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

We did complain and the reply we got was that the owner was very elderly and quite eccentric but a lovely woman. Which is all very well but it was an awful holiday and we were offerred no compensation.

I won’t stay at these places. Sod stripping the bed! I don't so that at a hotel so why the fuck should I do it at your holiday home. We own a place in France that we let out in August. We don’t ask our guests to do anything when they leave, just to be respectful. We pay a lot of money for a cleaner but why the hell should we expect our guests to clean when they are on holiday! It’s just cheeky fuckery.

I’m also fed up with shoddy overpriced hotels. DH and I stayed in a pub in the Jurassic Coast. £230 a night, bed was so hard neither of us got any sleep and the property was old and so we heard every sneeze, snore from our neighbours and then upstairs some people decided to have a party at 1am. The duvet was like something from Asda economy range. I was so pissed off, we came home shattered. Couldn’t wait to get back to our own comfortable bed and peaceful house.

We’re going to buy a touring caravan for next year. I just won’t do UK hotels anymore.

I think people must really agree with you though, as the market is crashing in the south west. People have started turning airbnbs back into longterm lets, and investment properties sitting empty in June!

This happened to us, and it was over the Christmas period, it was miserable.

They had one of those remote nest things and when we asked them to increase the heating, the owner was really pissed off and eventually agreed to increase it by 1deg, 'but no more than that'. We had paid thousands for the pleasure.

I’m an Airbnb host, and I’ve spent quite a lot of time on hosting forums over the years. What’s clear from what I see there is that whilst there are undoubtedly a lot of guests out there who don’t know how to look after a self catering property, they are vastly outnumbered by the number of hosts who really, really shouldn’t be in the hospitality business. It makes me quite angry. It’s not a huge amount of work and you can make good money, but it isn’t free money and those who treat it as if it is and their guests are an inconvenience to be managed make me furious.

The check in and check out times thing is trickier, though. If you want somewhere nice to stay that’s clean and ready for you then the person preparing it needs time. When you say leave at 9, it’s often 10. When you say check in at 5, it’s often 4, so we’re always bearing that in mind when we give timings. The full 8 hours is rather a lot though, unless it’s a mansion.

What's so bad about Sykes? We've used them a few times for self-catering in the Uk without any problems.

The last place we stayed was in Aviemore at Easter - lots and lots of properties in the town are self catering. We often choose self-catering because as a family of 5 it's hard to get hotel accommodation, and we like the space you get with a house. Check in was 4pm which was fine, when we arrived there was an issue with the heating and DH contacted the owner who talked him through how to reset it. She did say if there was a still a problem she'd send round an engineer BUT the engineer would be able to pick up a spare key from her agent's office and wouldn't disturb us, and as the heating was in the garage the engineer wouldn't need to come into the house at all. During the week we were asked if we'd leave the bins out for collecting and there was a schedule of waste collections - again, a 2 minute job which nobody minded.

On the Friday before we left the cleaners arrived with clean laundry and a request to leave it in the hall - but only if it was convenient - and that was not a problem. On leaving we were asked to strip the beds and put them in the labelled bags provided along with towels, and to leave the dishwasher running. Also to leave the place "generally clean and tidy" and take the bins out. That's all very reasonable if you ask me - no extra cleaning, no hoovering or mopping.

We did stay in a place in France 3 years ago which was a private gite with the owner living in another part of hte same building, we had to be out by 9am on the dot although we were not asked to strip beds. No towels provided either which was a right pain.

@420Bruh I have family near Lulworth and saw properties empty in June half term… they were asking 3k for the week though!!!
It struck me as greed issue, rather than a market issue

That's terrible. Imagine a flat owner being forced to use such a company. It's a shame you cannot employ someone else...

100%. These people are cheeky fuckers.

It's beyond entitled to charge someone a fortune for accommodation and then give them a list of things to do before they leave. I've had people say "well we need to turn over the rooms in a short space of time" as if that's somehow my problem. Hire more staff, then, or sell the business to someone more competent. It's just ridiculous to charge someone £200 a night for a cottage and expect them to clean. Throw away rubbish, yes, take the binbag out, yes, wash dishes, yes, give surfaces a wipe, yes, maybe strip the beds. Anything more than that and they're completely taking the piss. I don't go on holiday to clean showers and mop floors.

Precisely the reason I'm avoiding Dorset and the New Forest region at present. Pricing like that just doesn't need encouraging. No wonder the airports are in such a mess!

@Caspianberg No one books your place because your toddler is on site.

It's not always poorly reviewed properties though, especially AirBnB because you are not allowed an overly critical review (or it will be removed).

