to be angry with our holiday let guests

[birdladyfromhomealone]

As Holiday makers, have you ever wondered why you are asked to pay a refundable damage deposit?
The reason is - not every one is respectful or treats rental homes as they would their own.
Just a month ago we posted pictures of our newly refurbished studio apartment in our villa in Spain with a brand new day bed that pulls out to two singles or a double.
With thanks to our first guests of this season we will now have to refurb again although the deposit may not cover the cost of their "the bed just broke"
We have a great team of cleaners that keep our Villa in immaculate condition but they should not have to clean up what has been left.
Why would anyone leave a holiday villa in this condition?

I’d never leave anywhere in that state. The rubbish being left is unacceptable and just disgusting.

The bed...how did it end up on it’s side. This isn’t just an accident - looks like they’ve just gone wild

Haven’t read the full thread. But I have read a few comments about flimsy beds and rules of the let. Who cares !
Who leaves a rented property in such a shit condition?

As a couple of other posters have said, the bed was on its side to indicate that it was broken and shouldn't be used because it is potentially unsafe. This is standard practice. The mattresses were on the floor because this is where the people had to sleep.

I'm still puzzled about the OP calling this a 'day bed' which people apparently aren't supposed to sleep on - but saying at the same time that it has an additional mattress and 'pull-out' so that it can be made into a double.

The leaflets thing is just silly. As is the linen / bedsheets / pool cushions / tumble dryer. It's impossible to say about the pool tiles etc but I would suspect shabby, cheap building work. A rental property has to be fit for purpose and designed to withstand hard wear and tear.

Honestly those slatted beds are the worse quality of bed,always cave in even with just children’s weight on them. Wouldn’t have thought 1 bag of contained rubbish to throw out was out of order....I think you ABIU!!

Wow, Op, what a lot of snidey comments you've got, just because you are fortunate enough to have a villa somewhere nice. I bet these people wouldn't be so happy if guests trashed their house like this.

You got the CF guests by the sound of it. People who think that, just because it's not their place, they don't have to treat it with respect. I bet they had additional people staying, and that's why the day bed got used. Either that, or the kids thought the studio was a trampoline room. I hope your deposit goes most of the way towards the repairs and clean up. It's a shame you can't get references for short term holiday renters tbh.

It isn't a good idea to leave bagged up rubbish any where, but particularly in a holiday villa where it can get very very hot. there is no guarantee that the cleaners would be going in on that day, and it would begin to smell. It really isn't on, it only takes a couple of minutes to take it to the nearest rubbish collection point.

My guess is their kids jumped around on it.

@TeitterQueen1 standard practice is to inform the owner and leave a bit on the bed....possibly put the mattress on the floor. Not to turn it on it’s side. That’s just being a shitty and disrespectful guest.

*leave a note on the bed

Wow there's a lot of judgemental people on this thread. Nothing wrong with ikea furniture. I had a day bed which got slept on every night for years it never broke and I actually sold it to someone else.

And even if it was flimsy - that's not an accidental break is it?

Hmm your pic of the bed you claim to have bought from Ikea at €700 euro(s) (around about £600 GBP) seriously doesn't look like it's worth that amount & upon doing a quick google seems similar if not exactly the same to the one in my pic (I checked for it in Ikea too & they don't seem to stock it) maybe you're just exaggerating the price a bit 🤔but anyway yes it's not nice to leave rubbish about they definitely could have taken that to the bin(s) but seriously maybe put some better sturdy beds in your holiday home now it'll save you a hell of a lot of money in the long run 😌

First of all, I’m sorry you had to go through that.

But, as you’ve now learned, you can’t have nice things in a holiday let because some people don’t give a rat’s ass about it.

They’ve paid to stay and will do what they want, regardless of what’s right.

Regarding the bed, I would make sure you replace it with a very sturdy version as most kids will jump on holiday beds. My friend who owns a holiday let, had a bed welded together from scratch to make sure it lasted.

Also, furnish with the bare minimum, and not in white! If you can, make all covers wipeable or machine washable.

As for the wires they pulled and tiles they broke, that’s just disgusting of them. I hope you kept the damage bond to pay for those repairs.

Actually - I'd say the fault lies with the bed - just on the information supplied - those slats might support one lithe teenager lying in the middle, but not two adults, especially with the 'odd bounce' - that bed needs to have a central support from end to end running below the slats - so yes - 'just broke' - its credible. If that support was there but not in the piccy's, then it's much more unlikely it 'just broke'
I would be very wary about withholding for that bed.
If the trash was bagged and ready for removal?

How can you break tiles under the water though? I think the agents have seen a bit of a mess and gone looking for stuff that might have happened before these last people. Things break, things show wear and tear after a bit. It doesn't look malicious at all.

How is the OP getting a hard time here?! However much the beds cost, you don't just break a bed and not tell them! Then to leave all the crap in rubbish bags too - how hard is it to take the rubbish out? Some "people" are just total scruffs.

We used to let a holiday home and we found that the bigger the group, the more the damage, because no one seems to be in charge. In a single family the parents will be in charge of keeping the place tidy but in a big group where it's two families who are friends, they just let the children run riot and can't identify their stuff - taking it with them thinking it belongs to the other family

We had a big group who left cooked chicken legs between the sofa cushions and didn't take any rubbish out, just filled the kitchen bin and continued piling stuff on top over the week. It was awful. We had a fantastic agent who dealt with it. The family who came in afterwards were luckily wonderful and there was hardly any cleaning needed.

