Rules when renting a holiday place - bonkers or completely normal?

[DragonMamma]

We are renting a large property for over New Year (for a total of 3 nights). There are 10 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms. We rent houses regularly and have done for many years. This 3 night break is costing just under £3.5k so it’s not exactly cheap.

We’ve just received the list of do’s and don’ts from the owner and it reads like nothing we’ve ever come across before. It’s like they are reluctantly giving us use of the place and barking instructions at us.

Some examples below copied and pasted from their 7 page (!) instruction manual.

*YOU ARE EXPECTED TO LEAVE THE PROPERTY IN A SIMILAR STATE OF CLEANLINESS AS YOU FOUND IT, IF THE PROPERTY IS NOT SO, YOU WILL BE CHARGED AN EXCESS CLEANING CHARGE.
Including all floors to be hovered or swept, bathrooms and toilets cleaned, kitchen to be cleaned, all washing up done and put away.

Hot water will be on in the morning from 7am until 10am, briefly at lunchtime and again from 5pm until 10pm. Options for extra heating and hot water are available please see our website. These must be booked in advance.

NEVER LEAVE THE WOODBURNER UNATTENDED. IN INTERESTS OF SAFETY UNLESS YOU ARE EXPERIENCED USING WOODBURNERS WE SUGGEST THAT YOU DO NOT USE IT.

Swimming pool - Shallow end depth of approx. 1metre, deep end depth approx. 1.9 metre. STRICTLY NO JUMPING, DIVING OR OTHER BOISTEROUS BEHAVIOUR*

AIBU to think that if you’re charging over a thousand pound a night and absolutely insisting on a 10am check out (OR face yet another additional charge) then you simply cannot expect the occupants to clean 9 bathrooms and do all of the general cleaning. There’s also a strict list of what cleaning products are to be used where.

We always leave properties in a decent state - we will set the dishwater off after breakfast, give the bathroom a quick wipe so it’s not excessively dirty. We’ll bag all the rubbish up etc and make sure it’s tidy and do whatever else we have time for before leaving (strip the beds etc.). But this reads like they want us to clean it to a professional standard all before 10am!

AIBU to think this is a bonkers and that it’s not the responsibility of the occupants to do the cleaning for you? And to also have to book extra hot water in advance?

How on earth are we supposed to know when we are going to want hot water? What happens if we go swimming after lunch, do we have to sit and wait for it to come back on at 5pm? They have take a £500 security deposit and based on the list of things we may get charged for is endless and it’s really put us off going 😞

In France we had to empty the bins too and take everything to the public bins at the end of the road.

No loo roll provided?!

This seems completely barmy!

We have stayed in lots of Airbnb type properties and never had anything like this.

Although we did stay in one where the electricity was on a meter which we had to keep popping £1 coins into... we reckon the owners made a tidy little sum from us that weekend! So much so we ended up vacating early

In France we had to empty the bins too and take everything to the public bins at the end of the road.

That's pretty normal in rural France.
It is also normal to recycle glass at communal points.

On a busy summer Saturday with several properties to clean it is beyond irritating to find 2 weeks worth of black bags, pizza boxes and beer/wine bottles piled up in the kitchen.

Not for one moment implying that you did this @isabellerossignol - just speaking from bitter experience!

We've just rented an Airbnb cottage and among the rules we were expected to leave it as we found it but there was no vacuum, broom or anything. This wasn't clear until we arrived so had to go and buy a broom and cleaning materials. I have no issue with cleaning as we often do this with rentals in France but surely leave some basic cleaning items ?

In the case of this particular place, leaving it as we found it would mean replacing the thin layer of dust on everything and replacing the thick layer of grease on the inside of the oven door

We are also Airbnb hosts so sympathise that things can go wrong but this wasn't great.

This thread makes me never want to book a holiday rental.

Agreed Goldfish! We did canvas holidays last year and I found it stressful cleaning the place on our last day and not being sure if I’d get my deposit back or not. Hotel or somewhere we don’t have to clean for us this year.

But you're ignoring the dozens of posts from people like me who have said that apart from piling towels in the bath and making sure the bins are taken out, that we don't "clean" at all. Because the owners have a cleaner who comes in after you leave, changes the beds for the next guests and cleans the house.

