To be puzzled and upset over holiday rental complaint

[violets17]

I rented a villa last month and a week after I had left I received an email from the villa owner's husband saying that I was the messiest renter they had had in 2 years and not to bother trying to rebook (which I hadn't). I emailed back asking for more details and he emailed back saying "it was a mess" with no further detail.

I've really racked my brains and asked my eldest son who was with me to help me remember everything. This is what I did/didn't do:

Positives
I took out all our rubbish and put it in the correct public bins
Emptied the fridge of our leftover food
Put most things back where they were (see negative list)
Didn't use BBQ therefore no mess
Roughly wiped down sides in kitchen
Checked all over for obvious spills/toothpaste etc

Possible Negatives
I didn't put all the towels in the bath because there wasn't instructions to do that so wasn't sure
Left dishwasher running with a few morning things
Replaced coffee I had used with half a jar I had bought, replaced sugar I had used with some sugar packets
Left a lilo (still working) by the pool for next guests
Left a half used bottle of laundry liquid in the laundry room
Left a brand new (unused) insulated cool bag on top of cool box

Negatives
Did not put clothes horse back in correct place
Did not put hairdryer back in drawer
Placed sofa throws on correct sofas but didn't fold them
Didn't wipe outside table (a bit tacky)
Didn't wipe glass coffee table (a bit tacky)
Didn't actually clean anything just looked for obvious toothpaste/spills/toilet stains and dealt with that - ie didn't sweep/mop/get out the cif

I then got a "guest rating" which only gives star ratings out of 5. They gave me the following

Overall experience - 1 star
Cleanliness - 1 star
Communication - 2 stars
Following house rules - 2 stars

I'm flummoxed - house rules were no smoking inside (I didn't), no house parties (of course not), no excessive noise (um - I don't even drink and had no music on).

Communication was ordinary until he emailed me to complain and I asked for details which he didn't give and neither of us communicated further.

This is about the 10th holiday villa I have rented and it has always been positive with owners asking me back and refunding my deposit immediately - luckily there was no deposit with this one.

I know I have given this too much thought but I honestly feel like I don't know what he was talking about. Why did he wait a whole week after I left to email me?

Sorry for long post - didn't want to drip drip

So im sticking dettol wipes, rubber gloves into my suitcase

It's awful OP please come back and let us know how you resolve it.

HA said the only way to remove my full name from public display was to remove everything - ie my review too. My review does not breach any guidelines.

I have said the following to HA:

I would like my review removed AND the owner's star rating, everything relating to this transaction or nothing at all. I'm only removing it because you are allowing my personal data to be displayed on a publicly accessible website. And you are continuing to do so despite my having drawn your attention to it several days ago.

You are in breach of GDPR and I would like your ICO number please.

I hate myself. I'm soft as shite but I just don't want my name on display in a review. I'm really cross that I have basically been forced to remove my review which was 3/5 so I gave kudos for the positives and did mention the negatives.

A great trick for getting a less than 5/5 review removed is to include someone's name in the response. I guess I'm lucky they didn't put my address too.

I will never use HA again. And I will never rent anyone's holiday rental - it's not worth the uncertainty. And reading this thread it seems that I am not the only one to have a horror story.

It sound awful, it has really completely put me off holiday rentals like HA, so glad we bought a nice touring caravan to go away in instead, probably why caravans and motorhomes are so popular nowadays. We will avoid that type of thing abroad as well.

Dear HA, as you are aware there are fines for breach of GDPR. By publishing my name you are in breach. May I have the name of your data protection officer (by law you must have one and must share these details). I am contacting the information commissioners office today’.

It's really upsetting agree wouldn't stay in these HA / airbnb places now too many amateurs with strange agendas

Frazzled - thanks for the useful words. I have sent the following today:

"Yet another day has gone by with my name on display to the public.

As you are aware there are fines for breach of GDPR. By publishing my name you are in breach. May I have the name of your data protection officer (by law you must have one and must share these details). I am contacting the information commissioners office today."

So my name is still up there, I hate this. Have I lost the plot about them publishing my full name? Is it no big deal?

Shocking OP. It's is dreadful that they have not removed your name. I think it is a shame though you have asked them to remove your review (though totes get why you have); for the sake of a few more days of having your name on public display while this gets escalated, it would be worth it for the bollocking they would get from the ICO, and having your poor(ish) review of the property up for eternity, messing up their 5 star run. I would retract your request to remove everything and just insist they remove you name, as they should.

