supplied 3 then the dishwasher will just be left full of dirty dishes.

This is becoming silly though. We spend thousands, it's a holiday. Who on earth wants to bother with dishwasher tablets on their break, either travelling with, or bringing them back home. It's not even the price of the tablets, it's the principle. White goods should include the necessities to make them work, tablets or laundry powder.

How hard to leave one per day booked plus a couple of spare. It's not excessive, it's not tight. Everyone is happy.

Unless it's the most basic rental, at the most basic price, it leaves a bad taste. Don't complain if people run the laundry machine for a tshirt.

Spend £18 for 200 in Costco, or buy the ones from Aldi, and leave enough in a small pot.

I had this on a recent holiday in France. They didn’t leave enough for for two weeks we were there so had to go and buy a box which we had to take home.
There should be one for each day of the stay.

24 is a lot different to ‘nicking’ 3 or 4 extra.

You have no idea how many people go through during their stay. On a recent weekend myself and 2 kids went through 6 rolls in 3 nights!

exactly.

Bath sheets? clearly stolen.

24 loo roll? If they rented for 12 days, then it sounds excessive, but as long as they didn't clog the toilets, surely you include the cost of a daily or twice daily loo roll in the rental cost?

Unless you run a boutique luxury rental, you don't need to buy the most expensive extra soft bamboo kind, or the 22 carat gold roll, whatever is the most expensive one on the market right now.

some guests assume as they’ve paid for their week therefore they’re entitled to help themselves and take home whatever items have been left out
if by "items" you mean disposable like a guest soap or loo roll, then yes, they have paid for them.

@TheWalrusdidbeseech
if by "items" you mean disposable like a guest soap or loo roll, then yes, they have paid for them

They've paid to use the loo roll while staying at the accommodation, not to take home. Though I agree, guest soap is the exception. No one wants to share a bar of soap!

Oh dear lord. Counting our rubbish....whatever next.
Thankfully we put ours in the correct wheelie bins ourselves.

24 is a lot different to ‘nicking’ 3 or 4 extra

It shouldn’t need saying, use as much loo roll as you need during your stay. Just don’t take away things that don’t belong to you when you leave.

I hosted over 800 stays last year! That insignificant small item that someone nicked costs me money to replace, this is what guests don’t get. If you’re doing it and 20 other people are too, it very quickly becomes expensive.

I completely agree that bog rolls, dishwasher tabs etc should be plentiful but I have to rely on our cleaners to do this and I know they don't always, however much I ask them. I've constantly asked them to leave each guest two bath sheets each and hand towels in the bathrooms. I've arrived many times to find each guest has been left a bath sheet and a hand towel and often no hand towel in the downstairs loo. Unforgivable if you've arrived after a long drive, go straight to the loo and there's no towel, grrr. But I can't physically do anything about it most of the time and I have to rely on the cleaners getting it mostly right so don't assume it's always the owner being tight

Counting our rubbish....whatever next.

Stop being ridiculous. You know exactly what I mean! It’d be pretty damn obvious if a group had gone through an entire pack of Andrex over a weekend.

The cleaner knows what’s in the stash and when it needs topping up. Clearly if they go to restock and the stash is all gone it inconveniences them as they then need to go out to grab more before the next group arrive.

Well I don't live in the UK and they come in packs of 100ish here. From a supermarket, not a catering supplier! Actually I think you might be talking rubbish, because looking on mysupermarket, the smallest pack from an actual supermarket has 44 tablets. There's a pack of 25 but it's from "bother.com". Most of the packs are 70 or 100.

Who is going to set up an ebay account in another country just to buy dishwasher tablets let alone wait days for them to arrive - you'd have left by the time they turn up.

Putting 95 dishwasher tablets in your luggage on the plane - er no thanks :D

what guests do get is that we are PAYING for our stay, and we expect you to have factored the costs! Why wouldn't you?

If I am paying £28 a night for a room in a central London dorm (just checked on Airbnb, that's the cheapest I could find), fair enough there's only the minimum, but I'd still expect at least 1 loo roll. Change the rate to £28.50 a night if you need to cover the cost.

When I pay hundreds for a holiday let, it's incredibly tight not to have enough loo rolls/ rubbish bags etc. We don't ask for a month worth of supply, but a reasonable amount for the stay.

Of course I wouldn't take extra with me, or I would travel with my own in the first place. Guests will resent having to buy extra, and then leaving most of it when they leave.

@TheWalrusdidbeseech - but it does eat into profit. And there’s only go much more people will be willing to pay.
You do realise people (hosts) are already paying a lot on what you (guest) pays?

ie say you pay £100 a night. Hosts are paying 20-45% tax on that. They have high home insurance costs, utility costs, cleaners or holiday let company fees if not local, council tax, general maintenance, booking fees ( ie booking.com/ air b and b will take 10-20%) upkeep, replacement of larger broken items etc. most people can only rent during peak season ie 10 weeks of summer max. So every additional cost is still a cost. No host is getting £100 a night from you.

Some places charge a lot than others, but then they also likely spend more in upkeep, fresh fancy linens, 12 toilet rolls… than others also.

We do provide everything, but it obviously does eat into our profits and does mean we run a fine line of making it worth it, and not having to increase guests costs too much.

Jeez.. when I rent a lodge, I take dishwasher tabs, laundry pods, washing up liquid, salt, vinegar etc. tea, coffee, foil, and everything else.

I leave what we haven't used, and have never nicked a thing.

Why would anyone think thieving is ok just because you're on holiday? 🤔

but your costs are not my problem... You calculate them to ensure you are making a profit, and I make my booking based on location/ facilities/ price.
It wouldn't cross any customer mind to query the amount of profit you are making and complain you charge too much because your profit is too high. People look at the total price, not the details which are none of their business.

You might be paying a mortgage on the property which increase your costs massively, you might own it in full, you might pay an agent, you might pay for a cleaning company or might do it yourself.
I am sure there are a lot of costs, but loo rolls should be included in the costs.

most people can only rent during peak season ie 10 weeks of summer max
Why? I am sure you have to have flexible prices to adapt to the demand, but people book throughout most of the year, even if you have a few dead months between January and say March.

The only thing I pack is teabags.

@TheWalrusdidbeseech - why only peak? Well I live in the alps. As an example it only snows x amount of weeks, and is hot x amount of weeks. Generally it’s dead ie cable cars close, lots of tourist facilities/ restaurants etc aren’t open out of peak times. So for many it isn’t worth opening