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?

The deposit should cover more than just damage beyond repair. What if you had guests checking in the same day? If it took hours longer than normal to clean it would have delayed their check in.

I agree with those who've said people with loads of money have less standards, obviously not in all cases, probably only a minority.

A week at Christmas cost around £2500 not a cheap break so money is obviously not too tight. They probably have a cleaner at home who deals with their normal day to day stuff so expect someone to always clear up after them.

We run holiday homes, but don't permit rental in the Christmas period. The previous guests have caused a lot of damage; a lot of family parties that they don't want in their own homes but fail to mention that on the booking form. In fact, some of our rentals have been left in an awful state over the years, and I could write a book about the disgusting conditions. The damage too has been breath-taking. To be fair, most people leave it ok....but you remember those that are now on the banned list. Sadly this is a risk in holiday rentals, especially self catering with no landlord on site. It reflects a lack of respect from your guests, and a sense of entitlement that they can abuse what they rent on holiday. It may have been left dirty, but at least there is no lasting damage to deal with. You should have taken photographs and deducted from the deposit though. We get a mix of good and bad reviews online (you can never please them all). It doesn't deter future bookings if you have the odd bad feedback.

The cleaning is included in the cost of the holiday. There's a very big difference between a clean after someone has left (which I always do, regardless of how clean it's been left) - I wouldn't expect it to be immaculate - and this kind of mess.

What's the point in taking a deposit if people leave it in a state and you just return it?

We were asked to strip the beds in our last cottage rental, which was handy as I wanted to find out what type of mattress it was as it was SOOO comfy! (unfortunately it was from a discontinued range )

If you're part of a network, OP, can you get the family blacklisted elsewhere too? I'd be sorely tempted to contact them and say exactly what you have here - that you've returned the deposit as there was no lasting damage, but that as the property was left in such a terrible state they won't be able to rent one of your managed properties again and that you're advising others to do the same. They can't then really complain. If no-one pulls them up on it, they'll carry on regardless, leaving a trail of unhappy owners and managers in their wake.

My DM gets really twitchy on the last day of a holiday, cleaning everything in sight as she doesn't want owners to think she's messy. As a result, the holiday cottages are cleaner than her own house when she leaves!

I usually do as others have said - general tidy up and cleaning of the kitchen as I go through the week. I take the bins out if the "manual" asks me to, but I find that often the information left isn't sufficient to interpret which bins to use and every area has different rules for what can go in each bin, and which colour the outside bins are.

We have had multiple holiday homes for many years. Very high end, with mostly British guests. Some guests clean the place spotless, some leave it a tip, most fall in the middle. I’d say around 25% are in the ‘tip’ camp (more in locations where flights out are in the morning rather than later). Anyone who gets bothered by a mess shouldn’t be in the business. Our housekeepers and property managers anticipate the worst, and appreciate the nicer guests. There seems little correlation between the niceness of the guests and the state they leave things in. I get annoyed when guests damage/break stuff and then hide what they’ve done because sometimes we don’t catch it on the switchover and it affects the next guests, but I think to be bothered by people leaving a mess is daft. You should pay for housekeeping hours to cover the worst type of guests and suck it up. It’s part and parcel of letting places out. If I was renting I’d personally be annoyed to be given lists of cleaning rules - not because I don’t clean (I do) but because I’m there to relax and not to be lectured.

We’ve stayed in cottages and always left it clean and tidy. However, I think some people think, that if they are paying a lot, they can leave it as they want.

I’m sure a lot of people cleaning hotels would agree with this.

On a two week stay in a lovely villa abroad, the cleaners probably thought we would be like this, as they came at the end of the first week unexpectedly, and when they saw the bathroom and bedroom of my eldest daughter, they would have fainted.

I almost did, when I had to clean it at the end of the holiday.
And she is still like this now. It’s not for want of asking.
She just can’t be bothered/ thinks someone else can do it.

I only had one like this OP in my 6 yrs of managing a holiday property - furniture moved (no biggy), filthy bathrooms (sand mud and baths, toliets and shower all dirty - again not a massive thing but a big ball ache to clean in a 4 hour turn around ) and a sink full of greasy fry up pots and pans and plates etc and the whole property looked like a bomb had gone off, carpets covered in mud,dog hair and bits - just filthy.
I managed to turn the property around in my paid for time but if it had took me over that my boss would have charged for my cleaning time.
You just have to chalk it up to some folk not giving a shit, thankfully those types are few and far between in my experience of managing holiday lets.

