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

Yep we get stuff stolen. Hairdryer, laundry basket, a grill pan.
Or they break stuff and hide it/don't admit it.
We'd rather they confessed as we wouldn't charge but we need to know before the next guests say "oh isn't there a teapot/tray etc?"
We can't ask the cleaner to do a full inventory as she has enough to do in her 5 hours.
If we know who broke/stole then we add the cost to their next holiday rather than keeping deposit...

We don't have a second home (dreams!) but we airbnb'd our house for a month last summer when visiting my sister in the far east.

Rented a storage unit for all out actual stuff and left the place looking very naice and empty and clean - and as we were crawling out the door with the sleeping kids, I put out some ornamental things on the living room Kallax (which is usually full of boxes of toys!) just to make it look more homely.

I should have thought it through more :(

The loss and damage we suffered that month cost thousands - bifold doors broken, Silestone kitchen worktop chipped, and every single ornamental bit I'd left out taken... some of it had real sentimental value. I was so gutted.

We were lucky that we could claim on the (additional, specialist) insurance policy that my clever DH took out, to 'make good' the bifolds and have a reputable company do a passable repair of the Silestone - you can see it if you look though! :( But the things they took were irreplaceable. A pair of hand-carved Finnish wooden cups that my deceased godmother gave us for our wedding... I mean they are cute, but certainly don't have re-sale value, I just put them out to fill an empty shelf! It was a real 'supermarket sweep' type job.

We reported to the police on email and got a reply asking us who had access. It was 7 groups of guests and the cleaning firm. I think it's possible that some of it was the cleaners, honestly - especially as they were doing turnover between each group and didn't report anything. They knew we were out of the country too.

But of course we have no proof so there's nothing to be done.

When I was looking after rental flats a few years ago, the only theft I ever had was when I had a vicar staying!
She went home with a couple of the nice local interest books I’d put out for guests to browse through.
Generally speaking tho, people tended to leave books, dried food, toiletries, beach towels and toys etc behind, I didn’t have anything else stolen in 3 years of rental management so I was pretty lucky !

Pans are trashed every year. Not so much theft but we stopped leaving whole boxes of stuff very quickly.

It's staggering the cheek of some people.

We use holiday cottages numerous times a year and I'd never dream of stealing things. At one I dropped a cereal bowl and spent all week trying to find a replacement (which I did)

I don't understand why people would do this. Surely you have their details so you can recharge them?

Ok I'll admit it I always steal something from every cottage or hotel I stay in. I don't know why - I just have to.

But it's always something nondescript. Eg one coat hanger. Or one flannel. Or the roll of kitchen roll.

I wouldn't dream of taking something big or expensive though.

My friend used to take books she fancied from holiday homes if there were any she fancied: apparently this is considered normal in her home country, people take a book if they want and leave a book if they have one they want to leave. She was fairly sheepish to learn this isn’t the norm elsewhere. I’m sure big groups of friends and I holidaying together have inadvertently taken dishwasher tabs, loo rolls, dry food goods, the odd board game etc over the years: often the people clearing up and packing stuff at the end aren’t fully aware what came with us / was bought and what was there when we arrived.

Actually I took a book and left a book once then fretted about it for ages and messaged the owner !

The poshest guests we've had stay at ours (went on and on about their Posh Hobby, had personalised plates referencing it, etc) were the only people to nick anything - a whole big pack of loo roll. They also managed to use the 6 loo rolls in the space of a two-night stay, so either they're light-fingered or the caterers at the wedding they were attending weren't refrigerating the lobster bisque properly.

I don't know how people have the brass neck! We've recently come back, we were left 3 loo rolls which we used, took a couple of our own with us & left one so they didn't think we'd nicked what they left us!!

Yep! We’ve had tons of stuff stolen! And I’m pretty sure there’s a black market for teaspoons!!! We now only leave one loo roll per toilet ( we have two toilets) and two-three dishwasher tablets depending on length of stay! Bedding, towels, cutlery , crockery! It all gets nicked eventually and it’s sole destroying! Someone nicked the tv once too!

A cleaner agency mislaid all the good quality cotton white linen replacing it with poly cotton nasty stuff. After contacting the boss the linen reappeared.