I've done self catering holidays for around 20 years, in Ireland, the UK and France and have never stayed anywhere that you weren't expected to clean, and empty the dishwasher before leaving.

In France we also had to mop the floors

That's the point. We're nearly all saying we would leave the place decent, put away dishes, put out rubbish, wipe spills etc but we're not expected to mop floors or thoroughly clean the shower etc.
You've commented on it being expected in France because it isn't normally expected here.

We've been going self-catering in France for ten years and IME it has changed. When we first went I used to spend the last day cleaning. The owners were always astonished that I had done it well and that we hadn't trashed the place.

Now there tends to be a separate charge for cleaning, and I just make sure rubbish is in bins, beds are stripped etc. I wouldn't leave dirty washing up, but I wouldn't expect clean floors and bathrooms.

One place we have stayed in several times only charge us half their normal rate for cleaning because they know we will leave it in a good state.

OP, no way would I want to stay somewhere with that list of rules and regulations, I wouldn't be able to enjoy the holiday at all! It reminds me of that episode of Motherland when they went to an Airbnb, and there were these notices stuck up all over the place.

We too have had issue with a self catering house. We rented a property from the same company for over 10 years, and had rented a second property for 3 years. The second I hoped would become our main rental choice once our numbers for one holiday changed.

Their priority booking meant that the second year we rebooked for the third year before we actually stayed there the second time. The last full day of our holiday, we were disturbed by the owners parent letting herself in, as the property was normally Friday - Friday, but we had Saturday to Saturday. So we hadn't cleaned or tidied anything as had 24 hours until we left.

Roll on to trying to rebook for the fourth year, and were told the owners had refused to let us return there as we had left the house in such a disgusting state. When pressed for exactly what our crimes were, we were eventually told we had left a cup ring on a piece of furniture and the dishwasher wasn't empty.

I explained that we were very sorry about the cup ring mark, hadn't noticed it and were happy to pay for the repair of any damage. But that the dishwasher had been left running on our departure at 10am as no where did it mention that it was to be empty. We were told that this was wrong as their cleaner didn't have time to wait for it to finish before they left the property to move onto their next property. I suspected the owners mother had also complained us the year before and had wanted us out then.

That company completely lost all our business that day as I felt extremely judged and hadn't even been given a chance to rectify things. I have since seen on review sites that this company had been saying similar to other repeat bookers and lost their business too, and it all had changed when the company had been taken over.

It seems some of those owners do want the property to not actually be stayed in or used. Hope your stay isn't as bad as you fear.

Well I hope it all goes well, but think its ridiculous that you get these Ts and Cs a few days before you leave and not at time of booking.

Rented a few places, we have always done basic cleaning before we left ( as in rubbish out,dishes washed, and beds stripped). Always left the place reasonably clean and tidy, but am not going to be scrubbing the place and would expect cleaners to do that!

GoldfishRampage I agree to an extent, but the reality is fairly well reflected in the thread - 90% of owners of holiday rentals are professionals (even if only renting out one property, though many owners rent out several properties and these are highly likely to be very professional) providing a service, aware of the value of repeat business and with reasonable expectations and a friendly tone.

5-10% of owners of holiday rentals are amateurs, some of whom are just hapless and provide a disappointing service, others of whom have enormous chips on their shoulders and are labouring under the misunderstanding that letting strangers pay market rate to holiday in their property is all a gigantic bother and a huge personal favour to the pesky holiday makers, who are bound to be ungrateful sods who need vast lists of rudely worded "rules" and are paying for the privilege of spending 4+ hours doing professional cleaning.

I think it's mostly fairly easy to avoid the nasty experiences by booking through agencies who publish both good and bad reviews and have standard terms and conditions available before booking, never direct with an owner. Also never book a property if you can tell it's essentially in the owners garden and they only rent out one property on site.

I'd guess also never book a house advertised as suitable for hen parties unless you want a hen party/ similar half wrecked place with a stressed owner torn between cashing in and hating the people they rent to!