Nine of us used a holiday cottage in June... we had to go out and buy cleaning stuff including a broom and, dustpan and brush because it was all kept in a locked cupboard! Also a bit of a challenge with one, yes, just one tea towel in the kitchen.

However we managed to clean the property, stripped beds and left it in a better state than we found it. I wish we had stayed with you OP!

I'm with @BlueCornsihPixie so when we leave a holiday let we leave everything tidy, take rubbish out and sweep the floors if we have dropped crumbs or anything. Then all the cleaners have to do is come in and hoover / wash floors / clean the bathroom and kitchen. Anything else is more of a reflection on the guests than anything else.

@PortiaCastis 😱

We had our deposit retained after staying in a cottage because we hadn't emptied dishwasher! It was still running as we left. We were sent a horrid message from the owners saying it was unacceptable to expect their cleaners to be treated as slaves. We were so cross as we had left the property spotless apart from the dishwasher.
You though were well within your rights to keep the deposit, but I understand why you didn't.

I don't think you should have withheld the deposit as there was no damage done.

I wouldn't leave somewhere in the state you are describing, but I think if you are paying a lot of money to stay in 5 star accommodation, you shouldn't be expected to clean the place afterwards. Looks like I'm the only one of this opinion though.

I just wondered what you expect from your holiday home and how you leave it?

Id leave it as I found it.

Granted the beds would need to be remade with fresh linen and the towels would need replaced but everything else would be spotless. The last night in any property we stay in is spent packing and cleaning up then come morning we just have to tidy up after breakfast.

Having worked as a cleaner on a caravan park, it's not uncommon to get really disgusting clean ups.

I also think yabu to have returned the deposit - I am a customer and I read through reviews, it’s pretty clear when a bad one is unreasonable/unjustified (especially when the business has the ability to respond) and hopefully you have positive reviews off previous people... most people don’t let one single negative review out of 5++ put them off.

It’s revolting how they left your property (it sounds wonderful and you did so many lovely touches!) but you really should not have let them get away with it. To repeat pp: that is what deposits are for!

@listsandbudgets - any open packets of food ie pasta or cereal, and anything in fridge opened would be binned here. I would say 99% of what guests leave food wise is binned, so I would prefer they took it home or just binned it themselves tbh. We get the odd jar of unopened jam, Nutella, rice which we would then use ourselves. I don't leave any other food in the rental from old guests. We provide the basics of salt, pepper, herbs, oil to every new guest anyway.

@Glitterb - Our check out is 10am. Check in 3pm. Guests have to just leave on time, and get up accordingly as I can't just wait until they check out late if new guests will arrive the same day. You would be annoyed if you arrived at 3pm and couldn't check in due to a previous guess not getting up on time surely. It literally takes 2 mins to empty the fridge and bins on your way out. No other cleaning here is required, but I would hope people had been using it in a general way that it isn't trashed and needs hours prep before they leave anyway.

In 2 years rental, we have been lucky that nobody has left ours in any terrible state so far.

I’m with Jon - whithold (thought looks like you’ve already given it back). Lots of photos sbd egrb the negative review comes in shake the gaslighting mucky-pups with photos in response

I rent out high end properties abroad - I’ve never been negged for withholding some of the deposit for actual damage, but mess unfortunately is more subjective and it’s not worth getting into an argument about.

One negative review could cost a lot of business so you’re right to be cautious.

On HA and Airbnb you can review the guests and flag they left a mess. It’s useful for other owners to know.

Sounds like my guests from October. I use an agency and asked for £100 to cover the damage and extra cleaning. I made it very clear to the agency why those guests are now blacklisted. If they want to give a negative review, crack on, I can justify every penny I claimed. I think the public are wise enough to be suspicious of a negative review if all the others are glowing.
Please claim your money, you're not doing the rest of us any favours!

I've rented lots of holiday cottages and never paid a deposit.
We always leave a place tidy, if we've moved furniture we put it back. I will put all crockery etc away and leave all surfaces wiped. If the floor is messy and I can find a hoover I will run it over. I don't dust, clean bathrooms or strip beds.

People here should know that it’s not just about reading the reviews and realising the guest is a wrong’un.

On major listing sites your review average contributes to your ranking (on HA your Première Partner status depends on a review average of above 4.6) irrespective of whether the review is justified or not.

Why on earth would you not withhold the deposit? That's why they pay it in the first place!
It's not fair on those (like me) who make a real effort to leave a place clean and tidy and live in fear of the deposit being withheld.

Also you cannot upload photos to major listing sites and major agents to ‘prove’ your case.