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?

I am in same position as you are op. Fear of a negative review is a big factor.
Prior to being in this position I holidayed in these cottages- I'm not great at cleaning and I WAS on holiday.... but always left them as I found them and stripped the beds (with 4 kids and a dog in tow)
Nowadays, I'd say that we have somebody this bad around once every 4-5 years. If there's no actual damage, it's infuriating but I bite the bullet and ensure they don't return. I share the info with other local cottage owners.
They're twats and their kids will grow up with the same lack of respect, they'll reap what they sow 😉

We have used Air BNB both ways (if you see what I mean) and I love being able to leave a bad review of a guest! If this is Air BNB definitely do the same. If not it may be worth black listing these people with the source of the booking if possible.

I think that’s disgusting entitled behaviour. We always empty bins, clean up and make the place generally look like we found it. I’m not sure why any decent person wouldn’t.
What we don’t do though is strip the beds, is this what we should be doing? 🤔

Are you meant to strip the beds in holiday cottages/air bnb? I never have, though conversely I always do when staying with friends/family.

I like it when the info pack tells you whether to strip the beds or not. The place we had last year they didn't want people to strip the beds.

Some owners/cleaners prefer that you don't strip the beds because then it is easier to see if the laundry needs any specific treatment other than a straightforward wash.

It is quicker to strip a bed than rootle through a pile of mixed up bedding.

I have had a few owners thank me for stripping the bed, some even mentioning it along with how clean me and DH left their accommodation in the guest reviews (airbnb).

If instructions are left by the owner not to strip the bed then, obviously, I don't

I clean holiday lets. On the whole they’re left ok but sometimes the sheer mess does make you wonder how these people live. Muddy shoes traipsed through the house, mess on the beds, food stains, washing up, etc. We’re there to turn the holiday let around, we’re not personal cleaners.

Re leaving the dishwasher on, please don’t do this. I don’t know how long it’s going to be running so I have to interrupt it mid-cycle and wash everything up myself. On a tight turnaround this takes extra time that I don’t have.

Just leave the sheets on the bed, I can see how dirty they are. Don’t worry about hoovering, cleaning the bathrooms beyond reasonable use or dusting as this is what you’re paying us to do.

If you’re asked to put a bin out for collection on bin day, please do so. The owners often live on the other side of the country and I live several miles from my lets. The bin lorries come all days of the week and I’m not running backwards and forwards just to put a bin ten feet down a driveway. It is not a massive inconvenience to you to do this, you are there!

I take great pride in my lets. They are lovely houses and cottages and I want the guests to love them too. I always leave nice welcome packs; wine, local made cake or biscuits etc, flowers, etc. Have had some lovely reviews.

I’ve stayed in some lovely places too. Only ever left a couple of negative reviews. One was for a cottage with no mobile signal and hardly any WiFi. Turned out the owner had insulated the cottage with tin foil which blocked the phone signal. Didn’t find this out till we met him and asked why nothing worked. When you’re relying on the internet to research the place and book stuff it’s a bit annoying. The second was a cottage next to a road that the council were digging up and relaying every night. No mention of it to us. First night we were there the lorries turned up. Huge machine taking up the tarmac, lorries reversing up the road with screeching reverse alarms, workmen shouting at each other. All night. Every night. Was horrendous. We bought ear plugs and complained to the holiday company. Only time I’ve ever made a complaint. They gave us £100 back as a ‘goodwill gesture’. If we’d know beforehand we could have booked somewhere else!

I have 3 cleaners for my lets and am now wondering if any on them are on this thread

MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig regarding the bed sheets, do you mean you won't change them if they look clean?

@Mooserp no of course not I want to be able to see any stains that might need pretreating before washing. You’d be amazed at the amount of people that like to soak themselves in fake tan and hair dye and make up before sleeping in someone else’s white sheets.

@MsAdorabelle - do you prefer to have dirty dishes left in the sink, or with the dishwasher running?

If anyone on this thread does holiday let cleaning in the Exeter area, please PM me. I’m looking for a reliable cleaner.

As a holiday cottage owner, I'm heartened to read that the vast majority of Mumsnetters leave cottages tidy and ready to be professionally cleaned.

Slightly disappointed at the small number who don't think it's their job to empty bins. Please reconsider!

I'm happy for guests to leave a last load running in the dishwasher (and say so in my guest guide).

It seems the jury is out on stripping beds and I'm similarly torn - on balance I prefer people not to strip as it is is easier to spot stains in situ rather than rummaging through a pile of used bedding (yuck) but in my experience, the type of guest who strips beds, is not the type to stain bedding, so I am grateful its one less job to do throw it in washing machine without checking!

I usually take home any sealed unopened food, but throw out anything opened (which tends to be the majority left). So on balance, prefer guests not to leave food as it's another job for me to do.

I wouldn't dream of leaving a rental in that state, but I know that people do.