Overseas visitors leave the worst mess. They don't use the dishwasher, nor wash up, wipe anything down. They reckon it's a staff job.

Vigorous activity in the shower has resulted in new doors, retiling, leaks. It really isn't designed for two people.

We used to have a holiday let and people would steal anything that wasn’t screwed down, and some things that were screwed down too. Favourite things to steal were the batteries from the remote controls and smoke detectors to put in their walkie talkies (our house was in a ski area.) Clients would regularly remove all of the light bulbs (why? Seriously!) All of the towels went missing, as did many of the glasses, but on the very dubious plus side we did acquire a lot of towels from the local spa and branded glasses from the local bars. Bizarrely we also acquired a coffee machine and a toastie maker too, but lost most of our pans and knives.

We used to rent out our house with the remote control to open the communal underground parking (more or less essential in a place where it snows often) but people stole the remote control and it cost us loads to replace it every time. People would lose the keys frequently too, and because of the location of the ski area it was a long drive (3 hour round trip) to get replacements cut. Sometimes they would call us at 2am to tell us they were locked out because they’d lost their keys. Not much we could do about this from a different country at 2am on New Year’s Day as happened one time.

We got lots of damage to the property and furniture too. The worst thing was when they would come in cold from skiing, whack the heating up to maximum, then get too hot so they would open the windows and shutters, and leave the shutters open but not pinned back. The house would be freezing when they got back, heating bills were massive, and the shutters would smash back and forth against the wall until broken if the wind got up. We did eventually put a lock on the thermostat, but then someone used a screwdriver or something to pry it off the wall and left it in a real state.

We eventually started letting it out at a lower cost to ski instructors for the season, as dealing with holiday makers was just too frustrating. When we sold it, we had a bit of a celebration! It sounded so nice to have our own property in a ski resort, but it was far more trouble than it was worth.

Just leave a very clear note in each room.

Thank you for staying with us.

Towels, gowns and other items are available for you to purchase should you choose.

If items are not left in the cottage after your departure we will assume you wished to purchase them and will happily deduct this from your deposit.

I'd customise it for each room.

Then charge for the missing items and send an invoice with thank you for your purchase and the amount you've deducted.

Keep it professional.

I think the only exception might be books. People usually leave a book and take another.

Yes. I don’t own one but my parents used to. High end, guests had plenty of money, they still stole stuff.

The weirdest thing was kitchen serving ware but that turned out to be a chef.

Oh and bedlinen that turned out to be the house manager.

I manage a very upmarket Airbnb for my parents ( over £600 a night holiday home abroad ) and people rarely steal , in fact over the years they left stuff including brand new appliances ( mixer , grill and a ice machine ) . On occasion a towel will disappear or something ridiculous as an ornament , picture frame or serving spoons .
I always seem to leave stuff as any leftover detergents and coffee pods as an example .

This is why we lend our holiday home to family and friends and don't let it out to strangers. We leave too many personal bits to rent it out as well. We leave kayaks, sand toys, wet suits, beach shoes, a huge cupboard of games, a bookcase of books and DVD's and phone chargers. Even swimming pool book of season tickets friends/family can use and swim caps. We even leave a seaside purse full of coins for parking and emergency euros and a satnav with photos of places of interest so our guests can just click on the photo and be led to the place.

This is the third year we've rented out our cottage. I was given dire warnings about things being stolen or broken. Not a thing has happened, I can't think of anything. I leave bog rolls, cleaning stuff, extra tea and coffee etc accessible and there's usually plenty that needs topping up now and then. We have some nice lamps, ornaments etc and none has ever been damaged. We must be getting a better class of visitor 😂

Does anyone remember the thread on here that was in all of the tabloids? The poster said that she had taken a big container of soap or shampoo, and they billed her for it. She sounded quite convincing at first, because it sounded as though she had taken one of those tiny bottles, but it turns out it was massive!

I think she took it from a boutique hotel, not an Airbnb.

No no one has taken anything. Broke a bedside lamp (they told me).
The biggest issue I had was complaints about the cleaner.

I stayed in a lovely Cornwall cottage about 25 years ago. I broke the lid on the teapot and had to replace the whole thing. It was a posh brand and cost me £40, I could have cried, but I broke it so replaced it!

Can I be your friend? 🙃