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?

You sound like you need to make the place less personable and look at it from your guests pov, less of your possessions and things you like, and more robust furnishings that will stand a lot of wear and tear.

I agree the white cushion covers were a bit of a risk, but since they were so disrespectful with the rest I'm surprised they didn't put the mattresses back on the beds, hoping to get away with it

I do home exchanges myself, and while there's never been the least problem, this is why I swap with couples only - and no kids!!

To be fair op, your opening post and pictures didn't give the full extent of the damage that you have later told us about.

Severe damage such as that to the pool is well out of order. The fridge and rubbish could just be down to them being lazy fuckers - not nice, but easy to sort.

Isn't a day bed designed for occasional use?

As lots of holiday lets are very expensive unless they are fully occupied I would expect all available beds to be used regularly and would put something sturdy in place to accommodate this. Just because something is fairly costly doesn't mean it will fit the bill.

Lesson learnt. Make sure that whichever site advertises your property gets references in future or only allows bookings from guests with good ratings (Airbnb type thing).

Maybe try a divan bed, have they left a review? I can understand being annoyed. But not everyone cares about the state they leave things in.

I think lots of what you've posted is unreasonable behaviour on behalf of your guests but that bed looks cheap and flimsy, especially the mattress, which is so poorly upholstered you can see the springs showing through it.

The rubbish: it would have been helpful if they’d taken it out but it’s neatly bagged/stacked up and the floor looks clean around it, so they haven’t been completely careless and inconsiderate. Are the outside bins in a convenient location? Did they know where they are?

The day bed thing is odd. It does look very flimsy and could have been broken by some accidental boisterousness. It looks as if they’ve taken the mattress off and pushed the frame out of the way so that they could continue to use the mattress. Odd not to put it all back together before they left though, unless they were making a point or just didn’t care.

I had a similar slatted base for my daughters bed, the slats were forever popping out making the mattress drop causing the bed to be very uncomfortable and because of the increased weight on the other slats some of those snapped, very annoying as it was not cheap.

White cushions on outdoor furniture are not a good idea, people are wearing sun cream which stains and will be very obvious on white also stuff gets spilt. Pool tile should not break, and wires should not come out of sockets if they are good quality and have been laid/fitted correctly. I have helped look after gites, and have a few friends who run gites

They’ve treated the place appallingly, but as someone who rents out a villa - don’t buy Ikea beds they’re rubbish. For the outdoor cushions you need dark green, dark grey etc. You can have your existing ones recovered with waterproof outdoor fabric.

Well you need to post photos of all that damage because all I can see is a few slats out of the bed and a bag of rubbish.

If they didn't have a screwdriver I doubt they could have put the slats back in so I guess turned it on its side so as to make room on the floor for the mattress so they could sleep?

I'd be crosser at ikea. Did you seriously pay £700 for that? For a holiday let? What on earth for?

And white cushions? You did realise people might sit on them didn't you?

I’ve never seen a day bed in Ikea for that price tbh.

I expect they left it on its side to make a point. TBH I'd be pretty pissed off if I'd paid for a holiday let and the cheap crappy bed broke. Might be why they weren't too fussed about their rubbish bag either after having to sleep on the floor.

Agree that the bed doesn't look very sturdy in the pictures, and that the third photo doesn't really suggest a problem. It's weird that you didn't put any of the other detail in your first post, given that it was kind of more relevant than the pictures.

Treat this as a learning curve, be glad of the deposit and invest in some more robust furniture for the future.

The day bed is just that a day bed for occaisional use.
The family were 8 adults and a 9 year old .
We have 4 bedrooms so they didnt even need to use the studio apartment.

charge them. What's the problem, do you have a deposit?

I don't actually believe you about the other damage as thats way worse than what you mentioned in the op and what you posted pictures of.

I'd have thought ripping wires from walls and broken pool tiles pictures would have trumped the overpriced day bed and a bag of rubbish.

Your description and the pictures don't match.

I looked in IKEA for a bunk bed for my kids and bought elsewhere because the display models in store were so wobbly, you couldn't use them for anyone you cared about or charge anyone to use them.

It rather sounds as though you didn't know what you were doing.

Surely the 9 year old would have had to use the day bed if the 8 adults were in the other 4 bedrooms?

Day bed is for occasional sleeping use only I would have thought.

I agree OP. There are many arseholes out there who have no respect.

Anal if you've paid a couple of thousand pounds for accommodation on holiday it's normal to expect something that is designed to be slept on, not a flimsy IKEA joby which breaks if you weigh over 6 stone, have sex, or aren't extremely careful about how you sit up.

I can totally sympathise OP. Only twice have we had to not return the damages deposit for our apartment. The first was when the couple hid the dining table. We couldn't find it any where. eventually when we bought new beds we found it, in pieces, wedged under the bed. Still .
The second time, the 'guests' left cigarette ends everywhere (it's a non smoking apartment), dirty crockery in the sink, rotting food in the fridge with the door not closed properly, and some weird brown spatters all over the walls (beer? coke?)And they used every towel and every piece of linen.
Unfortunately, the cleaners had to work really quickly and get extra help because the next guests were due later the same day.
The damages deposit was increased pretty quickly after that.

I would have added more photos but there was only the option of 3 pictures.
The same guests on day 2 called our agent on day 2 to say the hot water boiler must be broken.
She went out.- no not broken they were turning the taps the wrong way.
day 8 - Called agent saying the pool pump must be broken. It was a Sunday. Our pool guy went out on Sunday double rate, Nothing wrong with pool pump but there were 3 leaves on top of the water,
I am more pissed off that 8 adults and one child would break a brand new day bed in a studio apartment that they had no need to even use, there are 10 beds in the main villa.
I didnt expect to have to drip feed I honestly thought the broken bed was the main focus of my OP.
But thanks for all your feedback

800 from Ikea for that daybed? Are you sure?

I think they put the mattresses on the floor because they couldn't use the bed and probably put the bed on its side because they didn't know where else to put it.

They bagged up rubbish but didn't clean out the fridge. I don't think cleaning out the fridge is obligatory although it is something I would do.

I have no idea why anyone would pull out electrical wires or break pool tiles. They obviously did not treat your holiday rental respectfully but I imagine they will write a review somewhere saying your accommodation is not up to standard, the bed broke and so on.

Look on the bright side. You have a ten bed villa AND a free roll of kitchen towel! Chin up.

I am with you OP - they were disgraceful "guests"
IKEA beds are usually fairly sturdy. They would have had to have been pulling it apart or jumping on it. The rubbish is just dirty. I'd never leave 2 weeks worth of rubbish to rot in my own kitchen - the smell for a start.

They clearly haven' treated it with care or respect. But that attitude is dying.