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?

That's awful OP. Me and my family rented a beautiful cottage a year ago. There were 5 adults and 2 young children. I inststed we all take footwear off at the front door each day, I made sure bins were emptied regularly. When we left everything was put back in it's original place-that we could remember. No furniture moved. Washed all our pots and put them back. Cleaned and tidied. It was a great cottage and we had a great week and I am respectful. These people obviously live like the Twits at home and are complete CFs.

We have stayed on a lot of cottages and generally treat it as we would our own home . I generally do a quick tidy before I leave .
Lots of places give strict instructions about what is expected of renters post stay . Eg
Please empty bins, strip beds and load the dishwasher as you leave . If you prefer not to we will withhold the £x cleaning deposit to cover the extra cleaning charge .
I think that covers it especially if you put that in the advert .
Or you could just add on a cleaning charge .
I’m often surprised how badly friends treat holiday homes when they wouldn’t behave like that normally .

If you don't withhold deposits, what's the point in having them. If you do withhold a deposit in the future could you post anonymous pictures but with dates of damage before the guilty party gets a chance to post a review.

Iamcuriousyellow can I ask what the FB group is actually called, as I'd like to take a look at it? I put in the search 'troublesome guests' but nothing like you described came up.

Surely if they were to leave a bad review, you'd just reply underneath to say that the place was left in a state with food everywhere and it took you 7 hours to clean.
My guess is that they've never stayed in sc accommodation before so presume it gets cleaned and tidied for them much llke a hotel.

This is the behaviour of people who believe they are entitled.
Unfortunately you having not kept the deposit further exacerbated the problem. They believe they can get away from it.

I would always clean up anything I've used and empty the bin and replace with a bin bag or leave the bin empty.

What’s unreasonable is you giving the deposit back! How awful and disgusting of them.

We book holiday cottages regularly and I probably leave them cleaner and tidier than my own home! I always strip off the bedding and stack it all with the used towels in a neat pile so the owner can quickly pick it all up for washing. I clean out the cooker, the fridge, the loo, the bath/shower and if they’ve left a vacuum I use that as well.

Don’t understand the deposit thing though at all? I pay a deposit when I make the booking and then the balance a few weeks before we go. The deposit is part and parcel of the total rental cost and not a separate entity. So are you charging a separate deposit to cover damage/breakages? I’ve booked some very ‘high end’ cottages at times and never come across that.

I am a landlord, it wd be reasonable to keep some of the deposit and explain it as extra cleaning for unreasonable mess left. Charge it by the hour and time to organise that cleaning too. I rarely hold back any of the deposit bt maliciously leaving a window open in the middle of a huge storm leading to the room flooding a carpet thru the ceiling below, smellyfood spilt everywhere in the kitchen on purpose, mud on mattresses when they had had covers on etc. Do you think these ppl realise or are they plain stupid?

They treated it like a hotel. You don't trash the place, but someone else cleans and clears up. Not a terrible sin, though a nuisance for you. You seem to have handled the situation well.

What is the point of a deposit if you aren’t willing to with-hold repayment?

Some people live like pigs. Actually, that's probably unfair to pigs. They are most like your YABU people. I really do suspect some people just live like that and think it's normal. Or they've paid a lot so are acting a bit entitled because they should have slaves to clear up after them. Bizarre.
I wouldn't leave a holiday rental spotless but I'd put out rubbish, leave things tidy, wash up any pots. I usually get everyone to strip the beds too, and at least rinse showers etc.

Agree Devora it is astounding to see the absolute mess and filth left by some of our guests and I can only conclude they live in homes that are just as bad, why wouldn't anyone empty their own rubbish or clean their own crap off a toilet bowl anyway.

We've just come back from a holiday let, there were no instructions about cleaning before we left and in fact the owner mentioned some extra keys to things like the bin shed but said those are for longer lets.
As it was i found the bin shed (not locked) so made sure all bins were emptied, recycling taken out. All dishes cleaned and put away and surfaces wiped down with all unused food thrown away.
This was a let that didn't even take a deposit 😯.
Its just what decent people do

Surely it states in the agreement what state the cottage should be left in? Takes photos! Thats bang out of order leaving such a mess. How long does it normally take you to clean? I bet you dont get paid for 7 hours? Bless you, dont put up with it again!

