To think that holiday let owners with 'unusual' house rules should have to make them clear on the advert?

[bsidecside]

We're regular holiday let-stayers as a we have loads of kids (5), and so have seen a variety of 'house rules' over the years. We're currently staying in an otherwise lovely holiday let that has a house rule that 'all refuse and recycling must be removed from the property'. We're not staying very remotely (small town on the coast close to other small towns) so I can't see any 'need' for this rule other than to cut down the cleaning at the end. Having to remove all our litter (which I'm trying to keep on top of as we go) is making me increasingly cross. I'm not saying I definitely wouldn't have booked if we'd seen this rule, but I certainly would have considered other options more carefully first!

Cheer me up with your tales of the weirdest - unexpected - house rules you've come across in a holiday let!

*I'd be asking the local council about it.

I'd assume they are supposed to pay business rates of bin collection and don't want to.*

Me too.

Likewise the rule about not using the front door - I bet they don't want people to know they are letting it for whatever reason.

She's already said remove from the property (not in the wheelie bin)

If they’re not paying council tax as it’s a business then they won’t have rubbish collection as it’s not a residential property.

Theyd have to organise it themselves, but have chosen not to bother and get their paying customers to do it.

It's not OK. We're a family of six, we've generated one black bag of rubbish and two of recycling this week. We don't have space in the car for three bin bags, so our choices are a) 40 min round trip to the dump, or b) sneak it into the big bins at the campsite next door (don't worry- I'm too embarrassed to actually do that). And this made me realise - even the people paying £22 a night for a camping pitch get rubbish removal included in that price!

Just do it I reckon.

No doubt will be accused of ‘fraud’ or something by the mumsnetters.

Seriously though this is an outrageous situation, not least because the real scum will just fly tip it.

There is huge over supply which is the core problem.

I, (unusually) have the August Bank holiday week still free this year. £580 for the week for 5 people. That's £16 per person per night and that includes everything. Heating, linen, wifi, private detached cottage with a private garden and parking.

Priced myself out have I?

I'd contact the owners directly, or the agency, for clarification.

It's completely mad that you are expected to bag-up your bottle, cans and whatever and take them home.

Don't they have binmen in that town?

I'd also leave a review on TripAdvisor or wherever and make it known.

We stayed in one place 3 or 4 times because it was nice and convenient and close to relatives, but the owner was very fussy. We had to keep curtains drawn or blinds down in the day to protect furnishings from daylight.

The fire torches she had strategically placed around the house were a magnet for small children and she remembered to tell us off on a repeat visit for a fire torch that had not been replaced correctly.

The last time we stayed we were late due to traffic - about 10.30pm and she moaned bitterly about having to stay up to book us in - she insisted on the deposit and meter reading being done before we made ourselves at home. No sympathy for us with a crap journey and tired young children. We were so irritated and frankly insulted - I mean she did KNOW us as repeat visitors, she could have left the key and done the deposit the next day. So that was the last time we stayed there. 🙄

Also the bin stuff invites people either annoying the neighbours by shoving rubbish in their bins or fly tipping. I'd definitely complain to the council. Clearly from pp some owners are doing this to avoid paying for business rubbish collection. It's not on.

It seems the norm now to ask guests to strip the beds, which is very annoying if you have a long journey ahead and just want to get on the road early.

I find this mainly unacceptable, as rentals for upmarket cottages are as high per night as a 4 or 5 * hotel.

I do comply (mostly) but once it wasn't in the owner's favour. The mattress cover I discovered was foul- covered in stains and clearly never changed between however many guests.

I didn't go back and sadly it was a place we'd used for many years, but it really put me off.

They are avoiding paying for commercial waste by doing this. What twats!

The strangest one I've heard is to wash all crockery etc but to leave it all on the side or in the dishwasher and not put it away for the whole duration of the stay! The owner said it was too time consuming to go through the cupboards! Bonkers.