We've rented loads of holiday cottages/ flats/ houses over the years - probably at least 20 over a long period - and our only bad experience was with an owner who lived on-site. Almost everything about that was awful, beginning with the deliberately misleading description of where it was (short walk to the village was about two miles, but okay - except that walking down that steep blind pavementless mountain road would have meant almost certainly being run over, even if the 35% gradient on the two mile walk back didn't bother you after dinner/ with shopping).

The owners were retired ex pats living in France and the rental was essentially in their garden, and they obviously actually hated having strangers in their space, suspected us of arranging our holiday just to spite them and of plotting some unspecified horrors, but presumably were skint or avaricious and wanted the money enough to keep renting out the cottage converted garage )

Loads of other really good experiences though - most recently in Ireland. Lovely owner (of 3 holiday cottages), lovely cottage, fond memories, much better than the hotels we also stayed in that trip.

Leaving a place tidy, emptying a dishwasher, yes, but the list the OP has seems excessive.

OP, I hope you have a lovely time despite this.

BTW, I found the place fairly easily from the info on this thread.

Beware private rentals, which I assume this is.

A reputably agency would never let this through and would take care of the cleaning as part of its contract with the landlord.

Moral- outside of the professional agency domain it is a Wild West full of fraudsters and lunatics. I have met some myself. Presumably they let direct because no agency would permit them anywhere near a customer.

The house is listed with a whole string of agencies online.

Does it not have a mobile signal
Unashamedly waiting for an update

I usually rent through Airbnb - house rules and cleaning fees are listed and can be viewed before payment. No surprises.

I once rented through VRBO and received a 25 page detailed contract specifying deep cleaning required and additional fees (building restoration and caretaker fees) that should be left in cash on the table when leaving - after booking. Credit card number required. (VRBO acts as an intermediary so owner doesn't have your number) Full clean required, otherwise additional 150euro fee. I couldn't cancel as I booked after the full cancellation date. I crossed my fingers and things worked out ok, but I'm never spending my last morning cleaning like that again. No more VRBO.

I hope this hasn't cast too much of a shadow on your holiday, OP.

I once said to a host with similar rules: "oh, so you don't get it professionally cleaned between tenants then?" and their response was "of course we do" - so I said "Oh good, so you just want us to take rubbish away and tidy up etc" and they were left looking a bit foolish saying "Well, yes I suppose so". It's a warning to anyone tempted to leave it like a pigsty to make an effort. It is unreasonable to expect guests to clean to the same level as a paid cleaner.

When it says hot water will be on between those times, doesn't it just mean that it'll be switched on during those time as in actively heating the water up. However surely you can use the hot water at any time during the day unless there are loads of people using it and it will run out? I'd ask for clarification.

The burner; I'd say that they just don't want their houses burnt down! My friend and her partner rented out a house for the weekend with a wood burning stove. She was talking about it and said that she didn't like it as it was really smokey. Turns out they had lit the fire and had the wood burning but were leaving the door of the stove burner open. I can only imagine the state of the living room covered in black smoke.

The pool; just safety warnings surely?

I would however find the cleaning thing a bit excessive. I always give hotel rooms/apartments a quick going over before I leave; wet towels left in the bath, rubbish picked up and binned, stray hairs in the shower and toiletry packets binned. But the above is really excessive. Maybe to save them time/money on cleaners after each rental?

YANBU I would not spend any money with these people.

I would leave a place tidy not clean. I’d get rid of rubbish, make sure dishes were done but I would not be cleaning bathrooms and mopping floors!!
Cleaners are employed to clean not tidy...perhaps they’ve had a bad experience with a previous let.
The hot water thing...usually people do set their hot water on a timer at home?? So I’d maybe let that go.
Wood burners stink so I wouldn’t use it anyway!
I hope you have a lovely New Years break x

They may be sticklers for a 'rule book', but I love the first one you've copy & pasted...."all floors to be hovered or swept" - I presume they mean hoovered but I did giggle thinking of you hovering around the place on some sort of air-skateboard to clean all their bathrooms etc. Perhaps hovering is the new way of cleaning. Or perhaps they need an education more than a cleaner! Have a great New Year :)

@loreleigh I noticed the hovering too, I'm surprised it took someone this long to make a joke about it!