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!

If you are imposing a weird rule like take all your rubbish home or to the tip - no wheelie bin provided then it needs to be 100% clear on advert. The one with no car access too - make it clear as it won’t be suitable for many visitors. I suspect they don’t as it would put people off booking and the rubbish one suggests they aren’t operating as a legitimate business.

There are certainly a number of holiday let owners, especially new ones, who seem to have got carried away with the boom in bookings for UK holidays over the last couple of years.

Hopefully things will get back to some sense of sensible as more people go abroad so there is less demand and owners need to be sensible.

Hoping to find a gem of a place to replace our old annual visit as will never go back there again after their antics last year.

@ivykaty44 Technically we could have paid business rates rather than Council Tax. Business rates are cheaper, but I was OK paying council tax, and was able to justify the guests putting the rubbish in the wheelie bin by paying it.

Anyway we have tenants in it now and they pay the council tax.

PS As my property was small, there was only a normal amount of domestic waste going in the bins. It's not like a hotel or restaurant where there was loads. It was a one bed flat, it was usually just couples, or occasionally a couple and one child.

When we were kids we stayed at a variety of mainly quite dire holiday cottages, well before the days of Internet reviews or Google maps so you couldnt see you were actually staying in a co-op carpark and I imagine less strict standards from cottage companies. We still laugh about all the awful stuff we found. As a kid it was amusing but I'm not sure my parents, who usually spent the first day cleaning, or looking for a phone box to call the owners about the powercut/leak/other problem found it so...although they did laugh about it afterwards.

One place we stayed had a graveyard as a back garden and all sorts of rules. The visitors book had most comments scribbled over with permanent marker pen!!🤣🤣

@Northernlurker I wonder whether the cottage you're staying in has a septic tank? If non eco products keep being used, then the septic tank gets clogged up and stops the waste flowing out into the soakaway. It's a horrible job to clear it!

True. Staycations are now competing with overseas holidays now that the COVID restrictions are lifted.

I have the choice of resort, hotel, air bnb, holiday cottage in UK or abroad. Any holiday let owner who is unreasonable with their demands will either not get a booking or get a terrible review and certainly no repeat booking. I am a guest who is respectful of the owners' property and enforce my family to be as well. What I am not is a binman or a deep cleaner or someone who has to sit near a window to get decent wifi from a neighbouring property (shudder).

So it was easier just to say to remove it ( the cleaning woman was on foot so could not remove it herself).

it wasn’t easier for your paying guests though was it?

@bluebellsandcustard you are right. You got that quote from page 5 - why ? 😂😂

But congrats 🎉

Most places I've been to expect bins/recycling emptying in but there's usually large bins outside to use.

Exactly, it’ll have to go back somewhat to how it used to be.

We went to the same place twice a year for six years. Once a year we had a large six bed place for a week, the other time we had that and three other houses/cottages for an out of season winter long weekend. We’d also use them ad hoc if there was a family wedding or the likes as they are in MiL’s hometown. There’s a restaurant on the site and we always ate there and spent a good amount on drinks as well as it’s pretty remote.

After lockdown they cancelled the our week trip with two weeks notice and put it back on (and got it filled) for three times the price… .

This year the summer week we usually booked was available (complete with list of cleaning jobs they wanted done) and our winter dates are also still available. None of us will ever go back.

I would happily empty to the outside bins. Obviously turn of all lights.
Stripping beds ? No thank you I’m on holiday and presumably pay a hefty charge for cleaning. Won’t be staying in your place then 🙄

Bonkers

We once stayed in a house in Italy & when the big bins on site were full we had to use a communal bin / bins - they are very big on splitting our rubbish , but it was 5 mins away - it's not that uncommon in Italy & we were told this beforehand. I think in the UK I would expect to have empty bins to put our stuff in & not have to do a trip to the tip on the last day to take all refuse / recycling away.

@Youcunnyfunt - ha ha - I had some beautiful large plates - they were given to my son at University because they did not fit in the dishwasher. Why on earth would you not buy plates which fit in the dishwasher for a holiday rental - you can buy nice ones not v expensive from John Lewis basic range or supermarkets . 🙂

Because there’s a certain type of holiday cottage owner that doesn’t BUY things for the cottage, they use it as a dumping ground for their surplus stuff from home.
Which is fine when you’re just staying there yourself or letting your friends and family have it for free, but when you decide to start charging strangers £1000 a week to stay in it you really need to rethink the equipment, and not everybody does.

If you read the OP's updates, that's not what it means

I manage a holiday let. The owner pays business waste removal costs, the bags have to be left kerbside every fortnight. We put the full bags in the garage and pop round the night before collection to put them out, cant do it before as the foxes get to the bags.

If the let is going to be empty for a few weeks, I go in just after the guests have left and make sure all bins are emptied and bagged ready for collection and leave them in the garage.

Plenty of owners do take their responsibilities seriously.

I charge a £50 cleaning fee (it costs £100 to get the house cleaned and bedding laundered). I don't ask them to clean though? I ask them to turn off the lights, put the bins in the wheelie outside and strip the beds.
Generally though i find that people are respectful and leave it relatively clean.

When i leave an Airbnb/hotel/table in a restaurant i always have a tidy up and would never leave anywhere a dump or expect others to clear up my mess, that would be really disrespectful. If i don't want to clear up my own mess, why would anyone else want to?

My house is pretty much full for the summer hols (with many repeat guests), so there wouldn't be room for you!!

You say 'obviously' - you'd be surprised!

I charge £50, the clean/laundry costs £100 and our nightly rate is average and i take a lot of care to have it comfortable and a treat (Egyptian cotton sheets and towels, beach towels, fire pit, BBQ, beautifully tendered garden, an Alexa, top of the range coffee machine etc etc) and with anything that anyone could ever conceivably want. I've got all 5 stars, never had a bad review and people come back time after time, so asking people to strip beds (to enable me to keep the cleaning charge low), doesn't seem to be putting anyone off!!

This is an interesting thread though.

@Geebee12 so what will you do if your guests do not strip the beds or put out the rubbish?

I wouldn't do anything - just as i let a smashed glass etc go. But depending on how dirty they leave it, i wouldn't accept them as a guest again.

The worst we've had is red nail varnish all over the sheets. I even let that go, but i didn't leave them a review.

As a rule people are really respectful, but if it became a regular occurrence, i'd consider putting up the cleaning fee, which i know is low.

I can't deny it's disappointing when i see that glasses/ornaments have been smashed or someone hasn't cared for something, but it's par for the course i suppose.

I don't think I've ever been in a holiday let where we didn't empty the bins. We almost always get the local bin schedule and pop them out on the right day.

Can't you just do it on the last day?

...and take them to the dump?

Do the majority of dog owners really allow their dogs on the sofa at home? That's not my experience with any friend/ family member who has a dog.

Seems pretty reasonable to assume that digs would not be on furniture.

Sorry but that's ridiculous. Did it not occur to you wash 3 bowls spoons and glasses by hand, dry and put them away ? Would take about 5 minutes.