Ridiculous villa owner request

[mozzarella22]

AIBU to suggest that being asked to bring your own bed linen to make up the holiday beds is not on? Is this common?

I've certainly plaid to hire linen before. And have bad memories of everyone crossly scrubbing the gîte at the same time as packing the car and trying to leave by 10am.

No, this was linen belonging to the villa... also in our case, the cleaning was not optional and was built in to the price. So we would have been cleaning to save effort for the cleaner we had already paid for! Never had that before at that kind of rental price.

And we had to leave by 10...

There could be crossed wires here though as our rental was in scotland, not france. Not air bnb either.

If they advertise what they're offering & what they ask you to do / provide, then I think that's fine. Your choice whether to book or not. We booked self catering in France and our cleaning had to be inspected before we left, in case we hadn't done it to high enough standard !

Never come across this in the UK or France. And although I'd always leave the place tidy and respectable, I wouldn't take kindly to being asked to clean either!

We were not told we would be expected to clean.

I agree, there's a huge difference with a cheap, very basic, "gite" - cheap for a reason - and an expensive villa or apartment.
Owners cannot have it both ways!

Many AirBnB I have rented do have a cleaning fee, but it's clearly indicated from the start, and you have the full total of your booking before you make it. I hate hidden fees, Ryan Air style.

That's totally normal. Either you take your own or or pay extra for linen. Same for cleaning. You leave it clean or pay extra for it to be cleaned after. We have always done that type of holiday. It doesn't get that bad after only two weeks if you're reasonably careful.

There are usually cleaning products provided and a crappy vacuum so you're not tempted to steal it! You need to wipe over fridge, kitchen and bathroom surfaces, vacuum or sweep living room floor. Leave dishwasher running. We always seem to make less mess when we are away, there's not all the kids' crap lying everywhere!

Frankly, unless I chose budget accommodation - and nothing wrong with them - I don't expect to do any cleaning in a rental any more than I expect to change the bed sheets or hoover my hotel room, or bring my own bedding there!

It's always happened to us in France. Have taken linen the wrong size for the beds once, which cost us. And it's usual to do the cleaning, although there is now often an optional cleaning fee instead.

This might be because I book through the French sites not the English ones (because it's cheaper and there's more choice).

We will be taking linen with us to France this year.
We have also had to pay 150 euros for cleaning in the past.
I now read the small print VERY carefully. Also, if they take a deposit on your card in Euros and then refund in Euros you get the hit on the exchange rate which can be very expensive.

@HipsterHunter not so much villas as there aren't many of those in the UK, but certainly when we hired out huge (fancy) country lodges for hen dos. Even when my partner went to a rented Scottish castle!

Maybe it's a question of the number of rooms... the places I've stayed where this has been a thing have always been 10+ rooms, regardless of them being high or low end, and all have stipulated bring your own bedding.

I'd agree if you book privately, there is often the choice of bringing your own bedding or paying to have it provided. It does mean you have to factor that in against what seems like a cheap price.

TBH if you were driving there, it wouldn't be a huge issue really.

Have only read OP's posts - did they not mention the linen/€100 charge in T&Cs? Surely grounds for a discount?

Very common in France and at the cheaper end of the UK holiday cottage market. It can cost £10 or more per bed to have the linen laundered unless you do it yourself and washing and ironing (say) 5 loads of bedding on a weekly basis yourself is not cheap - either in your time and the wear and tear on the washing machine.

It's a condition of my VisitWales 4* rating that I provide bed linen so the cost is factored into the overall booking price

I've come across it in the UK, got caught out as I took duvet covers and they provided blankets!!
I've also had this in France although most places offer linen as a chargeable extra. We are flying to Italy this year and linen is chargeable if required.

Never had to in the UK. But have to clean - and be out by 10am to allow the cleaner to clean! Takes 3.5 hours including getting ready/packing car. But it's not a proper clean - it looks clean but it's not as clean as our own home would be given the time available. Accept this after a week/fortnight away but if it's just two nights we prefer B&B or hotel.

VERY common in France. I actually wouldn't expect bed linen in a villa there.
I really wouldn't even think about it.
The correct answer is either to bring your bedlinen or ask if you can rent some for the duration of your stay.

And YY to be expected to clean.
Actually, being french I still clean a holiday cottage before leaving when I'm in the uk. It wouldn't come across my mind not to do so.

We were caught out about 17 years ago after driving from Scotland with 2 young DC to a caravan on a holiday park in France. No bedding there other than a scratchy old blanket on each bed!

We had to rush out to a Hypermarket and buy two sleepings bags for the DC which were very expensive at £30 each (a substantial chunk of our spending money!) and a flat sheet and a couple of pillowcases for us. We had to sleep under the hairy blankets for the week - it wasn't nice.

Yes I have come across this in UK and also in France, it's not unusual so YABU.

Have a lovely time!!

Never had to do this, or to pay a cleaning fee. And I've stayed in at least 20 villas over the years.

Lesson learnt to read the fine print closer next time.

Apparently it's the norm in in the part of the world where we're going on holiday this year, including in high end properties.

Although actually it really helped us to get down to a sensible shortlist to choose a property, as out of 100s in the area there were only a handful where linens were included.