Holiday home left in a real mess

[BigOldOakTree]

I wonder if I can call on the wise of Mumsnet to help me with a question? I manage a couple of holiday homes and we've had a very busy Christmas. I'm not new to this and know the ups and downs of this business. Our guests in one of the cottages over Christmas were given a complimentary welcome pack on arrival, I'd checked beforehand and they were vegetarian so it was catered for their diet. The cottage was decorated with a real tree and I went to a lot of effort to make it warm and welcoming for them. It is a five star holiday cottage and they paid quite a lot of money to stay, but they did receive a lovely property (in my opinion). It's not my cottage but I take a lot of pride in making it nice.

There are a few basic instructions, nothing too bossy, but the main one is please bag up your rubbish and put it in the outside bins on departure. When I went in to clean it after they'd left I've never seen anything like it in three years. It was utterly disgusting. All of their rubbish was in the house, some bagged, some not. They'd moved furniture around. The bathrooms were not fit for a dog. The kitchen was full of dirty pots and pans, food on the counters. The place was a real mess, not just the things I've written here. I couldn't believe two adults and two teenage children (older teenagers) could make such a mess.

We won't withhold their deposit as it could all be cleaned (even though it took me 7 hours to get it back to how it should be) (3 bedroom, 3 bathroom cottage). This is because it will only lead to a negative review and that is so damaging to the business, but am I being unreasonable to think this is out of order?

When we leave a cottage, I always try to leave it pretty much as we found it. I wouldn't hoover carpets unless there were a lot of sand or crumbs, but I would quickly sweep the kitchen floor, wipe over the fridge and the bathroom with a bit of damp tissue, empty the bins, loosely make (or strip) the beds and leave everything tidy / as we found it. I don't want any owner or housekeeper to be shocked by what they find on our departure.
To leave it in the mess you describe is disgusting, and I would certainly blacklist them from future visits if not withhold some deposit for extra cleaning hours.

Suppose when people pay a huge amount of money for a rental they feel they dont have to clean up after themselves

Surely tho you should leave a review so others are forwarned.
We always leave places really clean and have reviews to say this which I like to think makes me feel really pleased.

Complain to AirB&B, Twillow. I don't use them anymore as the original ethos is gone and too many are seriously unprofessional money grabbers.

I don't go on holiday to clean. We do the strip beds, empty bins, dishwasher empty, sides wiped down, bathroom and kitchen presentable but I'm not going to spend the last day of my holiday being a maid when I pay a cleaning fee.

Having just left a holiday cottage I am so annoyed to hear people leave places in such a bad state. I even had the hoover out in the one we rented & emptied all the bins & stripped the beds. It’s only polite to leave it as you found it.

We aleays strip bed, hover, clean, make sure it is in the same or better state. Only thingbwe don't do is put toilet cleaner down, although if it is there we would use it as well.
I feel, unless otherwise advertised, i pay for the use of a cottage, self catering and cleaned by self. If i want someone to clean up after me i use a hotel or serviced accommodation.
Op i would be furious if i were you, they were rude, entitled and dirty. Yes you should have kept the deposit but i understand about reviews. Perhaps in future though keep deposits and picture evidence to back this up.

I find this really interesting as I own / clean a holiday cottage. I don't give instructions to guests about cleaning unless asked but generally it's left tidy so rubbish in bin dishes in dishwasher so can get on with proper cleaning. Did once have a filthy family to stay over Christmas they had ppl over and everything was sticky. Green glittery goo all over the place sweets stuck to wall just awful. Didn't say anything at the time but they were shocked when I declined their booking for the next Christmas. Can't imagine treating a place badly especially if you were intending to return!

They probably have staff at home who clean up after them and arent used to doing it themselves.
Arrogant tossers.

We leave as we find. Always.

We book cottages every year, but treat reviews and descriptions with caution and always Street view and Google earth the property. Experience means it's best I check out as much as possible that might not be mentioned... I like to know the road is not busy, that the parking is adequate and that the house is not too old and damp!

I can see why you wouldn't withhold the deposit but I can't believe people would leave somewhere in that state. I'd always wash up after myself, run the dishwasher, put the bins out and give the floor a proper sweep. I'd make sure loos were in good condition, hoover any carpets and wipe down the counters.
I'd be embarrassed to leave a property in any other way.

Your are not being unreasonable to expect them to have left it in better condition.

DH's family had a beach house they used to let for the summer, they'd use it in the fall and spring. It was on a very posh summer destination island in New York. One summer a bloke who was trying to open a restaurant there rented it. His restaurant failed. In addition to trashing the house they found out later that he was letting his entire restaurant staff sleep on the floor and at the end of his term he rented a lorry and took off with the dining room set and an antique medicine cabinet from the bathroom that he fancied. It took a sharp letter from their solicitor and the threat of criminal charges to get everything returned.

Of course he lost his deposit as well.

