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 😞

I would insist on a detailed walk through when you arrive and a signed agreement regarding the existing condition, including photos and video, ostentatiously taken. On check out I would then expect the same person to be present to do the same inspection. It is unreasonable to leave the owner/manager the opportunity to charge for defects of which you are unaware exist.

I might be childish but I'd be tempted to find as many people as possible with an electric car and get them to charge one after the other - bet they haven't thought of that yet in their rules...!

I've never cleaned a holiday rental and wouldn't expect to. I would expect the owner, an agent or cleaner to do this, so it is done to an expected standard and that they've also changed the bedding and towels, made sure everything such as crockery is still present etc.

I would expect clients to remove rubbish, wash up or leave dishwasher running - there's often no time to wait for it to finish and put things away, and put back any furniture they've moved, make sure there's no stains in the toilet or major spillages, anything more is unreasonable IMHO.

Try to be in the vicinity at about 12 noon and see if there is evidence of paid cleaners at work, they sound to be letting with little/no cleaning between lets.

I don't rent properties which don't provide cleaning as part of the service.

But would always leave everything tidy.

The swimming pool rules are common sense, the rest is bonkers. I think you should email it to the agency just to cover yourselves in case of them trying to keep your deposit.

It sounds dreadful, but at this late stage I’d take the view that we were going to have a good time & enjoy ourselves.

I’d leave it how I’d leave any rental
Property and be prepared to lose £100 per family. It’s crap, but not the end of the world and I’m NOT giving a place that size a deep clean before leaving

They’d be getting a FULL review!

I have rented houses in France over the years where they would expect the renter to do the cleaning at the end of the stay. If it wasn't done, you lost the deposit on the grounds that they would then have to employ a cleaner. The condition of one of the houses in particular left a lot to be desired - obviously no cleaner had been near the place in years! I wouldn't rent somewhere like that again so I would see these rules as a red flag - no cleaner!

Take plenty of photos before you leave, so that you can prove you left the place in good order.

@Molecule it is actually! Could you PM with the name in case it is the same one.

I’ve been out this afternoon but I will call the agency tomorrow to get their take on this. As somebody mentioned up thread then if we did cancel we would realistically not find something else at such short notice that can accommodate us all.

They have mentioned cleaners coming in after us (if we haven’t vacated at 10am on the nose, after cleaning for hours) then they will charge us for any waiting time too.

Omg if it is the same one it sounds yuk! Do you have holiday insurance OP? Worth checking if you can claim if you cancel. Probably not but anyway

I think they are probably spelling out what they want done as they've had it left in a mess before.

I don't think they are BU about the cleaning tbh, only the bit about the hot water strikes me as odd

Bonkers and unacceptable; if I'm paying that much for a place, I'd want the moon on a stick. You should be able to use hot water whenever. Ands the cleaning? Ridiculous. I'd pull out. Bet they keep your £500 if you don't.

What are their reviews like??

@DragonMamma I’ve PM’ed you, but sis want to know have they asked for an additional £500 deposit to cover the cost of cleaning? They were then slow to refund it. Sis had to threaten court to get it back.

I would take pictures of how you have left it when you leave, we have rented holiday cottages and the only one we had an issue with had a load of petty rules, so i now take photos.

Are you expected to strip wash and remake beds by 10am then?

Exactly! How can you strip all the beds, wash, dry & remake them by 10am? Even ensuring the dishwasher had completed its cycle & putting the dishes away after breakfast would involve eating breakfast before dawn or not having any.

Please don't worry. Honestly a property with a pool and woodburner this is normal. Being out around ten (i.e not all still in bed at ten) is normal.

I rent a similar property out and we always ask for a deposit for NYE as a deterrent to the state we found it in one year. 1,000's of pounds worth of damage, vomit, wet beds, broken dishwasher with glass in it, broken toilet...

They will of course have a cleaner coming in, of course you can leave a bit later, you just have to leave it in a decent state and not burn it down or break your neck, drunk in the pool!

Honestly, this is all normal.

Does sound bonkers..

Having stayed at many places over the years when attending conferences/seminars and also for work, nothing surprises me any more.

The worst was a holiday cottage booked for 6 of us attending a conference nearby.. the conference hours were long, we all wanted somewhere with communal space we could chill out in after so we went for a house rather than hotel rooms...

When we arrived and were shown round, it turned out we were NOT permitted in the living room at all... in fact the owner climbed out the living room window, having pushed the sofas against the door inside to prevent us going in there!