I was looking for a 2 bedroom exclusive use apartment in London, I found one with was 4,000 for 6 nights with 5 star reviews. . The front page shows it has two bedrooms, 1st bedroom with a double bed and single bed and the 2nd bedroom with a double bed. Then you look at the detail and this is what it says

"Exclusive use of this apartment with all that you need for your stay.

One double bed (in bedroom 1)
One double sofa bed with extra thick layer of memory foam, making it feel like a standard bed (in bedroom 2).
Single folding bed (with a standard, comfortable single mattress) available if requested.
No separate living room"

"If you want to use the cooker (stove, oven), access is subject to host's discretion and additional fee of two hundred pounds payable before your trip starts."

"In addition there is a daily charge of ten pounds to use the cooker to keep my apartment’s price lower for those who do not need to use stove/oven."

"Babies under age of two are considered paying guests which will add extra guest fee after the booking of twenty pounds"

So basically a 1 bedroom apartment with sofa bed in living room and no access to a cooker unless you pay more.

Last air bnb place I stayed in was awful. Filthy and shabby. It had beautiful photos and 5 star reviews that I suspect were all faked. I gave up on air bnb after that experience.

@antelopevalley - huh? My place is full all summer.
The only way you can guarantee child free is an exclusive adult only resort. Otherwise of course families live in normal houses

@Caspianberg I wasnt commenting on your place at all. But you claimed that people stayed because of the family vibe and that your toddler is part of that.

100% agree.

Agreed - we always book self-catering properties (often flats) but I'm aware of the issue with holiday homes in many locations, and would rather not contribute to it. But it's usually our only option if we don't want to have me, DH, a 3 year old and a 1 year old in one room. We've done that for the odd night, but I'd rather not go at all than do it for a whole holiday. I also like having a kitchen, but could live without that.

@Caspianberg

i was on your thread a couple of weeks ago where you were lamenting how your toddler is being very very tricky and how unhappy you are and how he’s not sleeping

if your rental is part of your actual family home, I highly doubt that your toddler is adding positively to the holiday vibe!

YANBU, I stayed in a cute little beachside cottage recently, after booking he asked me to bring my own towels because of ‘covid’ which is utter nonsense but I couldn’t be bothered to argue it, it was clear to me he does his own cleaning and relies on guests to clean it before the next guests arrival so he doesn’t have to. I noticed lots of little things that should be improved on because I actually manage a cottage that is rented out locally to me (I don’t own it) and the owner is tight with supplies for guests so I always give them more dishwasher tablets and food waste bags than I’m supposed to-I’m quite lenient with departure and arrival times too if the house is ready, I can’t see the point of not being when they are paying a lot of money!

I completely agree with you OP. Fed up with the late arrival and out by 9am thing myself.

The holiday house cleaning has been a thing for years in France where from our experience they expect you to do a whole house clean before you leave, rather than a quick wipe round (like it used to be in the UK). I do enough cleaning in my own home and don't expect to clean a holiday home. I do however strip beds and leave the place tidy.

I think it's because the house owner doesn't want to pay for a proper cleaner in between visitors.

@Ohthatsexciting - he doesn’t sleep, no. Doesn’t mean he’s noisy. Just he’s Keeping dh and I awake.
You are very welcome to choose not to stay. Most guests are returning year on year, or for both seasons.

I don’t understand the ‘cleaning fee’ on Airbnb. I want to know what it costs to stay somewhere per night, end of. And that should include whatever it costs to make the place suitable for guests before and after my arrival. I have had to use Airbnb for work a few times and it’s so annoying when you know you have a £75/night budget only to find that all the rooms advertised at £75/night then have a bunch of fees added on top. What’s the point?

And I would always do my washing up, wipe down any spills and crumbs on kitchen work surfaces and bag up my rubbish, taking it out if I have access to the main bins. Might strip the beds at a push, and leave our towels in a neat pile. But asking for any more than that is absolutely taking the piss. Doubly so if you’ve paid a ‘cleaning fee’ on top of the cost of your stay!

Well, I'll be looking out for cleaning requirements in the T&Cs now after reading all these. I usually book self-catering from places I find on Sawdays, and I haven't come across this (although check-ins are rarely before 4pm and check-outs rarely after 10am these days). I"d expect to leave the dishwasher running (and I expect to find basic cleaning products, like dishwasher tablets, as well), empty bins, whisk crumbs off surfaces, but beyond that, no. As others have said, if you work in hospitality, you should expect to take care of guests and the properties, and not expect not to earn money for no work.

Or the owners, who are members of the community, not trying to profit at the expense of said communities needs.

Exactly this! I dont want to have to socialise with strangers and fight over sunloungers. And i want my own pool. No cooking required because we eat iut everyday. I do love a premier Inn breakfast though.