Holiday cottage cleaning - is this agent taking the piss?

[Bunpea]

Is this agent taking the piss? I’ve just booked a 2 bedroom holiday cottage for a week in July, in St Ives in Cornwall. £1600. Just spotted in the agent’s fine print that I must “i) on the End Date, remove belongings and refuse from the Property and leave the Property clean and tidy so that the Property is ready for immediate re- occupation“. It’s that last bit that gets me - and there is a threat of retaining my deposit. Checkout by 10:00 is usually a scramble, I expect to wipe surfaces, sweep floor, basic bathroom clean etc but that’s it - always assumed a housekeeper would be in. How clean is the place likely to be when I check in, if it depends on the previous guest? Want to cancel now.

We stayed somewhere in France, where we had to take all of our own bed linen and towels (this is usual), where holidaymakers were responsible for cleaning. It was filthy - plates had been put away dirty, there were dust bunnies under the bed, and it was just generally grim - food cupboards filthy, with old food in them. The owner was British. We also ended up rodding the gutters as they filled up with pigeon shit and overflowed into one of the bedrooms. I did ask the owner how he expected people to clean as there was no cleaning stuff available, apart from an ancient Hoover - no mop or bucket, no cloths or cleaning stuff. We left a shitty review on the website, which got taken down the next day, and we got a rude email from the letting agent.

I don't even like having to strip the beds

You've completely misunderstood what it means! It just means leave it in a fit state so it can be cleaned quickly for check in by 3 or whatever time. Eg don't trash the place so much that it can't be re occupied that day

This sounds to me like someone with a second home registering it as a business and letting it in order to be eligible for business rates. It's difficult to get end of let cleaners here.

Why would you make beds? Surely they would be just as good unmade ready for new bedding by cleaner? Curious xxx

I agree with you, yanbu. You're lucky you're not going to France, they DO expect a full, pristine clean when you leave. We were offered the chance to not do it, but the fee would be £150.

I asked the man if a cleaner with proper products came in between tenants and he said someone would make a quick visit, but we were expected to leave it pristine. I told him I wouldn't be back, but I've had that on several occasions in france, for holiday lets and prosfessional companies (not individuals) on airbnb.

How would a customer make the beds? Clean linen is usually delivered mid- clean for he owner of cleaner to make the beds.
As an owner I'm always delighted if visitors strip the beds. But I don't expect it.
The only thing I hope for is that the dishwasher is loaded and running with the breakfast things in it, and that the bins and recycling are put out.

I'm jealous now, I love St Ives. Is the cottage you've booked near the beaches?

That's certainly normal practice, but then normal owners don't include a condition requiring people to leave the property in a state ready for immediate re-occupation. If they don't mean what they say, they should clarify it, otherwise they risk further cancellations

I’ve cancelled - Cooling off period

Very sensible OP; it's right to remove trash and leave the place tidy, but not to expect you to clean to a standard where it's "ready for immediate re-occupation"

I do wish you'd say who the agency are though; it won't identify you, and if this is hidden in their T&Cs it's not as if you'd be sharing something which shouldn't be public knowledge

We love St Ives and holidayed there every year as children. Now we live in Cornwall and still went down that way last year with our children. I think I may know which company it was you originally booked through (begins with a C?) and it is cheeky that they hide such important information in their booking conditions and don’t make it one of their first ones!!

Yes. It’s in the part of St Ives known as Downalong - you probably know it - the old part of the town around the harbour and a stones throw from the big Atlantic surfing beach and a couple of smaller beaches, and cliff top walks. also handy for the shops! As well as places to eat etc.

I would like to think it means to leave it in a condition that’s easy for the cleaners to clean it when they come in but I don’t know! The last place we stayed at asked us to run the dishwasher and empty it before we left if we were able to, and leave it clean and tidy with the bins emptied but I do know for sure that it was cleaned by them too, because the guy messaged us the day before we were due to go and told us we could get in as early we wanted because the previous guests had left the day before and the cleaning had been done the day before we were due.

Very, very jealous! Have a fantastic holiday.

Just the lawn? You don't do the hedges? Animals.

😂😂😂

Probably the nicest part of St Ives to be in!!

We used to stay in a tiny close of 4-5 fisherman’s cottages off Back Road West until it became too small for our family of 6 (my parents did a great job of fitting our family of 6 in there - family Tetris 😄) and we moved out to a chalet on the Towans in Hayle.

Am quite jealous!!

Clause 10.1 i). https://orangeroofs.co.uk/booking-conditions

I rented an airbnb property in Wales.

I paid an extortionate amount for cleaning, and before we left we swept floors, wiped worktops etc... and left it as we found it with the exception of rugs and carpets which were near impossible to keep clean without a vacuum.

The owner left us an awful review saying we had left the place in a right state! I was furious! When I looked at othet reviews it appears she did this a lot!

Interesting that that clause goes on to say "In the event that the Property is not left clean and tidy, the Customer agrees that the Agency may deduct a reasonable fee for cleaning from the Security Deposit." Kind of implies that they don't clean routinely between lets.

Yes. I wondered if they are subtly adding on an extra fee for cleaning the place. One of the reasons I got fed up with Airbnb was because more and more properties added on a cleaning fee, so the headline price wasn’t all you paid, which caught me out a couple times when I wasn’t careful doing the booking. Maybe this is the same thing, but it’s a bit buried in the fine print.
Good professional cleaners are worth paying for, but of course it puts the price up.

We once stayed in a caravan on a site and the owners would not return your deposit until they had inspected the caravan and deemed it clean . Just a clever way of panicking people into cleaning the caravans for them and not employing a cleaner .

Ha ha…Tetris family! ☺️

We stayed in a static caravan once and the owner wouldn't return the deposit until we explained what we had moved in the locked, external cupboard mounted on the rear of the caravan.
I said we didn't have a key for it and didn't know it was there - what was missing? Nothing, she said, but things had moved.
She then said she was going to check the cctv, which was mucho weird because there was a hot tub on the side of the caravan, was that under cctv too?!
Never got to the bottom of that one.

Yep - family of 6 (plus friends a couple of times!!) in a 2 up, 2 down ex-fisherman’s cottage where, for the first few years, the bathroom was in the outhouse across the courtyard!! I remember one year, 3 or 4 on camp beds in living room, parents upstairs with 1 child and 1-2 in the kitchen/diner; good thing we were a close family 🤣🤣😜😜

i would be letting the agent know why you cancelled as they dont clean inbtween guests