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?

Thanks everyone, it is an expensive Villa in France booked through Owners Direct, not airbnb. We are taking the car / ferry so luggage is not a problem

I have seen this a number of times for France where it is feasible that people are driving. Anywhere that you have to fly to I would expect it to be included or available at an extra charge.

I've had to do this in Cornwall. Think it was a supply and demand thing there as it was a super-popular area. They knew they'd be able to rent out the cottage without providing linen, so they did. We also had to clean up with a big deposit. Frankly it pissed me off but we were staying near friends so it was the only option. Negotiated with husband to do most of the bed changing as he doesn't normally have to do it.

This has happened to us in France- quite expensive villas too. I thought it would be ok but actually really resented having to make up all the beds, stripping them and bringing them all home to wash. We never rented a villa like this again.

We had this in he south of France, it seemed common in the particular village we stayed (stayed in different properties 3 times in the area ). Local laundrette had a linen hire service that we hired sheets and towels from for very reasonable rates. I remember thinking it was a bit bonkers the first year but then it was norm the following years

Yes, I've come across this more often than not. As a PP says, usually cheaper places. As we have driven in the past, and luggage space has not been a problem, I haven't minded taking my own bedding and welcomed the cheaper price, but, as another PP says, you get the problem of your bedding not fitting. Especially pillow cases.

As for cleaning, I thought that was fairly normal too. There is often an extra fee (well worth paying) for having the property cleaned at the end of your stay, so you don't have to be burdened by cleaning when on holiday.

As others have said, this is very common practice in France. Also if you don't want to clean at the end of your stay, you can often pay an extra €70 or so for end of stay cleaning.

Never bothered me taking my own linen, stayed in houses in both France and Holland. I always take a waterproof sheet for dd2. Having said that, I have a box of ikea single sheets in my loft, and our travelling arrangements mean we have plenty of room

We just got stung by this in France as well. I did know about the sheets in advance but was surprised by the cleaning charge - we did it ourselves and the owner checked pretty carefully! I wouldn't have described it as a cheap place either. It has certainly put me off.

I've never had this in the UK, where we leave places tidy but not immaculate.

Anyone doing this for the first time: you might like to note that square pillows seem quite popular in France. Or that has been my experience anyway. Our, more usual, rectangular pillowcases, do not fit!

We had this at the Baltic coast in Germany. Didn't realise till we got there at 5.30 on the Saturday eve after a long journey. Had to nip to the local (and v busy) supermarket to see what they had. Was a crap start to the holiday

We went on holiday to France a few years ago, stayed in two self catering places. Both were really awkward - one we had to pay extra for linen and the landlady appeared at the gite at least once a day, the other was a campsite and wanted the statics cleaned to a very exacting standard, no cleaning materials provided but were onsale at an inflated rate in the camp shop.

We have avoided the problem since by checking conditions carefully when we book anywhere, and, more importantly, holidaying in countries where people working in tourism seem to want visitors to come back.

Agree that this is fairly common in France. We've had this on all the ski chalets we've rented, including having to give it a really good clean on departure.

When we arranged to hire linen from a local laundry we misunderstood the French instructions and got double of everything!!

I think this is more common than you think. I also think it is becoming more commonf for people to expect you to clean or pay extra for cleaning. We have just come back from a holiday and were expected to strip the beds and leave linen in a pile. Didn't bother me as we rented at a reduced rate but I wouldn't pay this for a higher end place.

For me this just means I need to check what is and isn't included. I made another slip up this time too as there was no dishwasher, a must for me when self catering (I also think it's more likely things are washed properly).

We run a holiday villa business on a UK Haven-type park. As private owners we have a cleaning service and free bedding service for our guests. However, guests staying with park management have to queue for linen upon check-in and make up their own beds. They pay a lot more to rent park accommodation, like caravans and chalets, than our guests pay us. I don't understand park staff reasoning on this procedure but they say it takes their cleaners time to make up beds and that costs them extra salary budget. Lots of our customers do ask about bedding at the point of booking so it must be a common preference. Personally I prefer to take my own bedding on holiday as I don't trust that the owner will have changed it from the previous guest (if it looks clean) or they may have washed it in biological powder that will make me and my family itch as we are a sensitive bunch!

As for cleaning charges, I think guests have a right to enter hygienic accommodation that looks like it has been serviced as part of the rental fee. However, holiday chalet cleaners certainly earn their money...the state some holiday makers leave accommodation in is disgraceful sometimes.

Wow, thanks for all your posts. You've raised a lot of things to consider - bed / linen sizes, pillow sizes, douvets or blankets, defining exactly what cleaning needs doing etc. Will certainly be getting to grips with all of this prior to booking the next holiday.

I have stayed in Gites in France many times over the past thirty years and have never had to take my own bedding or towels.

Here in Germany (IME) it's generally youth hostel-type places which ask you to bring your own bedding, and (for want of a better word) old-fashioned places which charge a separate fee for a final clean. Both would put me off booking (unless I was specifically after a youth hostel set-up), because there's so much else available with more up-to-date ideas.

I do strip beds, wipe over sinks/kitchen sides, and run the hoover round before leaving a holiday let, though. Why wouldn't you?

I've stayed in many holiday rentals all over the UK and France and I've never had to take my own bedding. I wouldn't call our price point particularly high end either. It looks like we have been lucky!

I have been charged cleaning fees though. I hate it because I interpret it to mean the owners skimp on cleaning. If I'm paying for holiday accommodation I expect it to be cleaned to the same standard at every changeover, not just to whatever standard the last person happened to have.

An Airbnb place which listed itself as providing "essentials", which includes towels and soap if you click the link, didn't provide any towels or soap. Owner very begrudgingly got us an insufficient quantity of towels (and they were the same towels as in the cat houses in the cattery they also ran!). Left such a bad taste.

Now I see it could have been worse.

In answer to those above. French pillows are indeed large squares (you can get square pillow cases at Habitat online, White Company, and possible Ikea). But added complication is that French bed sizes and duvet sizes are different from UK.

A French double is closer to our Kingsize, though not quite. A 'large double' is between UK King and SuperKing.

Yeah, this is a fairly common French thing

"I do strip beds, wipe over sinks/kitchen sides, and run the hoover round before leaving a holiday let, though. Why wouldn't you?"

Because in our case we had spent £1550 pounds for a luxury lodge. We could have gone to a hotel/b&b for less and not had to do any of that.

Btw, we cleaned plates and put away, tidied furniture, gathered towels, emptied and took bin bags to the top of the lane and wiped down surfaces anyway. The amount we had paid INCLUDED cleaning. Im damned if I amwhipping a hoover round having done all of the above before 10am then followed by an 8 hour journey home.

Why do you think we booked 'luxury accommodation'?

7 days that was for btw.

i booked an airbnb in Italy last summer and compared various apartments before deciding. Price was an issue when I made the original shortlist and then I had to factor in extra linen cost. Was really hacked off especially since the linen was kids style red stripes, blue check and other such hideous patterns (well worn) and in a gloomy traditional room. Towels weren't that great either. It took the edge off the holiday.

I think they can offer whatever terms they wish, and you can either book it, or go elsewhere if you don't like those terms. But it sounds as tho here you weren't told about the bring your own linen thing until after you booked OP?
If they didn't tell you on the website, I think its a bit rough.