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!

Very quietly. They were to be approached calmly and slowly, and voices had to be kept low around them. I don't know if you've ever come across a load of ducks swimming about in the pond, but they seem fairly robust, resilient and noisy creatures. We had to creep past the pond for fear of giving them all heart attacks.

Pre-covid we rented property that insisted you emptied all rubbish to public bins short distance away.

It was a very short walk - so got used to rubbish when went out and then DH or I would often do short walk pop in bin.

It wasn't that much of a faff but DH often organised so it wasn't an additional thing for me to remember along with sun screen hats etc - I think it was because it was down a small alley way with no back garden and didn't seem to be any big black bins.

I think it was only clear once we got there this was the case but it was a short walk public bins were emptied twice a day.

We don't drive so taking things to a dump wouldn't have been possible for us so if that was expectation would want some for warning.

100% normal in most holiday lets

@Wideawakeandconfused thanks for your perspective.

Based on your experience, if owners put down onerous rules like going to the tip on the last day, do guests comply? What happens if they don't?

🤣🤣🤣 imagine the poor ducks all fainting because someone said hello in a normal voice.

I always empty indoor bins - would t occur to me not to. Likewise I strip beds as it means I can find any stray objects of ours - or rather ds's - that have managed tonget into the bed!! Even in a hotel I pull the top covers right back to check.

We have stayed in a holiday let with an incredible view - we were NOT to open the Venetian blinds, just tilt them - because they were expensive & might break. It was quite an old house - lots of mullioned windows so not terribly bright, so of course we opened the blinds. The owners lived locally & knocked on the door telling us to put the blinds down. We absolutely refused.

The cynic in me is wondering whether they’ve been threatened with business rates for rubbish collection.

musnt get in the way of profit!

yes because airbnb style places don't have to pay domestic council tax - its a loop hole, and as the business may make less than the required amount for business rates this saves a whole chunk of tax

This just sounds mental. I would be afraid.

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!

We recently stayed at a place in France that stipulated all glass bottles (beer, wine etc) were to be removed from the property or we would be fined 50 euro per bottle. 5 adults on a long weekend.... well, we took the bottles with us as we didn't fancy the 2,000 euro fine!!

Also another place in USA recently that wanted us to empty bins, put dishwasher on AND unload it, strip beds, put bedding or towels on to wash and 'if we felt like it' we could empty the tumble and re-make the beds! the cleaning fee was £121!!! We didn't do any of it, we had paid £121 for someone else to do that.

Putting rhe rubbish on outside bins is a totally acceptable request. Asking you to drop off at a recycling centre isn't. Yanbu, I would be annoyed too. If they email asking for suggestions, mention it's ridiculous.

Maybe I'm odd but I send all our rules out when I send the booking form. That way, if people don't like the rules, they don't need to book. It's mostly because we have had so many idiotic dog owners who insist on opening the door and letting the mutt out irrespective of us moving our cars or the road outside. Our brochure also explains the lack of mobile phone signal and terrible wifi. If you are coming here expecting to stream Netflix, forget it. If you want to get away from it all, it's great. Lots of people have commented favourably on how I describe it now; at least it stops the whingeing. If something is in my power to change, I will do it. However, rural broadband and mobile phone coverage is beyond me.

To take all your rubbish to the local tip?

@bsidecside 'all refuse and recycling must be removed from the property' I would guess this is due to collection days. There are properties round here where guests put their recycling and refuse out when they leave only for it to distributed round village if there is any wind.

That's funny. Just don't do it. If they say anything point out that you weren't informed of this before booking and haven't agreed to it.

That's a rubbish rule 😂 sorry. I'll see myself out.

I clean a holiday cottage, and we have no silly rules.
As a cleaner I do love it when people strip the bed, empty the dishwasher, flush the toilets, close the windows and doors, but people are rushing about with kids, dogs, parents and inlaws and things don't always get done and it's fine.

Someone could leave the place immaculate, but I would still have to hoover, polish and mop anyway- so it doesn't save me anytime but has probably stressed out the person doing it.

We check our cottage on departure, even if it wobt be cleaned that day cos more than once someone has left the oven on or a tap running.

Not bothering to read the OP’s posts is just laziness, or, very often, just taking the chance to have a pop at someone.

either that or it’s a staggering rate of arrogance to assume that 9 pages in a suggestion of “I’m sure they mean just the outside bin” is going to somehow be new and unique.

We used to own a holiday let (well, we still own it but it's now a residential let) and we paid council tax, so guests were free to use the bins.

I think this rule is ridiculous, but mind you, I haven't stayed in a holiday let in many, many years.

Definitely sticking to hotels. I don't even take rubbish to the tip at home - it either goes in the wheelie bin or I organise a council collection if necessary. No way I'm doing this on a relaxing break.

I might feel different if it was a corporate let and I was working away for a few months - for a holiday of a few weeks, this just doesn't appeal.

there's a wheelie bin, just instructions not to use it and take rubbish to a refuse/recycling centre (which is a car journey away)

Is this in the UK?
I'm just wondering if you're in a place where the owner has to "book into" a waste service and hasn't bothered in order not to pay - because otherwise it makes no sense at all

And yes, I agree that all T&Cs should be made clear upfront; many won't read them, but then they only have themselves to blame for any surprises.
No doubt some hosts think "Oooo we can just ask this or that" and once started keep adding to the list, but life doesn't work that way when you're charging

Spidey66

I don't know why but holiday let business seemed to be different. Had a few airbnb owners change from residential letting and they would come to council tax and get it changed so they didn't have to pay. I guess some accountants knew to tell them to do this and others didn't.

Not sure how bins worked though and whether due they were no longer domestic the wheels bins would be taken away?

Now we only have collections every 3 weeks and I guess with holiday people the rubbish would accumulate over 3 weeks and if the owners are not prepared to get in contractors for rubbish this is the results

I would guess this is due to collection days

But if a guest's departure doesn't coincide with collection days, surely it's up to the owner/manager to shift the bin themselves, or if there's someone else in the property by then, ask them to do it?

Granted some council collections are weeks apart now, but if that's the case get a commercial company in - at the prices too many hosts are charging now it's not as if they couldn't afford it

And you raise another point, actually - why have a check out time in the morning if the owner/their staff are coming days after to clean?

We have often been told by owners that we don't have to hurry out because they won't be in to clean until the afternoon. I guess it just depends on whether they have more guests arriving or not.

We stayed in a remote house where we were asked to take our rubbish to the recycling centre 10 miles in the opposite direction to our journey home and we had to be out at 9 am. I just accepted it.