Private Holiday Home Rental

[FreddieFly]

Good idea or bad?

Wanna and Chand I think in the absence of hard facts, and you still have to make a decision on something, you just have to take an "on balance" view of it and decide what's right for you.

And just for the record, I am not an active member of any other forum, and am not a troll, as seems to have been inferred by some. I was directed to the old thread on here from a link from another site, and was incensed by the attirudes that were coming across. I joined in purely because the subject is one that I have a huge interest in, from both perspectives.

As (in my other life) a teacher, I find the prevalence of views that young people will cause damage really awful. They are no more likely to damage something at 18 than they are at 21 or whatever age you decide is acceptable. There are great teenagers and there are ones who are far less careful just as there are good and bad mothers, fathers, 4 year olds and donkeys....Our worst ever guests in a holiday property were a middle aged academic and his SAH wife. The most untidy were a group from Dorset who rearranged the furniture and took out (didn't steal) all the lightbulbs. We are not, however, banning academics, SAH wives or people from Dorset. I agree you have to take a balanced view but having teenagers as part of a group would not be a deal breaker for me - I know a lot of very lovely, responsible teenagers.

I didnt see the original thread so this one isnt really making much sense, Ive got a gist of it I think but why was it deleted?

Am a bit at the thought though of someone looking at my house (which is a wooden council property) and making up their minds Im "riff raff" and not good enough to stay in their holiday home. Glad the owners of the cottage we are staying in July in France didnt do this.

There isn't an owner out there who would knowingly accept "riff raff" in their holiday home.

Duckdodgers, there has never been any question or intimation of making an assumption of personal standards based on whether people live in a council house. I am entirely unashamed of the fact that I was born and bred in one, and I'm sure many of the people who have rented my property live in them too.

Yep, one smell of riff and I'm already booked.

Just a thought the family who did the most damage to our holiday property I would guess had a home that of goggle street view looks immaculate the only problem was they didn't bring any of their staff with them on holiday and therefore had no idea how to clean up food they dropped on the floor and to control their children or so their rather impressive London address would suggest.

Next time send them to me.

I can provide a daily cleaner to keep order---really helps on departure day as mess is kept on top of. All chargable of course, but if they are rich they are happy to pay.

Rose, nobody is tarring everybody with the same brush, and teenagers are no different. It's simply a question of targetting the market that you prefer to attract. Statistically in this field, (and in many fields, come to that) certain groups are more troublesome than others. In the same way that insurance premiums are loaded because under 25s are less careful and more likely to cause an accident. And I entirely agree that certain professions appear to be more trouble, too. But is that fair?

Lizcat you've got a valid and proven point there, among holiday home owners, about not bringing the servants.

And nobody said Google mapping is foolproof, but sometimes it can give valuable indications about differnet things

As I said earlier, you don't need to bring servants on holiday if you are rich.

Cleaners, chefs, babysitters, grocery shoppers.... I can source them all, they can be despatched to the house.

If she wants her nails done, er... I will run in and paint them myself, just as long as they are happy to pay:)

Lizcat out of interest, do you take a damages deposit?

My agent holds credit card details.

Did you make a retention for the state they left it in?

With regards to well spoken phone calls, emails can be a giveaway too. How they are written and the tone, give so many clues for suitability.

"suitability" ffs. These cottages are supposed to be businesses and you are in a service industry looking after people. No one is asking you to have them to stay in your spare room. You are not royalty choosing who to invite to a garden party. If people cause damage to your property then deal with them but your attitude is that people are guilty until proven innocent by either living in a nice house, having a well spoken voice or writing nice e-mails. So those in rented accommodation, with a strong accent and dyslexia need not apply. Bloody hell folks. You are doing so much damage to our industry with your sneering at guests. I will repeat, from the earlier thread, after 16 years running a hotel and 4 years of cottage / apartment we have had no damage, no real problems and anyone is welcome to come and stay with us as long as they pay the going rate for the rental.

Oh and no damage / cleaning deposit. We trust you.

Agreed!

Precisely why I stopped posting on the thread. There's a horrible undercurrent of sneering and snobbery.

I rent a holiday cottage regularly. And frankly, I wouldn't want to rent from these people. I'm going on holiday, ffs, not a job interview.

Rose I think you're extremely lucky to have had no damage in all that time, I think your other comments are really pretty unfair, but obviously you don't. I certainly have nothing to be snobby about, and you have no idea what my accent is like, or if I'm in rented accommodation.

That being said, if you think in daily life speaking properly, being able to read and write, presenting yourself nicely and behaving properly don't matter, then you live in cuckoo land. The majority of people believe they do, simple fact of life.

SP There is no undercurrent of sneering, I think it's simply things that have been put about by various sources, dripping poison here and there

Unless I'm hugely missing something here I'm failing to see anything at all wrong in what FF is saying. I've worked in the hotel/leisure industry (admittedly not at the top end, but not the absolute dregs........well.........hmmmm ) and I've seen for myself what people are capable of doing to rooms, fixtures, fittings, linen etc. It would make your mind boggle if you'd never come across it before. I seen pissed in beds that were occupied by decent looking people, arse-wipe on towels, stuff broken for the hell of it.........it just goes on. If you let property and can take any steps to prevent this kind of shit then just why wouldn't you?

Thank you Lentillyfart here is someone else who knows what they are talking about :)

Fart, at last! Somebody else speaking the same language. We covered the "shit on towels" in the other thread which unfortunately got deleted. I just cannot see anything wrong with taking a caution deposit and trying to be a bit discerning about who comes to stay in your property. Rose and a few others seem to have got the idea that I think only poor people with a different accent to me wipe their bums on towels, but I'm with you on that one, you just can never be sure, can you?