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 don't book any places with excessive cleaning requirements or stupid check in times"

The problem is that often these are not outlined in the booking and only become apparent when you reach the place and see the War and Peace style ring binder on the dining table that outlines the exact length of time per day you are allowed to shower and run hot water.

yeah with kids a house is usually much easier than a hotel I find, just having the freedom to cook when you want and the bedtime thing. I have had to have the lights out and get into bed at 8-9 when my kids were very small and we staying in a premier inn, not the best

We mostly rent holiday properties in Spain, and - on the whole - they are far less demanding about guests' cleaning requirements because they pay professional cleaning teams to do a thorough job. We do show willing and strip the beds, and walk the rubbish to the bins. But more to the point, the agencies provide a proper service: they send technicians round to sort out the tv, the wifi, the washing machine, whatever, and they are always on the end of a phone, and happy to help.

Is this an Airbnb thing? We stay in uk holiday lets once, sometimes twice a year )the dogs need a holiday too!) and have never had any of these requests. I always strip the bed although haven’t ever been asked to and will wipe down the surfaces, make sure toilet and shower are clean and take the rubbish out but that’s it. I don’t hoover or mop. I’ve never been charged a cleaning fee either. The next one we have booked is 3pm arrival and 10 departure which suits us.

But they must state this before you book. It sounds horrific, 5 star all the way for me. If I can’t afford that then I don’t go.

I must be missing something…the amount of people who say they don’t mind stripping the beds and washing the sinks…absolutely not.

you pay to stay not to clean, especially if they have added a cleaning fee. My rubbish will be in the bin, and plates washed, and that’s all they’re getting

So your issue wasn’t with the 9am check out time but rather what you had to do before you left?

Which is what only booking properties with a high number of reviews and very highly rated is the way to go

who knows who deals with it, that’s the point - I don’t want or need to know.

All I do know is that I book places where it sure as heck isn’t me and my family!

I think since Covid, there are a lot of amateurs renting out their own places on AirBnB and other online platforms, sometimes just for a few weeks each year,
who haven’t realised how much work is involved, and /or don’t want to do it.

Some kind of regulation is overdue - each holiday cottage having a licence which guarantees certain standards (including all the safety ones).
In the meantime, I’m booking only through a well established letting agency I know in Cornwall. They’ve got local presence to sort out any issues, employ proper housekeepers, know the properties, and also vet them for things like the fire regs and the proper insurance.

And it isn't just the UK. Someone here is the US was complaining (bitterly) about a holiday rental. They were required to pay a ONE THOUSAND DOLLAR cleaning fee, then told that they were to take out the trash, dust, sweep and mop before being out at 9 AM.

I had this exact problem the only time I stayed in an air bnb. It was September to be fair but only a small place and it was on 24/7 so we were roasting. Landlord lived abroad and ignored our requests. We ended up having all the windows wide open the entire time. Totally awful, would never use them again (I don’t like them anyway and I wasn’t in charge of the accommodation).

Going back to hotels due to this.

Completely agree it’s our second and probably last time booking with Sykes cottages. They are extortionate compared to 3 years ago and you can’t get the keys until 3pm on the day

Totally agree with this. We recently returned from a holiday home with our babies and it was a 5pm check in and a 9am check out! Ridiculous!

Also, we stayed at this house because the house we usually stay at, in the same area (sleepy coastal Norfolk town) had gone up from £870 for 4 nights in 2020 to £2350 for 4 nights in the same week. I appreciate costs have risen for everyone but this rise is insane and greedy. I was pleased to see that many dates on their website remain unbooked.

Where are you getting the holiday houses ? I just stays in a Airbnb qnd includes a cleaning fee so I leave it clutter free qnd tidy but no way in hell I’m cleaning the place and I’m not expected too ( good feedback proves it )

Well it is really - no cleaners mean no holiday cottage for you to rent! It is really really hard to get good reliable cleaners. It's a shit job (often literally I'm afraid).