I'm sorry thi is still going on violets
Keep on at HA as they are definitely in the wrong. I'd be very tempted to respond to the owners' directly too, and publicly asking them exactly what it is that they THINK it is that you've done that is so horrendous, and outline what you've already told us here about the place on arrival and on departure.
I don't think you should have to retract your review either.

I've used OD in the UK and haven't had any problems. We do s/c and have had a combination of owners just leaving us to it, and owners being present at arrival. I don't do a deep clean - I put used towels in the bath (if I've dyed my hair I bring my own towel), strip beds and fold removed bedding, wipe over surfaces, etc. If it's dusty and so on then I'll hoover. I won't be polishing the leather or horse brasses or anything like that.

I pay enough to stay in the house for the owner to get a cleaner in. If they choose not to, that's their problem.

Regarding the stripping of beds (I am a holiday cottage owner) some owners prefer if you don't, as it means they can spot stains and treat accordingly before washing. On balance, providing you haven't stained sheets, I would marginally prefer them stripped, just saves me a 2 min job. There are other things I would prefer you would do if you are pushed for time.

I don't expect people to clean - other than at the wiping up spills, no poo/wee on toilet seat level - but I do expect people to remove and correctly sort all rubbish/recycling from house, put furniture back in original rooms, put final load in dishwasher, etc; basically anything you can do that means the cleaner (me!) can go straight in and start cleaning the property, rather than putting things right.

origami - I do all that, too.

Origami - I did exactly that (what you have said you expect/hope for). Other than the towels in the bath because they didn't say to and I just wasn't sure. I admit I should/could have done things that would take 5 minutes (and I wish I had) but it truly would not have taken them more than 5 minutes too.

It really does sound as though they've confused you with either the person before or after you, violets but I have no idea how you'd convince them. From what you say, you've done nothing unusual.

Wow this is shocking - I can't believe they published your full name!! I would be furious.

Do you think this is a tactic they have used to get you to take the review down? It's so fishy.

I’ve just booked two villas with HomeAway, one costing £2300 per week, one costing £3200.

The first wants an extra 80 euros in cash for cleaning, the second has a 100 Euro cleaning bill built into the cost.

So i’m not doing any fucking cleaning on holiday! Greedy bastards.

Op, you did nothing wrong. Glad your review has been published. There have been a few threads about HomeAway recently, though...

Wow, just read the rest of the thread and seen the bit about your name. Completely insane. They are being ridiculous. Makes me rethink using them next year too.

I had to use their live chat and the person I got didn’t have English as a first language. Sounds like yours didn’t either.

OP have you looked on TripAdvisor for this property? Quite often you can review holiday homes on there too, and it is a far more fair system. I'd go on there, find it if you can and get medieval on them, with a devastating review.

Pint of - I do think it's a tactic yes, which is why all their published reviews are perfect.

Spotty - the LiveChat is rubbish - I think they have a policy of just saying "we are sorry to hear about your experience" and hoping they will soothe a lunatic down enough for them to go away. It's good that your's has a cleaning fee has (I would have thought) that means you are not expected to clean and also to pay. Take photos upon arrival and leaving though.

Cruggs - the property is not on TA. It is on airbnb but the only reviews are automatic ones to say that the host cancelled the booking. Maybe only HA gives them enough control over posted reviews.

AND my full name is STILL on display.

clicketyclick - thank you and I have sent you a PM to thank you too.

MN were very quick to remove. Ironic that I was more concerned about breaching the owner's data than my own tbh. Mostly because I didn't want potential flack I admit.

@spottybetty Did you know that Homeaway pockets a service fee of up to 12% of the actual cost of the villa? Makes the cleaning fee look like chickenfeed.

It sounds to me like you left it dirty tbh. We leave holiday rentals spotless - I take Dettol wipes with me for that reason and use the whole packet cleaning every surface.

Honestly if you left the tables tacky it sounds pretty grim to me - I would never do that and would be shocked if someone didn't.

We clean everything - bleach the loos, our sofa covers back exactly where they were etc.

growingboys - I left it ready to be cleaned.

@elphame. Yes. I checked their invoice. Bloody ridiculous. They're just a shop window for the villas. They don't actuually do any work.

Good idea to take photos, @violets17