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

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?

Well I use a bowl of soapy water and a sponge at home or in a rental, what's supposed to be different?

I am so glad I'm not fussed about things like this, it makes life a lot easier! If it looks clean, I use it, if not, it gets washed again.

Many people on this thread are using airbandbs for holidays and criticising them. There are lots of other reasons why people would use/need an airbandb. People working away from home for a few days, people attending events in a particular location, people who need to get out their home while work is being done, the list goes on. So while many people are criticising there is a genuine need for the many hard working airbandb owners who are supplying a good service and filling a need in our society

I don’t mind doing a quick wipe of the kitchen surfaces as I do that throughout the stay anyway - I don’t want to cook in a messy kitchen. And we usually do a quick vacuum too. I wouldn’t be happy to pay a cleaning fee on top of that! The last place we stayed asked us to leave the place tidy and hoover any sand up. I’d prefer that to a hotel where you don’t have as much space and can’t eat in if you feel like it or do a quick load of laundry. A hotel is fine for a couple of nights for a couple or a business traveller, not so much with DC for a week, as far as we’re concerned.

We usually stay in one of the properties managed by Beach Retreats in Cornwall and they’re very good.

I’am planning on letting one room on Airbnb to have some extra cash coming in. I have done lettings when I was living in London and it allowed me to afford a holiday.
It's interesting to read that most experiences are negative. I have always preferred to give my money to an individual or small business (Airbnb is not) and kept the contacts for future visits.
I have never asked a guest to clean, not even to strip the bed though.

Scathing piece about Sykes on the One Show this evening.

I have found this thread really interesting. I am a lone parent and travel as much as possible with DC (to obscure and cheap flight destinations). Air bnb is never a first choice for booking somewhere to stay. I hate the fee structure. I understand booking through booking.com etc covers the same charges but I much prefer to see how much the total cost is rather than a breakdown of booking fees and then cleaning on top when I go to checkout. Some cleaning fees are crazy- in reality cleaning is part of your business costs, owners should factor that in.

I think part of the issue with airbnb is the bloody rating system. People pay £0000s but are too scared to leave a bad review so the whole rating system is now a farce. It may have worked when it was renting out a spare room etc but this is not what airbnb is anymore. It is a booking site for hotels, b&bs, people with 1 to 50 rental properties. If a property is listed elsewhere it is always cheaper. Holiday home owners will always say they have rave reviews, go out of their way, people love what they offer and they have repeat bookings etc. Well of course, people are paying A LOT of money for most of these properties so this is the expectation unless you are offering a really low rate. It is not really a badge of honour- it is a business transaction and you provide a service not favours.

When I was a child all we did was bloody holidays to cottages in the UK. It was a cheap holiday and I envied all my friends going abroad. Now I cannot afford to holiday in the UK (and to be honest do not really want to). As others have mentioned, you can book aparthotels with massive pools, sunshine and friendly hosts with no cleaning rules (often cleaning included every other day, even in a simple 2* family owned resort in Greece). Add in that is is so much cheaper to eat out and often far more relaxed. Everything is cheaper- car hire, excursions, public transport.

I'll look for that on catch up. I'm so annoyed that the holidays I booked with a local agent are now Sykes holidays - I'd have cancelled and gone without a holiday rather than pay them if I could have got my deposit back but they had enough money for nothing from me during Covid!

@willstarttomorrow I totally agree. I'm a big fan of booking.com -even if the place has issues, you leave a review- and it stays on there --with no worry about them reviewing you!! Also their customer services I have found to be good. It's easy to cancel, easy to change and in lots of instances you don't pay till you get there- which suits me as I feel I've got the power if my room is over the bins etc!! They also have lots of villas and apartments from private individuals and small scale operators too

I'm wondering what people do when leaving their homes for a two week holiday. Do you leave dirty dishes piled in the sink? Do you leave food in the fridge? Do you leave the bins full and skids down the bog? I don't.

I would never expect a paying guest to clean one of my properties. I do expect the basins and bogs to have had a wipe over a two week period, I do expect the dishes to be clean, even if only draining, I do expect the top of the cooker to have been wiped, if not the night before, at least once or twice during the stay. I.doubt most civilised folk would leave the accumulated sand of two weeks seeping into a sofa at home. Nor would they have period sex several times without using a towel in their own homes and if they do they would clear up the mess themselves. Yes, this happens and regularly.

I don't expect people to clean but I do certainly incorporate the cost of new sheets, towels, pillows and possibly mattress, cushion renewal and a professional clean at the end of the season into my charges and costs.

The way people treat shirt term let's is unspeakable. Even expensive ones filled with yummy mummies and Olympoa and Hector's.

When we are at our property however, I do love some of the disdainful looks when we are watering, or sorting the pool etc, and dh looks like a quasi vagrant needing a shave and I am in something washed out in flip flops and no make-up. DH often replies to them slowly in French as well and nods 🤣.

Wow, reading this has put me off AirBnb and other holiday rentals. Owners taking the piss.

writing this in Premier inn (for work though not holiday). Still a couple of irritating ‘post covid’ (ie cost cutting) things. Room only cleaned if you ask for it. No shower gel etc. There are coffee and tea in the rooms though.

Of course I am
I don't know anyone who would put dishes away that haven't been washed properly!
We recently stayed in an air bnb and did just that. Because we're decent human beings

I have a holiday let - not in the uk.
Air, Booking dot com, Sykes Verbo and all the rest are just agencies- some will do a check to confirm who you are, others don't. If you want to advertise with them you pay for the privilege- in the case of booking it can be almost 20%, it's less with Air, but they charge the guest a booking fee.

They don't care about anything other than their profit.

