AIBU to charge a colleague for cleaning my bargain holiday home

[Lex64]

To be honest, I thought I wasn't being unreasonable, but now I'm wondering... First time poster, so here goes. Sorry it's a bit long but any views would be great.

I have (with a sibling) an (inherited) house in the Caribbean which is being rented out on a major booking platform (not sure if I can use company names) but it''s probably the most well-known. We used all of the money left to us to refurbish the house (a substantial amount to us anyway) so it would stay in the family and could be left to our children as our parents wished. But neither of us can afford to maintain a property abroad from the UK with our own responsibilities here.

Last year, before it had been refurbished, a work colleague who I've been out for drinks with a couple of times after work, said she'd like to book it 'sight unseen'.

As the very first person to book and having no real idea of peak holiday season, holiday rental prices etc. I said she could have it for £250 a week, so £500 for two weeks. It has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, it's in one of the best possible locations and since July it's been constantly rented with only 5 star reviews.

The colleague is at the house now with 6 other people - her friends and family. When they leave, four people are booked for two weeks and are paying £750. We charge £15 per night extra after 2 guests and a £35 cleaning fee - we've had 5 stars from every guest for value for money because of the house and location.

Despite being self-catering they've had their laundry done because they thought 'it was included', and when the person looking after the house told me, I thought it wasn't unreasonable to send her a message asking for £70 for two weeks cleaning and laundry.

We don't normally do laundry, so I just doubled the cleaning fee figuring that £70 between 7 people £10 for laundry/cleaning would be ok as they're basically staying there for £5 a night each.

In response my colleague has asked exactly what the £70 is for - even though I said it was for the laundry and the cleaning fee which has to be paid for out of the £500 now making it even less than £5 a day.

She has also said that the lack of a BBQ is a major 'mistake' and now says they can't recommend it because of the 'dodgy plumbing' - which no one else has complained about and hasn't been mentioned until now.

I apologise for not asking earlier when I sent her the message about the fee which I if I had asked for before she left would have been £35, but I don't think £35 for washing sheets and towels (all white!) for 7 people is unreasonable is it?

Surely as you gave her a discounted price this has not gone through the booking platform and she will not be in a position to leave a review.

On another note, you should be ensuring that your rental does more than covering your costs as there will be ongoing maintenance costs you will need to build up a fund to cover.

I can’t see how anyone is calling her a ‘CF’ here. OP offered her that price, she accepted. Now after her stay OP is asking her for an extra £70 - it’s not the other woman’s fault that she got offered a cheap stay. She didn’t set the price. If I got charged extra money after a stay I’d say that the OP was the CF asking me for costs she hadn’t mentioned!

I would have though that laundry should be covered as part of the cleaning fee - but why have they needed to have it done while they're still staying there?

I don't know - I was going to suggest a goodwill gesture of halving the amount, but then they'll just think that you were "trying it on" anyway and that wouldn't be a good outcome.

I do think you're just going to have to suck it up this time, and never ever let them near it again.

She’s BU in my opinion, she changed the terms of her booking and used a service she hadn’t paid for. Now she’s been charged for it, and is arguing despite getting a super cheap holiday.
What a CF.
As for ‘Can’t recommend your property’... I’d be telling the most gossipy person at work what she’s done and let it spread that you don’t recommend doing her any favours!

Just reply and tell that you have noted her comments despite the fact that no visitor paying the full price of XXX has made a similar complaint.

Thank her for her custom and tell her that you won't be able to recommend her to anyone willing to do a mates rate deal for colleagues!

And yes, gossip about her!

" Point her in the direction of the terms and conditions on the booking site and inform her that as she used the laundry service, this incurred additional costs not included in the rental. "

Does the OP even have a booking site? Did she ask colleague to read it before booking?
The problem is that the cost is not just for the laundry service, but seems to also be for the routine laundry that the OP would have to get done after every customer of cleaning the bed sheets an
d towels. That is normally included in the price. You can't ask for a charge for it when you hadn't said there would be a charge for it.

Itssosunny
No a request for a derisory figure can’t spoil the holidays. That’s hyperbole. They had a holiday in luxury for a paltry amount. The most one could say in this scenario is the request could potentially leave a bad taste - especially if you’re a cheeky fucker.

Walk away and learn from your mistakes.

Charges need to be spelt out even if they are colleagues.

Cover the loss and forget it, but don't let that happen again.

Ditch the colleague, don't rent it to her again, tell her it's fully booked!

For all those saying that laundry is never extra on a rented property, that's not true. I know people who rent properties abroad with an added extra of laundry.

I think in part it's a communication issue with who is looking after the place and you. If laundry isn't usually included, wasn't this raised when the work colleague asked for it to be done?