We stay in a lovely apartment in France, we have been there for the last four or five years. The cleaning bill is huge, 400 Euros, but they only charge us 50 Euros because they know we don't need much tidying up after.

Goodness knows what some of the other guests get up to though, I do know that some of them went off with all the wine glasses though...

I'm generally very, very lucky with my guests, but today it's taken me three hours to get the kitchen clean. Thanking my lucky stars that the next guests aren't arriving until Monday so I can do the rest of it tomorrow!

@MrsBricks well I expect everything cleaned and put away but if clearing up after yourself is really such a struggle I’d say, for preference, leave the dishwasher running. At least you’d have made a start.

I have two holiday let's.

I went in to one today, who had indeed bagged up their rubbish. All 17 full black sacks worth. 17!!!! They had been there for 16 days, but holy shit that's a lot of rubbish.

In my opinion a deposit is there to recoup damage, not to do extra cleaning. I take extra cleaning, damaged sheets and towels and broken crockery on the chin. It's for bleach on carpets, wine on sofa, very badly scratched paintwork, broken tv/ cooler etc etc.

I have had people spill coffee all down the stairs and not bother to tell me or try to clear it up, hair bleach on hall carpet, chewing gum on carpet and covered it up with a rug from another room, microwave broken by leaving the door open over a turned on hob and 14 brand new towels all covered in bleach and ruined. Also had dog shit in the dining room and human smeared all over the bathroom wall and outside of toilet . Nice.

Also, I want people to put the dishwasher on.

I once saw on here that cleaners do not like a long dishwasher cycle running after you leave because they might have to wait for it to finish before leaving.

So I always make sure we have time to have breakfast and wash up or put the light breakfast stuff on a quick cycle.

But I can’t imagine any cleaner turning a cottage round in under an hour, surely?

Actually this thread reminds me of when we went to Centre Parcs last year.

On the Monday morning we were packed and ready to leave but DH was late bringing the car round as the car park was a nightmare to exit.

We were all ready to go - so bags by the door, rooms cleared, bins put out, kitchen tidy, washing up done/put away etc.

The cleaner arrived and I asked if we could just sit at the dining table till DH arrived and she said that was fine but why not sit in the lounge and let the kids watch some TV whilst she got on with the bathrooms/bedrooms.

I said I'd already plumped up all the cushions and didn't want to mess them .

She thought that was really funny and complimented/thanked me on how tidy the villa was and said whilst most people leave them in an ok state it wasn't unusual to walk in to find an absolute tip.

She said all the cleaners have a set number of villas to clean within an allotted time and walking into one that's been trashed was really disheartening because you'd have to dash round like mad on the others to make up the time (and frankly picking up dirty unbagged nappies and other such items was really unpleasant).

In reverse it was great to walk into one that was tidy and "just" needed cleaning and restored her faith in human nature.

I suppose that's why I like to leave places nice and tidy. Personal pride is definitely a factor, but I'm also cognisant that the person cleaning after me in most cases isn't the owner whom I'm paying and is profiting from my stay. It's someone doing a back breaking job on a tight timescale.

I’m genuinely horrified by some of these stories. I just can’t understand why some people would leave a holiday let in the way described. I usually leave the dishwasher on when we leave.

I would leave it neat and tidy so that with a basic clean, changing beds etc it is ready for new guests. Doing washing up and emptying bins as a matter of course.

Even in a hotel room I make sure any rubbish is in the bin and things are put back how I found them so the cleaners can do a quick job for the next person.

We always run the dishwasher the night before we leave then in the morning wash the breakfast things by hand. I don't see why others can't/don't do this.

We don’t clean holiday lets, the cleaning fee is usually included in the hefty price!

All we do is bag up our rubbish and take it out, put the dishwasher on, put the towels in the washing machine and turn it on, quick wipe of kitchen area, bleach in the loo then leave. Oh and turn off the heating/air con.

It wouldn’t occur to me to strip beds, deep clean the kitchen and bathrooms, mop or do any heavy cleaning!

If we’re in a hurry eg early flight I’d just leave all the dirty towels on the bathroom floor, make sure we’d packed everything and leave the cleaning to the cleaners!

Air B&B and Hol lets often have early check out times so I think it’s very unreasonable to expect guests to wash up, sweep floors, hoover, strip beds etc. Who wants to do that at the end of a holiday??

I remember renting a big house for a party weekend, back in my youth! There were about 20 of us and we partied day and night for the entire weekend. When it came to check out on Monday half of us were still asleep in bed, the cleaners started at one end (imagine the debris caused by a group of 20 somethings) while we chivvied our friends to wake up. The cleaners had a laugh with us and accepted the leftover alcohol, cigarettes and crates of food!
We didn’t get charged a cleaning fee on top, the house was advertised as suitable for stag/hen parties so I guess they were used to it!