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 😞

As they are doing this as a business, they must by law register with the ICO (Information Commissioners Office) regarding the CCTV. They should have registered the holiday let address (or at the very least their correspondence address) which you can search for on the ICO website and see if they have. If they haven't, you could also raise a complaint with the ICO and make things a little more 'interesting' for them. Very creepy to have cameras inside the house.

Omg re cameras, that’s not on at all.

For comparison, we’ve just come back from a holiday rental and there was a welcome pack with bread, jam, butter, biscuits, chocolates and tea bags plus a bottle of wine, a bottle of Prosecco and milk in the fridge. There were enough loo rolls supplied for three of us for three days, plus constant hot water and loads of fluffy towels. There was a professional welcome pack with information about the area and the house and a card welcoming us and giving a number to call with any questions. Absolutely no CCTV or stroppy notes or rules! This was a 2 bed 2 bath seaside cottage costing £1k for 3 nights.

Good luck with the deposit OP

Why would you put up with the cctv cameras? It's making ME fume. PLEASE leave them a well deserved stinking review

Hope you get your deposit back
I do wish someone had done photos

After the advertisement they've had on here they'd be best off handing all the deposit back and re thinking their rules, their welcoming stance and buying new bed linen!

They aren't going to be upping their booking potential!

Once you’ve got your deposit back, please tell us which company and property this is.

Hopefully when they’ve returned your deposit you can name them on here.
I’ve stayed in air bnb a few times and never had anything like this in terms of rules and I’m also pretty certain others are right about the cctv breaching some sort of GDPR compliance.

*As they are doing this as a business, they must by law register with the ICO (Information Commissioners Office) regarding the CCTV. They should have registered the holiday let address (or at the very least their correspondence address) which you can search for on the ICO website and see if they have. If they haven't, you could also raise a complaint with the ICO and make things a little more 'interesting' for them. Very creepy to have cameras inside the house.
*
This!!

Please post a link to this place, I really want to avoid it

Apparently our deposit will be refunded within 10 days. Quite why it will take that long is anybody’s guess (especially given it was transferred immediately via online banking to them).

Whether this means we will be getting it all back or not is anybody’s guess...

Well done, DragonMamma.

Given that their own website came down quite soon after this thread started, I think they’re aware that this is a high profile rental!

The CCTV is shocking and I would definitely be looking at the ICO website.

I can still find their own website I think

One is down which I took to be the main one. But there are loads still up, and all direct from each other, so plenty of online presence still, including the T&Cs. I had wondered if they’d taken the parent page down to revise the T&Cs in light of some of the comments on here but maybe not!

Hope you get it back

Having thought about this, to me this is the agency and agency speak. They will be charging a hefty management fee and I think it's them that put these T&C's to make themselves seem worth it and to cover their costs and the insurance.

They are ultimately responsible for the property as agents, they will be the ones organising cleaners etc.

Reminds me of a thread a while back where an op had been charged for a ripped parasol. By the agents. She arrived and it was ripped but the agents had not done a proper check when last people left so charged her 100's.

I think when she tracked down the owner directly it was sorted.

Agents are complete scammers making money for basically nothing!

Just a thought... All moot of course if you booked it directly with them, sorry I can't remember the whole thing what with Christmas and NY!!

Just waiting to find out if you got your deposit back

Any sign of the deposit @DragonMamma?

Any update OP?

I keep coming back to this to see if @DragonMamma has got her deposit back!

Just got to the end! Hope you got your deposit back. We often book large properties to get together with friends. Can someone pm me the details of this one so I can avoid? Thanks