So for 4 days, all six of us had to sit around on hard kitchen chairs to 'relax'...... which was utter agony after spending 8 hours a day sitting on horrible chairs at the conference!

What are the options for extra hot water and heating on their website?!

Does that mean the heating will be off during the day too?

I would be asking the agency why the property isn't being professionally cleaned before my let. Because 'the rules' imply that the previous renters are responsible for leaving it ready for me.

(Of course it's highly unlikely that that's the case - but putting it that way makes it clear how unreasonable the rule is)

...and if course that's a huge amount of money not to include cleaning. It would be entirely unreasonable.
I only ever rent budget two bed apartments or currants, but they're always cleaned between lets.

Currants?! Cottages!!

I have stayed in lots of holiday rentals, both independently let and through larger, expensive cottage firms.

The expensive cottage companies tend to say that holiday lets should be left clean and tidy and don't specify too much what that means exactly. They know their clients are paying a premium price for their holiday and expect to arrive to a very clean property with quality bedding/towels etc and that at the end they expect to probably empty the bins, load the dishwasher and leave, perhaps hoovering the main living room areas but not doing a thorough clean - thorough cleaning is not a good end to a holiday - so no mopping, bog cleaning, fridge cleaning etc. Holiday companies know they need to pay cleaners for sufficient hours to change beds and clean to a good standard, starting from a fairly low base if necessary, because some people will do very little and a lot of work will be needed. If the outgoing guests have done a more thorough clean it's just a bonus, but can't be expected.

I remember speaking to the manager of a holiday company in Salcombe which charged premium rents. They said the client was always right, even when unreasonable. Unless damage was caused, they never charged guests extra for the state of the property, as they had already charged a high price. The cleaners just hadn't instant with whatever they found and sort it out.

I once stayed in a large property hired through owners direct - had similar rules to those listed by Op. It likewise was over £3k. When I saw the conditions, I emailed the owner and pointed out that I expected to leave the property tidy, but that if I was paying over £3k didn't expect to scrub toilets and mop floors, and did they mean they didn't employ cleaners so expected me to do it instead of a cleaner.
They replied quite apologetically saying they do have cleaners and cleaners would carry out those tasks - they said (as I expected) that some people left the house filthy and damaged and they were just trying to guard against that. We clarified that we would empty the bins, load the dishwasher and have a quick wipe round and basic Hoover but that would be it.

It's difficult for holiday home owners who've had awful guests who leave the place disgusting, especially if it's a large place which might attract those having wild parties. However, I think that those hiring such places need to expect to pay for significant hours of cleaning between lets - it really is part of the costs of running a property and charging high rents. Instead of listing daft cleaning requirements, you can specify types of groups which you don't take bookings from and ask for a security deposit to cover damage. However, money shouldn't be withheld from a deposit because people haven't stripped beds or haven't cleaned 9 bathrooms. A 9 bathroom house will need several cleaners to go in for a good couple of hours to get it to standard - and if someone won't pay or that they shouldn't be letting the property or can only expect to charge a much lower rent.

OneForMeToo
You wouldn’t not clean up after yourself just because you had a cleaner at home so why leave that filth for someone else.

What filth? What do you get up to that would result in a place being covered in filth after 3 days? Just live like a normal person and there isn't any filth after 3 days...or a week or ever. But cleaning up after oneself is not the same thing as a thorough cleaning that leaves the place in a professionally cleaned state.

I don't clean before my cleaner comes in? What madness. Do you honestly think people clean their bath before the cleaner cleans their bath????

It sounds to me like it might be their house that they rent out. I have just come across this recently. About 30 years ago I looked after a holiday house I did need them to be out by 10.30am to have it ready by 2.30pm. I expected it to be left in a reasonable condition. Washing up done, table wiped, rubbish put out. I vacuumed all through, dusted all rooms, cleaned the bathrooms. Washed kitchen and bathroom floors. General tidy. Put out some fresh flowers and basics like milk, bread, jam more if requested. I did it for about five years when I was a SAHM. I had one complaint from alady in London. The previous people left late and hadn't cleared away breakfast. She arrived early and insisted in going in even though I wasn't finished. Then she rang and ranted at solicitors because the main bathroom was "filthy." I went around to see and discovered I had missed a cobweb behind the claw foot bath. She did leave me a box of chocolates when she left so I put it down to a long journey and high expectations. It was a comfortable house but not high end, immaculate house.

I think their expectations are very high. I wonder if they are servicing it themselves. I hope you enjoy your holiday.