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?

I always hate the late check in at the best of times... 7pm is ridiculous!

We live around a 6/7 hour drive from Cornwall and usually leave the house at about 5am to avoid as much traffic as possible.

We are KNACKERED by 3pm and just want to get in to the place (especially as we always also seem to bring torrential rain with us!). 7pm would definitely tip us into 'no way' category.

We have just moved our 4th July holiday to next Feb half term. I don't want to go to Cornwall with no supermarket deliveries, limited restaurants / bars etc. Holidays are supposed to be fun.

Please do consider holiday rental owners in this.

We have lost all bookings for several months.
We will have a 5pm check in at ours still. It isn't easy to just 'get' additional cleaners. We have 2 cleaners 10am-2pm, and I will also be there sorting laundry, gardening, replacing items etc with a small baby of my own on site.

We have spent £££ buying additional stuff for guests to have a good time. Such as brand new garden equipment for children, sand and water play, garden games, new bbq etc, so that if people can't go out as much they are entertained and can eat more on site.

We really are renting at a loss this year. It would be cheaper and less hassle to just cancel all bookings, but of course we want guests to enjoy what leisure time they can during this turbulent year.

I would have thought 6/7th money was better than no money at all, but your choice

Equally, 5 hours less holiday is better than no holiday at all

Basically the question is who should foot the bill for the cleaning time, the business or the customer. I believe it should be the business. It might mean their prices will go up for future bookings and that would be fair enough.

Added to the additional cleaning regime and costs as I mentioned upthread, my other concern is that guests may develop symptoms while there and have to self isolate for up to 14 days or more. This of course has knock on effects for the next guests and the cleaners, and who would pay while guests are self isolating? The affected guests could say 'Not my fault'. Insurers for both sides could say this was a risk that wss foreseen. After a great deal of thought I decided it wasn't practical to book for this season.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

I would query that as it appears they are removing most of the stuff, they surely don't need extra cleaning time as there will be a lot less to clean.

Well presumably they won’t be removing carpets, furniture, appliances. So hardly removing most of the stuff.

Just a thought, but at, 2 yo is he still falling asleep in the car?

Could it work if you gave him a snack, set off at 3pm, then either carry him to bed or if he wakes a later bedtime would balance out the sleep in the car?

I haven't read the full thread. There are rules being implemented in France, they are insisting on things like washing the curtains, steam cleaning the walls, re washing the entire kitchen cutlery, crockery, pans, disinfecting all surfaces, walls, stair banisters, chair legs, under tables.
all this over & above standard "cleaning".
It's a massive massive job.
She people are leaving 4 day gaps between bookings, rather than do all the above.

"some"

7pm is too late, and I run a hospitality business. 3pm is standard check in, so pushing it back to 5pm would be the absolute limit.

If cottage owners cannot do a turnaround before 7pm they need to look at alternative ways of managing the situation. There needs to be some flexibility on both sides.

@Caspianberg don't rent at a loss. That way madness lies. Don't risk mental and financial difficulties from the extra strain. Just write off this season and open up in Spring. However if your extra costs are just things like garden equipment those are good investments and will benefit you for more than one season, so aren't losses as such. Much as we put our hearts into our businesses and care about our guests, at times like this everything has to be a business decision or we won't survive.

7pm is ridiculous, you want to have an evening there. If you have to eat elsewhere thats an additional cost.

Having helped a friend to clean her holiday let’s a couple of times I imagine it’s so that they can deep clean so I’d just be glad about that I think.

@heartsonacake

YANBU. It’s absolutely ridiculous, even more so if they’re not offering a significant discount for significantly changing your holiday.

I’d cancel. If others do too they’d soon get the message that what they’re proposing isn’t viable.

But it is viable for loads of people. It’s only unviable if you’re completely inflexible.

Ridiculous times with a young child.
The situation that we’re in I would expect the owners to be more accommodating. I would cancel.

I would imagine there will be more demand for last minute uk holidays and with that people willing to pay. If the holiday cottage operators have their business head on they will be upping prices to make up for the four missed months. It seems to me that if to go abroad you now have to have a two week isolation upon return then losing a couple of hours of holiday on the first day is a very small compromise.

@DownToTheSeaAgain that's good, makes me feel better about asking to defer.

@TryAnotherNickname

Well for a start that would be against the furlough rules. If they are furloughed then I can't employ them.

As I said in the other thread, getting cleaners is harder than finding hen's teeth. I pay £25 an hour and still can't find anyone who can even be bothered to turn up for interview.

£25 an hour? I'm in the wrong job!

I wouldn’t pay to arrive at 7 pm . Waste of money . I’d cancel tbh

It’s four hours, ffs. Some of you are ridiculous.

@Spidey66

£25 an hour? I'm in the wrong job!

I think I am too at times! At least I don't have agency fees to pay!

It's not a job many people are happy to do and a number of times I've been asked to pay them "off the books" so it doesn't affect their benefits. That's something I'm not willing to even consider.

@HesterShaw1

You'd seriously want a discount for a few hours? After the enormous amount of lost income they have had?

Of course she would!

It's not the OP's responsibility to subsidise a business owner.

I'm sure OP has borne losses herself during the pandemic.

Tourist rentals are a business not a public service!

It’s not the business owner’s responsibility to subsidise a holiday maker either. They’re still getting the seven nights they booked.

9am is fair but 5pm is as late as I will accept.

They’re still getting the seven nights they booked

Well that’s not how she sees it and she’s decided to postpone. If the owner had knocked a bit off the price that might have fostered more good will and prevented that.

I’ve completely cancelled a holiday due to something like this. They have changed the t&c’s regardless of whose fault the booking has been changed by the owner. Thankfully the final balance wasn’t due yet so I’m losing a deposit but I’d rather lose the deposit that have a a bad feeling around the entire holiday.

I’ve booked the same dates else where and cheaper in fact for a holiday I know I will enjoy regardless of what bits might of changed due to Covid I’ve planned for it.