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 surprised to hear that people are paying a cleaning fee AND cleaning themselves?! Why don't you just say no?

I rent out my own house in France during the summer and some of the things people are complaining about on this thread, I do understand. My check-out time is 10am and check-in is 4pm. The entire time is usually absolutely needed, it's rare that the house is ready for the next lot of people before 3pm and then I use that extra hour to check the little things I don't have time to check usually, as I can guarantee that if I don't, they'll be complained about.

All I ask my guests to do is to put the bins out on a Friday evening (if they don't, the bins end up absolutely stinking due to the heat and it's horrible for the next people) and to make sure the dishwasher is empty. The dishwasher thing might seem petty, but if it's completely full then you easily lose 20 minutes of the changeover because guests will put things in weird places in the cupboards, so you end up having to move everything. Other than that I expect them to leave it tidy. It's always appreciated if it's obvious they've done some cleaning, but the cleaning lady will go over it again regardless as I have no clue if they cleaned it properly or not.

National Trust and Landmark Trust self-catering cottages are your answer. Not cheap, although you can keep the cost down a bit by choosing one that is truly inaccessible eg walking access only, across a field.

Always delighted by these cottages.

I am not interested in a pool in the UK.

For two adults, totally. For two parents, children and a granny, that quickly becomes unaffordable. Plus if you are in a villa you can feed the kids when they are hungry and eat yourselves later, there is usually a garden or at very least a separate living room so the adults don’t need to go to bed when the children do…

You can get two hotel rooms, but if your children are under 10 I’d be uncomfortable tucking them in and then wandering down the corridor to my own room, and hoping they didn’t get up to mischief overnight.

DS is five and still wakes up overnight - at home or in a villa we hear him and just shout up to go back to sleep. In a hotel, he might go wandering looking for us at 5am. He can open a hotel room door, very few of them can be locked from the outside.

The point is no-one is coming because your toddler 'adds to the family vibe'! I'm sure they are very cute, but no-one books a holiday for this reason 😂 Your place does sound nice though!

@minuette1 - yes I understand that. I just mean the reason I ask for 10am check out and 3pm onwards is because of toddler. It means I can do changeover with him, or dh can take some time off and work later if needed. Hence saying those booking wouldn’t be expecting a speed 1hr clean with an army of cleaners via a company, as it isn’t that kind of place.
But of course we have some days there’s a 3/4 day changeover, and in that case I’m happy for guests who ask to take a few hours extra time. If you don’t ask though, I am obviously assuming you are leaving so plan time around that.

The main problem with holiday homes is that a very small percentage of both hosts and guests do ruin it for the majority. Most guests and hosts are very normal people, who are flexible and accommodating if someone asks nicely

Your posts on the other thread about your life as a host @Caspianberg i think put me and the other posters off EVER being a host. Sounds utterly joyless in your thread

Really baffled by this thread

all those telling stories at the horror of 9am check outs

did you not know this before you booked?

i have had a charmed experience in air bnb

why? Research research research (and generally never go for high end and loads of review reading and checking out if on any other sites etc.)

never been caught short and never had to check out before 11am

Because I bloomin well knew the check out time before I booked!!

”and generally never go high end”

should read

”and generally ALWAYS go high end”!!!

I'd never had anyone change the checkout time pre-covid, but the one of the two times I've booked accommodation post-covid they emailed and said that 'due to covid' they were still operating an earlier checkout and I had to bag up sheets etc., none of which was advertised. I think I could have still cancelled then but it was short enough notice that I'd have struggled to find an alternative.

Not everyone can afford high end b&bs. Can’t believe you would brag about this to strangers.

So did I.

However, the list of tasks was left on the kitchen bench in the property.

In your high end accommodation, no doubt the Butler deals with it.

I’ve used Air BnB, booking.com and holiday lettings for holiday homes over a number of years. I’ve seen the list of expectations of guest jobs rise! Most are reasonable but some are expecting a lot. Personally I always clean round and take my own hoover because I take my dog and wouldn’t have anyone clean after him. They do charge more for him though…

I booked last year a while year in advance.
I had an email saying they’d changed the checkout from 10/4 a week before (big Sussex agent) to 9/7!
It went on their was no point in calling them as it wasn’t negotiable, however if I decided to come the following day instead of leave the night before to let them know so they could adjust cleaning times!
Post pandemic I was caught accepting it as no where else really to book last minute and I had 3 excited kids

Totally agree that this would be irritating but have never had anything close to the experience you describe. I’m also a holiday home owner and again we don’t demand any of the things you mention. We bend over backwards to give people a stress free holiday. Although it is amazing what things some people (not suggesting you!) complain about!

I actually have stayed at a hotel like this - the Arundel in Cambridge. It's a comically old-fashioned place but the location is fab, the food is decent and the little adjacent bedroom was great!

Airbnb? Don't do it then. Go to the traditional holiday cottage where the owners are happy to clean up after those who are paying. Or go to a hotel. I have yet had the experience of staying somewhere where they expect me to water plants, cut the grass or clean in leaving. You could report to local trading standards as being treated as a house sitter and see what they say.

I've recently come back from a week in Dorset from a self catering holiday complex. We had to check in after 3pm and check out by 9:30, all the complex management asked was to run the dishwasher,strip beds, bag all sheets and towels and take out rubbish and just a general tidy up on your day of leaving. You could leave your car if you weren't ready to leave and have a wander in the local town but you were not expected to do a through in depth clean before you left as there was a team of cleaners who came in. Everything was provided bar beach towels but you were welcome to use the communal washing machine facilities in a outhouse.
I agree with other posters that a full in depth clean isn't on and just a general tidy up on check out day is enough.

Please don't tarnish everyone with the same brush. Plenty of great airbnb owners and many reasons for people wanting to stay in a house/flat rather than a hotel

We did a night in travelodge in Portsmouth, was family room and check in 3pm, check out midday. Lovely and quiet, great view of park and was £70 for the three of us. Very clean and comfortable and thought it was great value. Obviously they vary but our experience was surprisingly great.

So absolutely this. I've been moaning about this double whammy for years.

We were at an air bnb in May.
Spotlessly clean and well maintained and on checkout I got a message saying don't worry about anything except taking your belongings.

I still cleaned but there was no pressure at all.

I totally agree OP.
I'm not there to be there to be their bloody skivvy and neither are you.😎

I've just left an Airbnb and it was OK, but just crammed full of old furniture, crockery etc. In a private comment to the owner, after giving good feedback, I mentioned that some of the kitchen crockery and equipment had seen better days and wasn't particularly clean. The response was to say that the dishwasher wasn't always efficient. Completely missing the point that they have cleaners going in who should check that things are clean, rather than relying on previous customers to wash up properly! I think some of these owners don't grasp the concept that it's down to them to make sure that the property and contents are clean and ready to use when customers go in.

We washed all the plates, mugs etc we wanted before using them and kept them on the draining board for the stay, rather than use the stained stuff in the cupboards.

We did no cleaning, bed stripping or anything by the way, we were charged for cleaning so why would we.