To think that a 7pm check-in is too late when you have young kids

[sqirrelfriends]

I woke up to an email this morning from the company I booked a holiday cottage with for next month.

For corona reasons:

7pm check in (instead of 3pm)
9am check out (instead of 10)
Removal of all high risk items (they mentioned board games and the DVD player but I would imagine it's going to be barren)

We would have to drive about 4 hours to get there with a young child, 7pm just seems too late to me to check in, and equally 9am is too early to check out, especially with all the extra stuff we would need to bring. Am I being unreasonable to think it would never take 10 hours to clean a cottage? And would you be cancelling?

9am check out is ridiculous. 10am is hard enough! It's supposed to be a holiday.

That does sound a bit odd. The 9am check out would annoy me so much! Could you email them to explain you have younger children so request a slightly earlier check in?

I would cancel, 7PM doesn't give you any time to get settled in.

I’d cancel if they weren’t offering a discount or anything to try and make up for taking away a chunk of your holiday. I agree 7 is too late, it’s just not worth paying for a night at full price when you can’t use it until so late.

You should have been offered the chance to have a refund on a night so that you could go at a sensible time the next day and they can still do all their cleaning.

They are daft checkin times, the 9am one would bother me more, especially if you have kids. I'd struggle to get mine out for 11

I don't understand why they aren't staggering the check ins and you've just got unlucky, or are they deep cleaning the rooms and need extra time?

I appreciate that deeper cleaning measures are needed .. but a 7pm check in means that your first day is useless 🤷🏼‍♂️

The 9am check out wouldn't bother me, we always end up driving home the night before as there doesn't seem any point in going to bed to get straight up and drive in the morning.

I think they are both unreasonable, more the 7pm check in for a night that you pay for I assume? So you could go back & say ok if you don't pay for one that night as it would literally just be for sleeping, and/or same for the check out. For b&bs they could get grants to cover the time closed. So they either need to use the money for extra cleaners & keep the times as booked or to provide a discount to accommodate their cleaning.

Have I missed an announcement saying cottages like that can reopen next month?

It might not take 10 hours to clean but if the same number of cleaners have to do extra cleaning/checks then each premises they do will take longer. (Eg if they used to allow 3 hours for cleaning, it might now take 4 or 5)
And with a 9am check out you will have to do most the night before. We left a property at 6am once as we had a 9am ferry to catch.

Can you cancel?

What are they doing till 7pm?

Why do they need the property empty for 10 hours??

I got exactly the same email yesterday. Have responded to say 7pm is too late with small kids and am awaiting a response. It’s usually tough to make it to 3/4pm check in and get everything sorted ready for tea and bed.

The first day would be useless, DS's bedtime is at 7 and really relies on his routine for bedtime. I can't imagine he would be in bed much before 9 once we've fed, bathed and read him his story. Oh and lugged all his stuff in from the car.

It's not a cheap place either, about 1.5k for the week. We were meant to be staying with others but that can't happen now because Corona.

I agree with the previous suggestion - email and say it's too late so you'd rather arrive the next day (with that night knocked off the price) and then they have a whole 24 hours to clean.

They can't change the terms of the contract to your detriment even with a good reason and query whether they really need 10 hours to clean (if they have other cottages too then they can prioritise the order of cleaning accordingly. Or give you one night off. They can't have it both ways).

Agree, 7pm is way too late.

For us 7pm would have been fine, you're on holiday routines relax. I wouldn't be so happy about the 9am checkout but if you pack up the night before and just get up and leave then have breakfast on the way (packed up) it should be fine.

If Visit England really is insisting on all the double-triple cleaning then it does sound like people are going to have to leave a day between bookings and give people a slightly cheaper rate to start with. This will only be for a few weeks anyway and then I am sure everything will return to normal.

If I owned a cottage I wouldn't want to be giving out keys that late at night anyway - ok in the summer but in the winter when it's dark...

Considering it’s an expensive place, I think it’s incredibly cheeky that they haven’t offered you a refund for one of the nights or at least a hefty discount.

They’re expecting their profit to remain unaffected at your expense while your holiday is disrupted. Cheeky fuckers.

How old is DS?

I get that the cleaning logistics will be hard for them to manage. However, I would expect a discount for that degree of disruption to your holiday.

Can you email and ask if you can check in at 5.30 or 6 instead due to your son? They might consider it.

Get a takeaway delivered or stop at cook/M&S is there is one for an easy dinner. Miss the bath, no need every day. Will DS go to bed at 7 every night on holiday?

I don't think the late bedtime is an issue. You're on holiday - routine do, and should, go to pot anyway. That's half the fun when you're a kid.

But you're losing over half a day of your holiday (5 hrs), and you might as well arrive v early the second day instead of too late to do anything on the first. Ditto, but reversed, on the last day. The owner must understand that.

7pm is much too late, give them a call and discuss.

This is to do with a more rigorous cleaning routine to ensure they are covid compliant. Properties need a deep clean between lettings, ie carpets, cupboards, cleaning all utensils etc. I know a friend's dd has spent a lot of money buying additional.bedding but has closed their games room. The swimming pool can be used by family groups on a rota basis.

There are parts of small towns where I live in Cornwall that have been pedestrianised to allow for queuing for shops. You need to pre-book attractions in advance, similar with food. 30% of businesses aren't expected to be able to reopen, there is likely to be less camping and touring sites available. There's been a 250% increase in enquiries for bookings.

So you could ask the owners if they could change times for you but understand why if they cannot.

Personally I wouldn't cancel. Yes it's a bit of a pain, but this has been such a tough time for the tourist industry that I can't imagine they would put these restrictions in place unless they absolutely had to in order to comply with guidance. However I would contact them to ask if there was any flexibility as you have a young child and his bedtime is 7pm.

Removing board games and the DVD player seems OTT. It would make more sense to have spares available so that they can just quarantine them between lettings. They wouldn't necessarily have to double up, as they could check in advance whether people actually want them.