We always leave the place perfect, follow all the instruction and requests. Normally we book through holiday letting agents, however this last time we stayed in our first ever Air BnB, it had great reviews, the reality was quite different, and at over 300 euro per night, we felt it was not good value at all. . I left a confidential review detailing the reasons why we rated it as a 3 instead of a 5 on value , the public review did not mention any of the items I pointed out to the host, who was totally responsive and on top of things, we gave her a 5 star rating, but the quality of the house was not worth what we paid. OMG, I got the most upset message from the host telling me I was mean and nasty and must be a difficult person, I was shocked, immediately deleted my airbnb account and will never book through them again.

I can't understand why people are such scumbags that they'd leave a place in that state and agree with others - that's what the deposit is for. It pays the cost of the extra work to put it right.
However nor can I understand why anyone would be running round cleaning toilets, stripping beds and doing all the work that cleaners will be in to do after they've gone. I probably rent holiday cottages 4 or 5 times a year and we leave them tidy, but to the same sort of level you'd leave a hotel room.

We rented a place in Bath and left it (I hope) perfect.
One of the kids dropped a chocolate crumb on the carpet which then got trodden in - I was mortified and cleaned it before we went to bed and it was the first thing I went to check in (once it had dried) the next morning.
However, my DH and DS sometimes go on weekends away - they wouldn’t leave it disgusting but not immaculate either.

I've stayed in many holiday let's and I always do any dishes that we've used and put rubbish out or all in one place. I wouldn't clean the bathroom but I'd leave it acceptably tidy. What they have done is rude and disrespectful. I'd e mail them and say. We have returned your deposit as there was no unfixable damage but due to the disgusting state you left the house in you will not be welcome again in the future.

Hi OP - not read all posts sorry but I'm in the same business. I think in this situation I'd swallow the additional clean up costs, let them post their hopefully delighted review online but in the meantime absolutely blacklist the name of every guest and ensure that they can never rebook the place.....if they enquire as to why then let them know in no uncertain terms. If you are a busy successful cottage, you absolutely don't need clients like that.
Last year we had one set of clients who heated our cottages daily to 32oC!!!! I have a Hive system so can see the settings. I decided not to get into a tug of war situation by dialling the heating back remotely, they stayed the week, wrote a nice review and we've made sure they can't rebook in the future. I can't afford to have customers like that and have plenty of sensible lovely guests!

Commercially, you stand to loose a lot more than a few hours extra cleaning if you bill them for the deposit as they will undoubtedly rant online and risk you missing valuable new bookings from new clients reading those reviews pre-booking. Nothing good will come of you retaliating online I'm afraid, even with photos. It's not fair, it's not right but it's the downside of online exposure from which we largely benefit. Block them all from any future rebookings, write a polite extra note in the guest book about waste disposal etc and be grateful that no fixtures and fittings were left damaged with a heftier bill.

I really would bother, Notso, because anyone who does this professionally will decidedly not give you your deposit back if you leave the place looking like a tip.

I didn't say I was going to leave it a tip, just that in future I'd only do the basics.

Our property has two lounges - a kids / games room and a smarter formal lounge. I recently noticed that in the kids room a child had bitten a chunk out of Venetian blinds .....a lovely little row of teeth and a bite cleanly bitten out of a slat. The whole thing needs to come down and be replaced. Sadly I can't pin it to any specific booking and can't go randomly accusing guests, but if I could then I would take the deposit for that without hesitation and risk a negative review.

To answer your question, it is annoying if you've paid a hefty cleaning fee and are then asked to take the bins out as well but it's not an excuse to leave a place in a state.

In the past I have cleaned hotel rooms and holiday cottages and was often astounded at just how messy and dirty some people left places. I would sometimes wonder just how you could make so much mess in a week.

Me and DH almost always holiday in cottages or gites. We also use airbnb one every 4 to 6 weeks. We always clean before we leave whether staying 1 night or a week or two.

We make sure everything is washed up and put away, we clean the worktops, sink and cooker plus a wipe of the inside of the fridge. We clean the bathroom and put cleaner down the toilet if there is any there. We put the used towels in a pile and we strip the bed and leave the bedding at the end of the bed. If there is a hoover we hoover round.

If staying longer than 1 night we make sure we keep everything clean and tidy as we go so cleaning at the end doesn't take long.

In a hotel we wash the cups/mugs and spoons, wipe the sink and shower round and strip the bed. Cleaners in hotels get so little time to clean each room anything the guests do to cut down their cleaning is helpful.

We have quite often received emails from cottage/airbnb owners thanking us for leaving their places so clean. One even said we left it cleaner than her cleaner does!

@lynsey91.....you are a rare 😇!

I wouldn’t rent somewhere that expected me to hoover, strip beds or empty bins. I’d put everything we used in the dishwasher and put it away. Then leave it tidy, that’s it.
Leaving it a shithole is not acceptable obviously!

I would never dream of leaving dirty washing up or rubbish in a self catering rental. I have been known in the past to do a quick clean before I leave! I would always rinse round the bathroom before I left, empty dish washer etc