If they’re not paying council tax as it’s a business then they won’t have rubbish collection as it’s not a residential property
Theyd have to organise it themselves, but have chosen not to bother and get their paying customers to do it

Yes, that's exactly the sort of scenario I had in mind, Lyra, and unfortunately there are rather a lot of hosts who look to save money by passing aspects of their jobs onto paying guests

It's not just a UK thing, but after being stuck here in the rain during Covid and seeing what some hosts tried to get away with, it's hardly a surprise if folk say "Sod that" and go elsewhere now

It would depend on the season and the location, @Malbecfan , but to me, a ‘sleeps 6’, 3 bed seaside property at the end of summer, ought to have the means of drying beach towels overnight.

Obviously I wouldn’t expect drying facilities in colder seasons, nor away from the coast.

And BTW, what you do or don’t have in your own home is neither here nor there. You could do all your washing by hand and put it through a mangle, as far as I’m concerned. But when paying a great deal of money, I do expect most of the comforts and convenience of home.

Well they obviously can't stipulate what you do with it but it needs to be removed from the property - they provide a 'handy' list of local refuse/recycling centres that you can take it to.

Yes, unreasonable; certainly if not stated up front. What if the visitors don't have access to a car?

Removing the rubbish and recycling from the house is a reasonable and usual requirement, but only if there is a place to dispose of it on the property or within reasonable walking distance. I've occasionally had a hiccup (once was in a flat with a code-operated rubbish room in the building but the code was changed and the owner forgot to update the "welcome" email, another had access to a key-operated facility nearby but apparently a prior guest had accidentally taken the key when they left) - but always resolved quickly.

Also stayed several times in a very rural place in the USA with no regular rubbish collection; the owner had put in her own sealed/secure bins. Early on her son came to collect them once a week but he lived in a neighbouring town and had to park his car at his mother's house and come to us in her car so he had the correct permit to use the local "dump". Later on she hired a private paid service to come once a week to collect - I'm sure whatever they charged her was rolled into the price for renting, but it was "up front" for the guests.

Just got back from staying in a really lovely place but again, no drying facilities. There was a shared washing machine (which I inwardly grumbled about, as I sort of expect one in the property when paying a lot of money) in a shed, shared with five other holiday lets. There were two airers for drying. Unsurprisingly, one family buggered off with both airers on day 1, leaving everyone else trying to dry beach gear by draping it on garden walls and dangling it off garden furniture. We dried swimming costumes by looping them over the car wing mirrors. Ridiculous.

I had a holiday let and there was no car access (or for binmen) and the amount of times guests got it wrong despite quite clear directions was amazing. Plus there are rules about when and what bins can be put out. So it was easier just to say to remove it ( the cleaning woman was on foot so could not remove it herself).

If there is no car access, then how could the guests remove it without considerable effort? Did you really expect them to carry their rubbish down to wherever their car was parked? bizarre.

I once stayed in a place where we were cold in the evening and could not find the heating controls or any reference to them in the information. Phoned owner who told us we couldn't adjust the heating, it could only be controlled remotely from HER property. She did deign to turn it up for us.

Guests may also be on foot. I have sometimes got trains/taxis to a holiday home when I don't feel like driving.

We arrived in a holiday let in France to a list of ‘rules’.

The most memorable being that ‘excessive’ use of electricity would attract a charge of €85. There was no indication of what they considered to be a fair amount, or any means to measure usage.

The washing machine was on a timer, and could only be used for 2 hours between 9.00pm and 11.00pm. The owner’s ‘couldn’t’ adjust that time so suggested that only a short wash cycle was used so washing wasn’t trapped in the machine. Of course they could - the cable went through the wall into their property next door.

They locked the doors leading to the ( private) pool at 8.00pm until 10.00am next day

We pushed our budget for that holiday as it was likely to be the last one we all had together due to children growing up. It was the worst holiday we have ever had, and we were all pleased to leave.