I agree with the PP, who said those who complain the most leave the place the dirtiest. the above family (who left the chicken legs in the sofa) called the agent out to re-change all the clean sheets as they were "dusty" - (they had been changed that same morning... she thought it was because a leaf had blown in the open window) later complained there was no cutlery in the kitchen (um look in the cutlery drawer?) they wanted reimbursing for the plastic cutlery they'd bought.

OP I'm sorry this group have been terrible. I hope the next ones are better. Most people are better than this.

Tbh op imthink some of your pics are a bit ridiculous. The TV Ariel can be plugged back in...that's not the same as pulling wires out of sockets and the fluff in the back of the tumble dryer. I just wouldn't think of cleaning that.
Yes it seems like your guests were a bit messy but I wonder how much they paid to then have to sleep on those awful cheap mattresses? You can see the outline of the springs! It's cheeky to take people's money then provide them with such inadequate, uncomfortable beds.

Only read your first few posts. This always irks me, this isn't just damage, it's outright vandalism. Theyve pulled wires out of sockets, ruined a bed, smashed tiles in your pool! I wish there was a legal recourse for you. It's awful.

i always do washing up and throw out rubbish put things away thats it though

am i not suppoised to use all the towels then?

I’m so sorry for you birdlady 💐
We had a similar experience with our villa in Turkey. A couple - they were the first of the season too!! They left fish bones on the bbq, food on the patio table, a bowl with herbs in which had grown antennas, used every dish, pan, crockery, cutlery on the worktops & a full unwashed load in the dishwasher. She left dirty under crackers scattered everywhere, red wine stains on sofa cushions, a broken door & to top it, they put cigarettes out on the shower try - that really did baffle me as there was a loo right next to it. It looked like they just upped and left!! Dirty mare

There are 2 issues with this thread;
Firstly the Ops communication has been very poor - so first of all, complaints about terrible behaviour, but no detail and just 3 pictures only showing a broken bed which would have been flimsy to start with....nothing else to warrant the complaints. Later, a much more detailed list of damage and info about the flimsy bed costing £700 when lots of people have bought a similar bed for less than £300. I'm not sure it all quite stacks up.

That aside, I think the Op sounds a rather inexperienced and unaware landlady. Firstly, whilst you should be able to expect and hope holiday makers will treat a place well, you also always have to be prepared for the fact that some won't and you do have to accept that as a risk and the costs associated with clean-up, as part of your overall running costs. Yes, in an ideal world everyone would be a perfect tenant, but people are careless (wine spilt on pale carpets, burns on tables and work tops, allowing baths to flood) and some are destructive (bouncing on beds, leaving indoor furniture outside in the rain) A professional landlord sets damage deposits appropriately, has adequate insurance and factors in significant amounts for cleaning and replacement into their budget for the costs of running and maintaining a holiday let....and when damage occurs, they feel annoyed but try to emotionally detach from it and know that this is the one in twenty experience whichbtheyvare bound to experience.

The other things a professional letter does is to equip the property for tenants. This means sensible and sturdy furniture which it would be difficult to break, easily replaceable kitchens, tiles etc, no pale carpets or white upholstery. And they expect to regularly replace things....it just goes with the territory.

So, I agree that people can be disgusting in their behaviour. Some people are awful. However, I also thinknthatbifnyou get into letting, you have to expect an element of it, minimise the risks by what you provide in the place and how you set up insurance and damage deposits, and just accept that sometimes you will have a really shitty tenant and not allow it to really really upset you. If you can't do this, then holiday letting just probably isn't for you.

I don't know where people are getting the idea the guests didn't tell OP her bed broke. She implies they did in her OP : don't know when but it is evident they did.

Have to agree about slatted beds just not being suitable for a holiday let. You need robust furniture/fittings as holiday lets are going to get a lot of use. I've broken two beds in holiday lets, both being slatted ones from simply sitting/lying on them (no bouncing) - I suspect some of the slats were already broken and they were really thin/flimsy - completely not fit for purpose.

It's interesting how much variety there is in terms of what people consider acceptable clearing up, from a self catering property.

I'm not talking vandalism and damage here, but people with families who have lived in the house for a week, enjoying a holiday rather than a spring cleaning visit.

Some of the more expensive cottage hiring companies ask for the cottage to be left tidy, but don't ask for much more. Their cleaners are expected to turn up and do whatever is needed....and that regularly will involve sweeping, hoovering, cleaning bathrooms, mopping floors, checking cutlery and pans and re-washing some and emptying the dishwasher, stripping beds and doing a move around of stuff back to its original location. Often people have enjoyed their holiday, trodsand into the house, haven't damaged anything and struggle to be out for 10 and really don't want to or expect to spend their last evening cleaning multiple bathrooms or mopping the floors. Most will do a quick Hoover of some key areas and a wipe round in the kitchen and that will be it.

I have stayed in a couple of privately owned holiday lets with very detailed lists of leaving instructions. Things were specified such as stripping beds, hoovering all areas, mopping kitchen floor, bathrooms cleaned, dishwasher emptied and nothing in the drying rack, Hoover emptied.....essentially they wanted nothing left for a cleaner to do...perhaps they didn't really employ a cleaner.....all fine as long as those conditions are made clear on booking, not just arrival....because as I say, whilst most people are decent and will do a tidy round, most don't see serious cleaning as part of their holiday, especially in cottages which can easily cost over £2k per week.

Next time go the way of other Spanish Lets and specify adults only. I bet it was kids jumping on the bed.