A reasonable person would pay up, they've had a bargain. But as they're going to be awkward about it, I'd chalk it up to experience and never rent to them again.

let it go,
but
the next time and any other times that anyone askes if they can use the place and pay "mates rates" you can say
"no sorry everything must go thru the bookings company as the last time you did that with xyz she took 7 people and used all the linen and then wanted the cleaner in and refused to pay for it, she got 1570 worth of service and accommodation for 500 and threatened a bad review and bitched about the place, so because of that you no longer offer mates rates"

Write it off and learn from it!

You need to toughen up a bit and be more businesslike, no mates rates and charge a realistic rental because you need to make money to reinvest in the upkeep of the property.

You can’t stack fees on after the event. I think you are being unreasonable doing that and you take it as a lesson learnt

Did they have any T&Cs?

I also think you need to raise your prices. As well as building a reserve for issues, you don’t want to devalue the local market in that region as it’s not fair to the businesses in that area.

What was unreasonable is you ever giving mate's rates or renting it to mates or anyone you know at all.

I'd tell her to go ahead and leave a dodgy review and still charge her.

Bitch.

Then respond with the true situation.

You can't charge after the agreed price just let it go.

Use it as a learning opportunity. You need to have something written in the property about additional charges and make it clear in the booking details what is included in terms of cleaning, linen and towel changes during the stay, other services like water and electricity during a stay ie. It would not be unreasonable to expect one change during a two week or longer stay but a midweek clean or change of bedlinen/towels during a one week stay would be extra. It also seems to me that the client paying the cleaner direct may be open to abuse.

@Lex64.....your rates across the board sound ridiculously cheap. No wonder the rave reviews. Stand firm on the charges for this guest and face the music if you need to.
Up your rates fgs....they're giveaway. I charge £100 changeover including linens and towels - irrespective of who the guests are - family or outsiders, that's the charge. You're being used and you need a proper business plan for your home.

I think it's important to take a moment in the chorus of treating this as a learning opportunity for the future to say that your friend is a skanky cheapskate and totally deserves your ire. I would be fuming too!

Of course, as others have said, it's probably best just to suck this up and walk away though I would be sorely tempted to tell all my other colleagues what she had done.

Unless specifically stated, I would think that the cost of a holiday would include washing of the sheets and towels and end of stay cleaning. So I would be pissed off at this being sprung on me as a separate charge without warning. Do you add on £70 to all the other guests' bookings?

You agreed £500, not £570, so she is absolutely not being a CF to expect to pay £500. If you had agreed £500, plus washing fee, plus cleaning fee, then £570 would be OK (although I've never seen more than £50 as a cleaning charge, including washing).

It's like going to a restaurant, and expecting to pay the menu price of £25 for your meal, but when the bill comes, they've charged you £35, adding on £10 for the cost of heating and lighting the restaurant!

we have a house in anthoer country which we let.

We have a contract which very clearly states what is included and what isn't and the costs for extra (so for example, if you want towels included then it is £10 per person for the towels, many drive to the house, so bring their own)
House is cleaned, but you are expected to leave it tidy, strip beds, return any items to where you found them and take the rubbish out.

We often rent to friends and family. We are very clear on the contract that the rent is low to family and friends, and then the contract is the same.

Some friends are a little taken aback at having to fill in and sign the contract. We also ask people to take out insurance, if they have to cancel at the last minute, the insurance will pay the rent for us, but otherwise we will be out of pocket.

We've been doing this for years. This system ensures that 99% of people are fine, it is all up front etc.
There is still the 1% that isn't and you just suck it up and don't let to them again.

We work on about 70% of market rent, lower to family. But as my Mum says, if we don't cover costs, then it comes out of her pocket, and while she loves her family, she doesn't wnat to pay for them all to go on holiday! (we have a pool which does make it more expensive to run)

I don’t think the OP is trying to charge 70 quid extra. The washing machine is there. The guests have randomly decided not to use it and to give all the laundry to the cleaner thus incurring extra cost - I think. They sound awful.

First person you have rented to is the one you possibly learn the most from of "what I will do next time". Personally I think it's a matter of sucking it up, calling it a loss and next time start putting it into the price of the whole rental or not offering laundry at all.

But you knew when you let her have the place that after her visit it would need cleaning.

When you quoted her the reduced price you should have taken into account the cost of cleaning. It seems unfair to start adding costs on to the guests now they are there.

I agree with others, drop the charges and don’t let her use it again.

YABU. You can’t add extras on afterwards. You agreed a price and you need to stick to it.

They're colleagues and I wouldn't do it for the sake of the relationship.

Yet you don't think that works both ways...? They got an incredibly cheap holiday and are now bitching about things that no one else has commented on. They are clearly Cheeky Fuckers.