To think many people have confused their paying holiday rental with house sitting?

[HeleenaHandcart]

Back from a week away and I’m starting to give up on UK holiday homes.

I obviously am happy to respect the property and be generally clean and tidy, but more and more I see higher and higher costs and higher and higher cleaning expectations. As well as earlier and earlier leaving times.

I don’t want to work as an unpaid house keeper before a long drive, nor generally add towards upkeep of the house I’m paying a ton for. I used to strip beds for example, but not with kids and an early leave time as well as wanting it all bagged up it’s a bit much before 9am. Frankly I’m not watering anything either. Now as well more and more places say you must leave by 9am, yet can’t enter until 5/6pm due to ‘cleaning’ but you must clean the place fully. Bins out and a list of chores for you.

Last week I was asked to be in for the washing machine repair man even (I said no). It’s not a bloody holiday- it’s house sitting and paying to be a house-sitter. My particular annoyance is stating ‘all surfaces to be cleaned and wiped, including the bathroom’ and they don’t leave a single cloth or cleaning product in the property. It’s like they also expect you to either purchase or bring a house cleaning kit.

Oh and ‘quirks of the property’, stuff that generally requires extra work to use stuff like ‘each day the windows all must be opened for 10 min’, ‘the shower cubicle has a daily water mark spray’ or ‘the boiler needs x, y…’

Its time to go back to hotel stays

I'm with you on this! Some places are absolutely taking the piss especially considering that they're often not any cheaper than a hotel and all it's included services. I'll take a hotel any day over scrubbing someone's house clean.

Totally agree. I hate Air Bnb's now and will always opt for a hotel. Paying £100 for "cleaning" but being expected to leave it spotless is a bloody joke and it is supposed to be a holiday.

I am bloody sick of it too. Got a shirty Airbnb review for leaving a small amount of sand on the floor near the washing machine when we had to leave the house at 10 with kids, had paid a cleaning fee as well as the extortionate fee to book the place and the house was basically on a beach! I now won’t use Airbnb. I find booking.com better but it is more expensive than booking individually. COVID staycations etc have a lot to answer for!

Must admit this is one of the things I like about Premier Inn. 12 noon checkout on the last day. Very civilised. Very soundproofed too and blackout curtains.

Could not agree more! A lot of people take the absolute piss with "cleaning fees" and it is quite clearly a way to keep the headline price down when you search.

We stayed at one a few months ago that was the final straw when the fees were about 25% of the overall price, and we arrived to a list of tasks that we "must" do before we left that read like a list of instructions for an actual cleaner.

Oh and the 9am departure times too, incredibly annoying! We're sticking to hotels in future. Might cost a bit more but ends up being far more relaxing.

YANBU I've not had a cheeky request to wait in for a repair but the list of cleaning requirements does seem to be growing. And as you say, arrival times are getting later and departure times are getting earlier with Covid still being used as an excuse.

Although it's not just a UK thing. We stayed in a self catering place in France recently that took the piss too. We had to make all the beds on arrival and had a long list of cleaning requirements before departure at 9 30 - strip beds, mop floors, clean bathrooms, kitchen surfaces, bins, fridge, oven... They provided a mop and bucket, one cloth and a sachet of washing up liquid but nothing else. The instructions said failure to do the cleaning would result in them keeping our 200 eur deposit.

That takes the piss-asking you to stay in for the repair man?! I can swallow the massive cleaning fee, but no way am I therefore doing more than dust/run round the vacuum.

I agree. I’m happy to do things like stripping and bagging bedding and towels and a general tidy up. I would also always set the dishwasher running with the breakfast plates as we leave. I think vacuuming and mopping on the last day as well as cleaning bathrooms is a bit excessive tbh. I am quite a tidy person but when there are 3 bathrooms it’s quite a big job to leave them all immaculate and to be frank I may as well be at home!!

We have gone back to hotels this year and it’s been bliss.

I am glad you are going back to hotel stays though not pleased at the reasons. Every holiday home is a place that could be used for someone who works locally, be it in healthcare, education or wherever.

The only way such creeping requirements will end is people not renting such places.

They tried to say that if I didn’t wait for the repair man I was acknowledging that there would not be use of the washing machine as advertised- trying to put it on me!

They ended up sending someone form the letting agents/ management people to let them in though.

I believe that's the norm in France. I remember staying at a caravan park and a French woman asking in reception if she needed to clean the caravan on checkout and they explained that she didn't as there was a cleaner. It's not a very relaxing end to the holiday if you have to be the cleaner.

This was in England

@balalake yes, it’s probably not a bad thing. Though I must say I avoid those kind of holiday home dominated places, well basically I avoid Cornwall entirely for a start. I have no urge to crush into a tourist focused theme park version of a traditional fishing village or similar!

Totally agree.

I don't mind stripping the beds, vacuuming, cleaning sinks, surfaces etc.

But the last place wanted us out at 8am.

Also Air BnB take 30% of the fee from owners, book direct or use hotels, though I have found some good def catering on Booking.com

Totally with you.

Personally I think that when they ask you do do a large number of cleaning jobs before you leave and pay a large cleaning fee that they are just pocketing the money after you have cleaned up.

We ended up buying a (cheap-ish) holiday home abroad for this reason. We calculated that the cost of a cheap mortgage and the annual running costs is cheaper than renting a place for two weeks in the peak of summer, plus we get to go the rest of the year whenever we fancy it. We don’t rent it out commercially but friends and family are free to visit. We don’t expect any cleaning to be done prior to departure and generally people can come and leave when they want, as do we. We found a local retired couple who are happy to clean sporadically when needed as well as mow the lawn. I can’t think of anything worse than having to get up early on the last day of the holiday and have to clean and worry about whether you’ve done it well enough.

I'd be annoyed if I was paying a lot of money to stay in a place and they expected me to do housework. I am not messy but there is a difference between keeping the place tidy/not leaving rubbish everywhere and hoovering/dusting. That comes out of the extortionate rental and even more so if they are charging a cleaning fee on top!

I like Premier Inns too. They can be a bit noisy depending on other guests but they are usually cost-effective.

Agreed. It's a fucking cheek.

I fully agree - every time I look into it I think "What?! Fuck that!" and book a nice hotel for the same price, without all the palaver.

I don't mind stripping a few beds or giving the shower a wipe but waiting in for a repair job? That's the point at which they should be paying me!

Last time we had a UK holiday we got a list of cleaning demands and I replied that I don't do my own cleaning at home and I certainly don't go on holiday to do someone else's.

The owner wasn't very pleased but that was tough.

You can't clean AND leave at 9, it doesn't work. I don't really see the point in cleaning fees and the person having to clean. I'd much prefer them to just charge for cleaning and have someone do it properly who isn't me.