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

Someone I know has a holiday let in Cornwall. He gets annoyed that people complain about holiday let’s in the area and say that he should sell the house to someone who can make the house their permanent home.
The council designated it as a holiday let and the house, until the council decide otherwise cannot be used as a permanent home.

I’ve only used AirBnB once about 6 years ago in Venice and we had none of the rules that seem to be happening now. I’ve heard so much negativity about AirBnB nowadays I don’t think I’d be too keen to book again.

Have never had any of this and we have stayed in lots of self-catering properties all across the UK. We have been once or twice been asked to strip beds and make sure that dshes are done before leaving, but have never been asked to do a proper clean, or wait in for repair men / deliveries.

YANBU if this is what people are asking of you!

I'm amazed that this kind of thing is something you've experienced repeatedly though - I'm not doubting you, but I've honestly never had these kinds of demands from people when we've stayed in holiday lets. I don't think I've ever stayed anywhere that made us clear out earlier than 10am, and I think I've always been able to check in by 3pm as far as I can recall. Maybe 4pm at the latest? Definitely never been asked to water plants and certainly not to stay in for a washing machine repair man - that's bloody terrible!

I'm absolutely fine to wash up before I leave a place, take the bins out and give the worktops/hob a quick wipe over, and I wouldn't mind stripping beds to be honest as it only takes a few minutes, but that's pretty much the absolute most we've ever been asked to do by anyone we've rented a holiday let from.

Like I said - I'm not doubting you, but I am wondering if I've just been really bloody lucky with places we've stayed in!

I have stayed in houses through Airbnb in a few countries as well as the U.K.
I think that it depends who owns the property.

We stayed at a holiday let in California and the check out time was 10am however when we booked we asked if it was possible that we could stay till 1pm (Dh wanted to watch a football game) The owner said certainly. But could we make sure we had removed our stuff from the house as the cleaners were due at 1pm for an hour to clean the house. (Thought it was going to be tight to clean the whole house in 1 hour)

As we left at 1pm 3 vans pulled into the driveway and about 15 people got out and armed themselves with every cleaning, polishing, steaming and hoovering equipment you could think of. There were crates of bedding, throws, pillows and towels etc and what looked like a team of gardeners. It was a big 4 bed detached house with garden and jacuzzi, pool and the way they operated I think it did only take an hour to make the house pristine.

The worst ones for cleaning and making a big deal out of needing people gone early in the morning have been the U.K. ones I have stayed in. I think that rather than get a team of professionals in to deep clean everything they do it themselves without the equipment and manpower to do a good job in a timely fashion.

If a house needs the windows opening daily or other such quirks to allow it to function as a house then it shouldn’t be a holiday let
It needs work to get it to function as a home

In the good old days it was a CHEAP holiday though.

We stayed in a new build town house and although the house had 5bedrooms you really couldn’t physically fit seating for 10 people in the living room and there was only space for a 2 seater table and chairs.

It was the most ridiculously designed house I think I have ever been in.

If you take a risk on a poorly reviewed and pretty low budget rental Op… you just gotta suck that shit up

wouldn’t be a holiday to me

Hence i throw money at holidays and never experience this kind of thing

I agree, and here is a proposed solution from This article

Andrew George, formerly MP for St Ives, is calling for intervention at national level. “Since the late 80s, I’ve argued for a new planning use class for non-permanent occupancy,” he says. “So any person wishing to convert an existing property from permanent to non-permanent use would need to apply for planning permission.

I think our local councils have more important priorities atm

When I was a child (1960s) my mother always cleaned the cottage before we left. But then it was a cheap holiday and we could get in at lunchtime and didn't have to leave until 10 or 11 o'clock. Now it's expensive, we can't get in until 2 or later, and out by 9.

and this had not been mentioned in one single review you read?

because presumably you did read some reviews?

We go to an amazing place in Cornwall every year - self catered but well managed and part of a hotel (so not stealing houses from the locals). Not Airbnb or anything. Even they have changed to 9am check out and 5pm check in this year. So, so annoying.

