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

Me too, I’m done with cottage rentals and can’t work up sympathy for the cottage owners. It’s largely their fault that the communities they buy their rentals in have become hollowed out.

Premier Inn all the way!
However we do have a holiday home booked on Skye for our honeymoon, but they seem to be fairly relaxed and the dog goes free which is a bonus.
Some holiday homes seem to think they don't have to lift a finger even though the prices can be outrageous. So I'm definitely with you in this one.

Not all cottage owners fall into this category - ours is part of the farm and can’t be sold, so we’re not denying local people somewhere to live. Because we both have elderly parents with health issues, we renovated the cottage so that it could be used for them if/when the situation arises - in the meantime, our guests get the chance to stay for a reasonable price in a beautiful place, to visit the farm and walk around it (we have a wildlife walk we’ve put in) and see our animals, as well as being close to lots of lovely places for outings.
I get that second homes are a problem for many communities, but we don’t all fall into that category

Could it be rented out to local people as a home ?

I have a 4 bed, 3 bath barn conversion holiday let. It takes 2 of us a good 4 hours to change over and clean, sometimes more. I advertise through a national agent, not AirBnB. I provide a very good selection of cleaning materials so that guests can wipe out the bathroom basin and loo etc as they go, not so that I don't have to. There's cordless vacuum upstairs for the same reason. I love it if you strip the beds because its not nice handling someone else's still warm bedlinen. I don't leave cleaning instructions but I would hope that the cottage is left tidy, dishwasher on etc, it is self-catering after all. I would never expect you to scrub and dust from top to bottom. If the appliances need repairing, I ask permission to go in. Wouldn't dream of asking the guest to stay in. Most guests are very respectful. Very occaisionally I walk in and want to cry - I cannot believe that some people have lived in the filth for a whole week. I treat my holiday cottage as a proper job. It's hard work to do it properly. It's not a cash cow as expenses are high to maintain it to a high standard. I want my guests to love staying there but it's not a hotel so please expect to take a certain amount of responsibility.

No, because it does need to be readily available in case one of our parents needs it (something becoming increasingly likely sadly) and we also use it for family/friends (which is why we have it on Airbnb, as it means I can block dates easily and I’m not stuck with the rigidity of weekly bookings like on some holiday cottage sites)

I imagine lots of other second home owners have similar reasons why it's not them that's in that category buts it the others that shouldn't be doing it.

Can I ask what do people do around dishwashers on the last day? Is it ok on the last morning to just fill the dishwasher and turn it on before you go? I understand that the cleaners might not be paid to unload the dishwasher but on the last day when you're trying to rush everyone out, either putting on the dishwasher really early so it's finished before you go, or not using the dishwasher in the morning and washing by hand is a right pain if there's quite a few of you.

It is a bit of a cash cow as house prices are continually rising. So you get income earned plus house price rises.

Could everyone not just wash their own plate and cup?
I don't own a dishwasher at home, I don't like them so not having access to one wouldn't bother me

Nonsense
Popular holiday rentals tend to be in very nice areas that have a quite a few other holiday rentals and the guests spend a lot locally… on pub lunches, gift shops, cafes etc

nah. I don’t dish wash at home so I don’t want to on holiday
more to the point - I don’t like the idea of being a guest using plates and cutlery that the previous guest has washed up! I want a high heat dish washer setting!

out of interest @Itloggedmeoutagain

do you holiday alone or with family?

because for breakfast on last day of holiday it wont be one plate and a cup per person!

i do porridge (so saucepan bowls and cut early), a fruit salad and yoghurt and then my teen son will make himself a bacon sandwich and then I will do my daughter a boiled egg. Plus coffee for me. And glasses for water and juice!

I took elderly DM to Shropshire last summer for a weeks holiday and the ‘exit’ tasks and departure time were so onerous that she spent most of the holiday stressing about it.

It required different coloured bags to put different sheets, tea towels etc etc. and a very early departure time. All COVID related, apparently.

In the end, we left a day early… in our own time.

I guess because we don't have a dishwasher i just wouldn't bat an eyelid at washing up

@ohthatsexciting but you wouldn't know that. We'd just wash up after ourselves. We're perfectly clean and hygienic. So unless the owner is putting everything back in the dishwasher you don't know who has washed it

Of course I would know

if there is no dishwasher
and the owner asks that no dirty plates or cutlery are left and washed up before departure

previous guest could have used a scummy washing up pad, cold water and basically just dipped in and out.

uigh setting dishwasher please all the way!

plus… I don’t want to be washing up porridge saucepan , bowls, cutting board, cutlery, plates, coffee cups, juice cups, frying pan etc!

I'm about to start Air B&B-ing a family house abroad. I stay in a lot of self catering places and have noted what works and what doesn't. I think the following works:

Never expect a guest to clean the house - it's a holiday and any cleaning should be included in the price. Yes they need to put everything back where they found it and not break stuff, but no to cleaning.

Every house has quirks like 'don't put hot pans on the work surface' or whatever. I think it's fair enough to state these on an info sheet in the house and to expect that people will not be dicks about stuff like that. I will only keep back the damage deposit if someone's clearly done something stupid or caused damage over a certain £ amount (i.e. not for breaking a glass or leaving sand).

If there are expectations like watering plants or feeding pets you need to state this before any money changes hands.

It's really not difficult.

Don't put hot pans on work surfaces is reasonable if it is the type of surface that will get damaged as a result.
Quirks people are complaining about are, things like, press hard against the right hand side of the dishwasher to get it to close properly.

uigh setting dishwasher please all the way!

Nope, sorry. Unless the owners supply enough dishwasher tablets I'm washing up by hand. I don't have a dishwasher at home so I have no need to buy them.

Do you eat and drink in people's homes if they don't have a dishwasher?

Maybe I worded it wrongly. If we'd been the previous guests we would have left the dishes clean. Because that's what we're used to.

This is what I meant.
You've worded it better than I have

Another plea here for more aparthotels. Also, having been to the US, Australia and NZ on holiday they have a lot of motels/motor lodges which are geared up for visitors and so not likely to eat into the accommodation available to locals. I have long been very frustrated with the holiday accommodation offerings in this country compared to other parts of the world, particularly the domination of the 'budget' end of the market by family-run B&Bs, which while often lovely, are not everyone's cup of tea.

Thank you. That’s very helpful

Bad example

if you are a guest leaving a property never to return - are you really going to wash up as well as at home when you are having friends / family dining guests over?

some night but the majority would bot

Hence of course I will eat at any friends or family irrespective of whether they have a dishwasher.

But a rental without a dishwasher and a requirement to leave not dirty plates or previous guests are doing the washing up

NO THANKS!!