I think clearing your rubbish into a wheelie bin is pretty standard.

Spain is fantastic as they have daily bin collections so you just leave your carrier bag of black bag of rubbish outside the gate each day and it is taken.

Stripping the beds again is usually a given. One place we stayed in was a block of flats purely for holiday let’s and there was a building in the carpark that housed the large recycling and rubbish bins and large hampers on wheels for bedding, towels etc that was collected by a company who laundered everything. We were asked to strip the bed and with the towels take them down and put them in the hampers.

I will strip beds, tidy up, (mainly because I then find things we have not packed), wipe down kitchen and bathroom surfaces and sweep up anything that looks like it should be swept and clean up anything that could be considered gross. It maybe takes me an hour at the end of the stay.
I expect that a thorough clean is what I am paying for in the cleaning fee so when I arrive things like window sills, skirting boards, inside cupboards etc have been cleaned and polished so I don’t have to wipe out drawers before I put my clothes away.

If I had to pay for fuel or to get rid of rubbish at a local tip (do tips accept rubbish from an out of area person anymore) or having to take it out each day to throw away in a public bin I agree that is not on if they don’t tell you that before booking and would want to put it into a review.

I love Airbnb and have only had positive experiences in places I have booked through them. But I am very very picky about where I book. Almost to the point if not booking somewhere because I spot an IKEA cushion that I thought was tacky when I have seen it in stores.

When paying a great deal of money, I do expect most of the comforts and convenience of home

With allowance up to a point for local norms, I agree

I'd no longer hire a UK holiday let if they paid me, but back when I did I got very tired of hosts insisting - usually with a flappy hand and a little giggle - that such-and-such would "be just fine" if I did this and that, almost invariably involving money, time and inconvenience, and always over things which were actually their responsibility to sort out

Of course there are many decent hosts too, but far too many seem to see it as an amateur hobby when it suits, while enjoying thoroughly professional charges

I was thinking more about the places that have a line but no pegs,or no airer that you could use indoors. I don't use a tumble dryer at home, and could probably live without that but having a washing machine is pointless if there's no obvious place to hang clothes. One place had a decent size utility so could have had a tumble dryer or a clothes airer but didn't provide either.

I had a holiday let and there was no car access (or for binmen) ... So it was easier just to say to remove it (the cleaning woman was on foot so could not remove it herself)

I did that once in the deeply rural US, but it was a house exchange and I knew about it in advance, so of course it was no problem

But if yours has no wheeled vehicle access and the cleaning woman "could not remove it herself" (why?), what possible reason was there to expect paying guests to do it instead?

We rented a place for a week - specifically with a tumble drier - so could take fewer towels and not worry about drying from sea so much. Got there are it was out of order - which was annoying but things happen - but there was no clothes airer either - we ended up buying one and leaving it in the utility. I think there's been at least one place we did same with pegs with outside line - had to buy a few and leave.

Our most recent let also had rubbish problems - I went to use the outdoor bins and they were screwed shut with padlocks! The guidebook simply said, "put in the outdoor bins in the garage". I texted the landlady, and she did apologise, the correct bins were hidden behind the screwed down bins, in a hidden bin room (behind shutters). If I hadn't text her, I would never have known! The waste company had changed and they hadn't updated the manual.

The annoying "rule" we found was that we weren't supposed to put the big (main) plates in the dishwasher, they had to be washed by hand, because they'd got plates that were too large for the dishwasher. Quite stupid, really as it's one of the main things you want to avoid hand washing!

I had a holiday let and there was no car access (or for binmen) ... So it was easier just to say to remove it (the cleaning woman was on foot so could not remove it herself) If one can't offer basic services on a holiday letting (at some considerable cost), you really have no place to be renting it out really.

I do wonder whether some owners chance their arm with one 'pushing it' request and then if no-one protests, they just start ramping up the Ts and Cs.