There's a basic principle of contract law at play in many of the scenarios described on this thread. Property owners can't introduce new "contractual" requirements re cleaning by leaving instructions at the property for you to find after you've paid and the contract has already been formed.

Contracts require offer, acceptance and consideration. The offer is the property owner's description of the property and any requirements that go with it (such as cleaning). The acceptance is the renter's booking of the property on those terms. The consideration is the payment made by the renter and the availability of the property.

A property owner seeking to withhold a deposit on the basis that cleaning requirements only mentioned for the first time AFTER the contract was formed were not met, hasn't got a leg to stand on.

@Crikeyalmighty exactly. The booking policy is totally transparent- we have never had an issue as guests and I love that I can choose to book somewhere with free cancellation/pay on arrival so if my flights change or I change my mind there is no problem. The only issue I ever had was when a hotel imputed their rates into the website at the wrong rate and on arrival tried to charge us their usual rate. Straight onto booking.com and the customer service was amazing sorting it out. I only use airbnb where there is no alternative and twice I have been cancelled by the host just days before arrival (suspect got a more lucrative booking) when I have specifically needed to be in the area and had things booked nearby. I know hosts get penalised but I also know they just recreate a new listing (also no possibility to leave any review when this happens).

looking at all this with a horrible sinking feeling. have rented multiple places over the past 20 years .some have been great others awful mostly in between.
my extended family 2 brothers and my sister inherited a v v run down house ( my dad grew up there) it was the back of beyond when it came to us. rather than sell we all chipped in and have made it lovely ( to us any way)
none of us are wealthy or live in palaces.
up until now we've managed to keep it all maintained etc between us but due to circumstances we decided the at we would rent it out.
yesterday the first renters arrived and i am now dreading the fred back.
we have not asked them to do anything other than put the rubbish out but i can see we haven't provided all the stuff that seems to be expected here - although i be always bought my own washing machine tablets etc after the first coupe of day . really did not realise this was an expectation that loo roll dishwasher tablets etc would be provided for an entire stay.
i've just sent the lovely caretaker mo et to go out and buy more stuff.
think once the lettings we've got have been honoured i'll stop
👂🏼 nag about all the damage has really hit home we bought everything new fir the person renting and really wanted them to enjoy the place but now what an overwhelming sense of dread
i do not feel at all guilty about having the house. it was a small inheritance between 4 of us which we chose to keep. think we'll go back to keeping it to ourselves

Pressed send too soon!
I don't ask people to clean before they leave, just sort the recycling as they go along and put the used towels in the bath. Of course, it's great if the place is left nice and clean!

I provide cleaning products, in hope rather than expectation dishwasher tablets, a new dish cloth and sponge.

It takes the full time between check out (10) and checkin (5pm) to turn round the place- 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. If it's left clean, I have time to clean the windows or similar. And yes, I do process all the crockery, cutlery and kitchen stuff through the dishwasher every time. One too many guests has put dirty pots back in the cupboard. While I'm doing that, DH does outside- grass cutting, pool maintenance and the like.

@notanairbandb- of course if holiday lets use an agency to market their business they pay a fee. I do not think anyone on here thinks otherwise. However- most people expect that cost to be met by the business and this is the issue with airbnb. When it was a site offering a room for a few nights the model worked. If booking a week long stay and being charged £100s on top by Airbnb and then an excessive cleaning charge (with the whole bloody weird rating system) then it really is not very attractive. I usually find cheaper alternatives using other platforms (sometimes the same acommodation).

Well it's fine by me if you want to put it on as you leave. I also wonder why some owners don't like it. It's only a minute or two to unload.

Cleaners face far worse things than having a clean dishwasher to unload!

(And yes we do provide dishwasher tablets)

The way people treat short term let's is unspeakable. Even expensive ones filled with yummy mummies and Olympoa and Hector's. I actually find them the worst sort of guests - along with teachers and doctors! We always allow extra cleaning time for this demographic. My theory is that they frequently have a lot of domestic help at home....

willstarttomorrow- the best way to get good value is to book direct with the owners- it's cheaper as the owners don't have to factor in the agency fees, Holiday France Direct used to be good for this, but Brittany Ferries has closed the website. Owners Direct has been sold and is now part of Expedia.

listdirect.co.uk/ this site is direct contact with the owners- who have been thoroughly verified before advertising.

If you can talk directly to the owners you don't have any unpleasant surprises when you arrive!

Also- owners saying it takes 5 hours to turn a property around. So what?- not the guests problem. Through work we have had to accommodate a family for 2 weeks in an apart-hotel in a major city. Check out at 11, check in at 2. They have a cleaning team who come in and they have proper equipment and get it done, because they are a business. If you are renting out a space for money the people staying are paying for a service which needs to be provided. It is a business transaction and this seems to be a massive issue with some holiday home owners, they make it personal.

Willstarttomorrow - I'm not making it personal - yes, I'm professional and yes the cleaning is my job. People upthread have questioned exactly what gets done, about dishwashers, why it's not possible to leave at midday and arrive at 2...
In any discussion it is good to hear from different viewpoints.

notanairbandb thank you but honestly, if I find somewhere I would like to stay I google all options and I have never found it to be cheaper through the owner. I admit, this is usually in Europe. In the UK we travel a lot to see family and used to have a few cheap breaks in holiday homes/owner rented caravans but it is now cheaper to book a hotel.

It is rare for it to be cheaper direct. I always google to see if I can book direct. If it is not cheaper, I do not book direct.

It is rare for it to be cheaper direct.

We offer a discount for direct but only to repeat guests as then there's an element of trust on both sides so it de-risks it somewhat. They would just WhatsApp or email us. It isn't published anywhere.

Why are the paying holiday guests afraid to leave a bad review?