Holiday cottage dirty dishes question

[thetinsoldier]

Staying in ‘luxury’ cottage. It cost £1510 for the week.

All v nice, but most of the dishes have been put away from dishwasher dirty - one was absolutely clatter in something brown. Chocolate? The previous guest can’t have failed to see it was dirty!

Both oven trays were oily to touch with encrusted food on them. One was unusable as the surface was peeling off.

There were no wooden spoons.

The two frying pans were badly scratched and unusable.

We went out and bought a frying pan and wooden spoons (which we will take home). Owner is very apologetic and asking what she can do to make it up to us. She has already given us an extra bottle of Prosecco.

What would you want/expect in compensation?!

I’ve stayed at many airbnbs in the last couple of years and it’s always in the UK where I get the dirty dishes/ ovens/ fridges, which completely puts me off from using the kitchen.
I don’t think the onus should be on previous users at all. The host must make sure everything is clean and in a usable condition for each new guest.

The prices, especially here in the uk, are more than fair and you also pay cleaning fees so I really hope customers start demanding more.

I've been to places with no wooden spoons or other cooking utensils. Likewise, places with just one saucepan and one frying pan. Or no oven. Or an oven but no trays or dishes that can go in it. Or no colander/sieve. Or no chopping boards. Or no sharp knives. Or no oven gloves. Or a place with beds for 4 people and only 2 mugs and 3 forks. The list is endless!

Not saying you're wrong, I'd be miffed too. But it's surprising what some owners think is OK.

I'd ask to be reimbursed for the items I bought, and a complimentary late checkout in return for the time you spent shopping for the new cookware and re-running the dishwasher with the dirty items. Honestly, a previous guest out away dirty dishes and the cleaner didn't inspect every item of crockery and cutlery. Inconvenient, but hardly catastrophic in terms of the enjoyment of the holiday.

A complimentary late checkout would give the cleaner even less time to prepare for the next guest!

It should have been checked and cleaned at the end of the last visit. Depends how clean the rest of it was. Dirty dishes - gross. But i wouldn't really expect them all to be checked.

I think expecting very high end standards for £1500 over a school holiday for a 3 bed house isn't really fair, even if "luxury" is in the description. You'd pay far more for that for three rooms for a week in a Travelodge over the same time period.

There's a great Dave Gorman stand up piece about a "luxury" wig which is hilarious.

It really isn’t ‘luxury’ to expect dishes to be clean! That’s basic. 😂

The owner is now aware of the problems and has apologised. She could have done a little more than a bottle of wine, maybe a small hamper. But I wouldn't start chasing her for a partial refund.

Have stayed in holiday cottages before and I came to the conclusion that owners assume the holidaymaker leaving cleans up. They just get someone to put on bedlinen etc. But don’t bother checking the kitchen.

We recently stayed in a "luxury lodge" that was over £1000 for an off peak week in March and the kitchen fell woefully short of cooking equipment. If I book self catering, I'm going to be cooking and not just heating up takeaways or ready meals. I would also expect the cleaner to be checking through the cupboards.

I'm sure it depends on the owner, my brother owns a couple of holiday cottages and I know that the cleaners have to work to a check sheet of jobs every time

I don't know the details but I'd be surprised if it was to the level of inspecting the contents of all of the cupboards to make sure the previous people hadn't put away a dirty dish but I'd hope they'd at least do a visual check of things like the wooden spoons and pans

No I do agree with that but I don't think the luxury element is really that relevant was my point. The price is pretty cheap for the UK nowadays.

I agree cleanliness is a basic requirement and I would complain but I also think a bottle of prosecco is fine. It was the odd dirty dish not mice droppings.

Dirty or worn out equipment isn't acceptable whatever the price of the accommodation.

Supermarket/Ikea standard is perfectly satisfactory and it should be clean and in good condition, this should be checked on changeover as obviously guests cannot be relied upon to wash things properly, not steal things or report any breakages.

I think in this situation I'd ask for a refund/voucher for about £50/100 as a gesture of goodwill. You say the owner has apologised and will hopefully either have a word with her cleaner or if she does changeover herself, taken on board that standards need to improve.

Agree.

Some holiday cottages do ask that everything is washed and put away before you leave. Is that the case there? That might explain why it happened if previous guests were in a hurry.

We always just put the dishwasher on when leaving even if asked to do the above. I don’t hand wash even at home so no way am I doing it on holiday!

could the owner have been expected to notice
Well, yes, in a luxury cottage. In fact, even in a less luxury one, of course the owner/cleaner/manager should check all crockery etc is clean and fit to use.

Asking what she can do to make it up to you sounds a bit dim, or at least not very proactive. If it were me I'd be cringing with embarrassment. She needs to reimburse you for the frying pan and wooden spoons, and I'd also expect at least one night taken off the price for the inconvenience. Extra prosecco is a cop-out (I bet they buy it in bulk cheaply) and for me at least pointless, as I don't drink. If they want to give you consumables as a goodwill gesture they should consider something other than or as well as alcohol – a hamper of nice local or luxury deli food, maybe, or very fancy chocolates.

No, we can leave the dishwasher running.

The cleaner should have checked all dishes anyway.

I kind of feel like this too. I’d rather she was proactive and offered something rather than licking it back to me!

For those who asked about timescale, I messaged re the filthy dishes when we found them, e.g. Day 2. Didn’t get a reply for 2 days (over the weekend; Weds to Weds hire). By then we had bought the new pan; we needed it!

Wooden spoons? You actually want wooden porous spoons, spoons that cant be put in the dishwasher or sterilised. That other people may have licked and or left floating around in a filthy sink for a few days and you want compensation because you didnt get some...shudders...

That's very poor. If I were the owner I'd be even more keen to make it up having left it for two days!

I put wooden spoons in the dishwasher.
I've also used wooden spoons in holiday lets and at other people's houses, and have not yet died of wooden-spoon plague (51 and counting).

Not the OP's problem - I guess they'll just have to send two cleaners instead of one!

That's just an illustration of the lack of professionalism I'd associate with Airbnb.

As regards holiday cottage prices, 1500 would be reasonable for Easter and very good value for Summer school hols, assuming we are talking about a place for 4 occupants.

Agreed, wooden spoons are good.

😂😂😂 we have wooden spoons, every cottage we’ve stayed in has wooden spoons. Mine go in the dishwasher. No problems. I don’t get the dislike for wooden spoons.

What do you use to stir food? Spatulas? One of those would be fine too. But there were no stirring implements.