I’ve never experienced this in any property I’ve ever stayed in. Maybe I’ve been lucky with air bnb.
I would never stay there again that’s for sure and I would be leaving a terrible review!

I’ve not been anywhere like that recently. Our last two were expensive lodges and whilst check out was 10am (quite early) the only things to do were empty the bin and recycling if full. I did leave the dishwasher on and wash up but that was it. At over £200 a night for one bed lodge that’s what I’d expect.

Agree. Hotels all the way. I have a house, i love my house but i do not love cleaning my house so why on earth would i pay to clean some one else's house, and on holiday !? Utter madness.

It is normal to open windows each day. How do you ventilate otherwise?

You are completely in the right and I hate Airbnb for this reason. I clean my own house pretty well I think, but cleaning someone else’s house at 6am before a long journey, with non-existent cleaning products, working to unknown standards with the threat of a lost deposit or a bad review, all with small kids around and all their stuff packed already so they have nothing to do except screen time - no thank you. That is not a holiday. Their “be human kind” slogan used to make me laugh, I used to think “uh huh, and which kind of human is it that is on their knees scrubbing bathroom floors at 6am?”

I have started planning holidays further in advance anyway now the kids are in school and will choose destinations based on whether I can get something like a serviced apartment, or a hotel room with a balcony so we can sit outside in the evening once the kids are in bed. Not having holidays ruined by Airbnb CF hosts.

Abra1d1 Our windows have vents and we have extractor fans. I do open windows not every day. I’d find a sign saying open every window 15 mins every day a hassle plus remembering to close before go out.

@Ohthatsexciting I have to admit that I read the first few on TripAdvisor, then booked it. It was only after our experience that I read all of them, and yes, some did mention the cleaning requirements. I've no idea why they didn't all mention it, because mine certainly did. Lesson learnt!

Completely agree OP. We are not long back from a expensive holiday let in the Highlands of Scotland (not Airb&b). In the 'welcome' folder there was a great long list of 'chores' that had to be performed before we vacated the property, including cleaning the fridge and hoovering the stairs!! A lot of people travel quite some distance to get to the Highlands and often have to leave very early in the morning to get home in a day. They do not wanting to be doing a great long list of chores!!!

Some others have touched on this, but do you get the sense that some holiday let owners act like they are doing you a massive favour letting you stay in their holiday home (that you are paying good money for!). If you run a holiday let but can't make a decent profit when the cost of cleaning etc. is included then you are not running a viable business. Or are some just being greedy by not paying for better cleaning between lets? Well, if that is the case, they will lose a lot of repeat business, which will be essential in the long term, when people start to go abroad again in large numbers.

Not us, popular seaside village, 2 bedroom ground floor flat attached to our house. Check out 10am, check in 4pm. Shared and private garden. We charge what the cleaners charge us. Don’t ask our guests to do anything bar put bins by the door and make sure fridge is empty. Same nightly fee all year round. We’re booked more or less solidly for 5 months of the year with guests returning 2/3 times and some 3 times a year!

Back when we could afford to rent holiday cottages (before we had to stick to school holidays) we never rented anywhere that expected a deposit or mentioned cleaning. We now hire static caravans, sometimes from the site, sometimes from owners, and have only once been expected to clean before leaving - we knew this before booking and it was cheaper than other places so we went with it. What bothered me though was whether they really weren't going to get a professional cleaner in, between guests. I cleaned properly, but if you're in a rush then you'd probably just give things a quick wipe - I'd hate to go into a property that only the last guest had "cleaned". We went the first week of the new season, so that wasn't an issue for us.

Just checked my £2k cottage in Cornwall for July, and they ask for a £200 security deposit to be paid 2 weeks before. Anyone know if they have to hold this in a special account? I don't recall this when booking.

Ha, yes, I have responded to a thread like this before, but air bnb grinds my gears now.

Just two that spring to mind - the one who rang when we had just arrived to tell me to mow the lawn 'on a Tuesday and a Thursday' and the other who had the house on the market but didn't tell us - the estate agent turning up with viewings was a surprise.

I mean, I'll house sit for a fee - but we paid you!