Sometimes guests may have good reason to not clean everything. I empty the bins, load the dishwasher and wipe the kitchen sides down. We do tend to be tidy anyway at home. Whenever I comment about needing to clean X, people tend to look at me as though I’m a halfwit and ask why? Apparantly it always looks clean anyway!
That maybe due to the odd cull I have when no one’s looking in getting rid of useless, tatty, fiddly to clean, ornaments. I aim to shift about five at a time and take them to the charity shop!
However, I can’t run the hoover around and I can’t strip beds as I’m seriously disabled. I feel it’s hardly fair to my husband who not only drives me home, but has to facilitate any help that I need on the way home and most definitely when we get home. I’m fit for one thing! Bed as I get exhausted!

So yes, please, please, please don’t discriminate against disabled people for the above reasons. I appreciate the help that I get from my husband, but I’m aware that he finds it exhausting with his increasing age too. So please think, before you judge.
Having said that though, we never leave dirty dishes, pots and pans everywhere. We leave the property more or less as we found it. It just needs a bed change and a Hoover.

@msmum007 I don't think anyone is judging someone for being disabled and not able to do a full clean. You do what you can at home and that's all anyone expects in a holiday let. Leaving rubbish and old food lying around is horrible and quite different from judging someone for being unable to strip beds and hoover.

I think these people are little better than animals. I'd be ashamed to leave a place in that state! Can you leave some remarks in your review, if you have one, about house rules behind disregarded?

To answer your question: we spend around 4 weeks a year in rental holiday cottages. I have NEVER hoovered! But do a quick tidy, strip beds, load dishwasher, empty fridge and take the bins out.

I wouldn't clean clean but then again, we are not filthy skanks either.

I've never stayed in a holiday rental as an adult but my mum would always make us clean and strip beds when we stayed in one as children. So much so that when I stayed in my first ever hotel with DH I started to strip the bed when we left, he was utterly bemused

I think people can be disgusting, they have no respect for other people’s property. I understand the reason why you returned the deposit it’s true they would have retaliated by leaving a really bad review. Obviously you will ban them from using the cottage again. In future it might be a good idea to take pictures with dates on before you let it and if it happens again, and sadly it possibly will then take photos of the damage afterwards. Then withhold some of the deposit and if they leave a negative review, put the pictures up on your reply to their review.

Why are some posters saying the people leaving a mess "treated it like a hotel"?

Is it ok to leave a hotel room in a total mess? Yes they have cleaners who actually often have far less time to clean each room than someone who cleans a holiday let. I have cleaned hotels and it's hard work particularly when ignorant twats have stayed and made a mess.

Obviously I can't clean a hotel room well when we stay in one as there are no cleaning materials or hoover but do always wipe round the sink and shower, put the used towels in one pile, wash the cups and spoons and usually strip the bed. I also make sure if we had any rubbish it is all in the bins not strewn around the room as some people do

I return to the same property several times a year (unadventurous, but my cat likes it, and the hosts are lovely). The first time I stayed, I was paranoid about leaving it ultra clean and tidy - I'm a bit more relaxed now, but wouldn't dream of leaving a mess. On one occasion I broke the teapot, so simply replaced it.

Sometimes if there's no booking immediately after my stay, the owners invite my to stay on - either just to leave later in the day, or a couple of extra nights - on those occasions I make more of an effort, stripping the bed, etc.

I once rented somewhere else - bit grubby on arrival, and the vacuum cleaner didn't work, or the cooker. We had to call the agents several times.

I leave reviews, because I read and am influenced by them when chosing somewhere to stay. I won't if the owner/organisation hassles me to leave a good review, which I find annoying.

One gripe with holiday rentals - why do people say "pets welcome" when they really only mean dogs?