I regularly price check against the local Travelodge. We are always cheaper for 5 people. Add on the cost of eating out for every meal then we become significantly cheaper. You also get a fully equipped 3 bedroom cottage with a private garden, terrace and summerhouse for your own use.

As for heating - I have never heard of an owner setting the heating at 24C and being arsey about turning it down. With the price of fuel skyrocketing we are all more frequently wincing at the guests who set the thermostat to 24 in a heatwave and then open all the windows.... This is a regular occurrence for us as we do let guests have control of the heating.

@Flev have you tried Gulliver’s World? I’ve only been to the one in Warrington but room’s have a little separate sleeping area for the youngsters.

Nothing a bad review won’t solve for future guests . That’s not ok imo

Completely agree with these posts.
We always try to just get a travelodge or Premier Inn if we can nowadays.
Reasons being ....

• airbnbs have stupid check in and out times, and the cleaning fee is a joke. Sometimes you rely on the previous tenant to do it properly ( and it isn't done well because they left at 9am)
• airbnbs say they have double beds but you end up with small doubles that cannot fit 2 adults on

-airbnbs expect you to clean but don't provide bleach, limescale remover or cloths

• they expect you to have no washing up out and an empty dishwasher. So now I have to run around cleaning mugs after breakfast
• parking is always awful. Hotels have clearer parking
• much harder to get keys and you're fucked if you're locked out
• airbnbs can often be in super rough neighbourhoods. Most premier inns are in the nice part of town or near a station
• they aren't cheaper than a hotel anyways!

An airbnb can be useful because it's nice to have a separate room for kids , but now we get a hotel with rooms next to each other:)

It’s really ridiculous in some places. If I’m paying a small fortune just to stay there, plus a cleaning fee on top, then I’m not also going to be running round with a Hoover and cleaning the showers before breakfast.

It reminds me of the (longer-term) private rental market, where some landlords view it as they’re doing grudgingly doing you a favour by letting you pay to live in their house in the first place.

In fact, my most bonkers former landlord was always threatening to turn the place into a holiday let. If anyone here’s stayed in a flat in central Scotland where the owner wouldn’t let you walk in the garden and let himself into use the shower in the middle of the day, then that’ll be him…

I'm shocked at reading a lot of what owners are requesting here!
I clean and manage 6 holiday lets (Pembrokeshire) all check out times are 10.00 or 11.00, keys are in a lock safe by front door, average £50 cleaning fee, all cleaning sprays etc are kept under the sink for anyone to use, but no cleaning by guests expected! thats what i'm paid for...

It makes me sad reading this - we have a cottage we Airbnb as I like the flexibility (I don’t want to go with Sykes etc as we use the cottage for friends and family and I like to be able to block dates out for when I’m busy or away)
I make no cleaning demands at all, leave a full complement of cleaning items in the cottage and also fully equip it for a pleasant hassle-free stay. I do expect guests to leave it clean and tidy (ie no dirty dishes on the side) but I do everything else (strip the beds, empty bins etc) Check in is 3 and check out 11
I think guests don’t realise just how much Airbnb takes in commission from both the guest and the host (it’s getting ridiculous) and how harshly the Airbnb ratings work - anything less than 5* overall is considered a fail as far as Airbnb is concerned.
We’ve met some lovely people through hosting, and love sharing our property and seeing guests enjoy the beautiful place we live. I’d be sad to see all that disappear

@TheOriginalLadyFT I feel so sorry for someone like yourself lovely- there are so many who have become greedy and/or seem to think they are doing guests paying very good money a favour and they give the whole concept a bad name. The problem is a lot of property professionals have got in on this , rather than locals letting out annexes etc . Unfortunately I think they are going to have to restrict it as it's causing problems for locals to actually get accommodation - no accommodation then no cleaners, no waiters, no shop workers etc

@Jellykat do your six properties have the same change over day and do you clean them all yourself???