To complain about cleanliness of holiday cottage

[dimpleton]

I'm not house proud by any stretch of the imagination, but I expect a cottage to be a certain level of clean.

The cottage is lovely, and very comfy! But...cobwebs hanging off the ceiling, red wine stains on the wooden floor (easily wiped off so it clearly hasn't been mopped) dubious stains on the underside of the loo seat...crumbs on the rug. The beds and towels are all clean which is the main thing but would you complain/comment?

Yuck! I'd complain.

Hell yes. That’s grim.

I love complaining, I’ve actually had so much money back and off things I’ve saved my family thousands over the years.

If you don’t complain then they never know.

My friend rents out her inherited childhood home as a holiday let and she only found out that the cleaner was skiving when a holidaymaker complained to the letting agency about the state of the place and sent photos. The agency/owner needs to be told. And a refund of some of your money needs to be made.

Photo evidence and complain.

Yes because otherwise they'll probably charge you for leaving the place in a mess

Yes I would, floors should be cleaned in between guests. I could probably forgive a cobweb or 2 in a holiday let but hate the idea of walking on a floor that has someone else's food, smelly feet, or in the case of a bathroom urine on.

Yes I'd complain, in a sort of just letting you know type of way.

I’d complain, a lot of cottage owners won’t know unless you tell them especially if they don’t live near the holiday let.

We once arrived at a holiday cottage which hadn’t been cleaned properly. I phoned up immediately and told them that there were still crumbs on the table, food in the fridge and it was easy to tell the bathroom hadn’t been cleaned. I told them we were going out for 2 hours and would be coming back to it clean or would want an immediate cash refund so we could find a hotel.

Came back two hours later to a clean cottage, an apology note from the owner, and a vase of flowers and box of chocolates on the now-clean table.

I always think it’s best to allow people one chance to put it right, but be absolutely clear. Don’t do as a PP suggests and ‘just let them know’. The place should be clean when you arrive. It’s not acceptable if it’s not.

Absolutely, the owners are likely not even aware unless you tell them.

We stayed in a holiday house once and there were just so many little things that weren't right. A shrivelled piece of cucumber on one of the dining chairs, dog hair in a kitchen cupboard, mud on the utility room floor, a wardrobe door handle hanging off, no working light in one bedroom (and no spare bulbs we could find), the whole area around the front door flooded when it rained so you needed wellies to enter the house without getting wet feet, the finish around the bathroom mirror was only done on 2 side of the rectangular mirror. The welcome booklet said contact Mr X in case if any issues, but no details on how to actually contact Mr X, no phone number, email address or postal address.

Turned out we were only the 2nd people they'd let it out to, it had previously been a family home and they'd never done holiday let's before. They thanked us for the feedback

Photo evidence and complaints are the way to go. The owner may be totally unaware.

You didn’t pay for them to turn around and say “thank you, oh and by the way, there will be wine stains, a dirty toilet and crumbs on the rug but we’ll take full price anyway.” Did you?

Complain and back it up with photos.
The agency needs to know about this. The cleaners need more supervision.

Feedback is the best gift you can give any organisation. It lets them know how they’re doing.

Agree with photo evidence and contacting the owner. Is it AirBNB, booking.com or another site?

Yes tell the owner. We are very dependent on our cleaners and need to know if they are doing a poor job.

I actually stay at mine without telling the cleaners it's me for just this reason.

I would with photo evidence. Cobwebs don't come after a couple of days without cleaning.

It's through a cottage company. I'll email them...I don't want them turning up to clean while we're here though.

Yeah sounds like they didn't have the cleaners in-between the previous guests and yourselves. The cobwebs makes me wonder if they have cleaners in at all however....

The beds were freshly made though, with folded towels on the bed/fresh loo roll, kitchen sink was clean with new tea towel etc so it had been prepared for us, just not thoroughly cleaned.

Well its not great to have not mopped/hoovered evidently dirty floors. And a loo clean is pretty standard for a clean so yeah I'd be a bit miffed. I doubt very much they'd get the cleaners in whilst you are staying. What do you want out of any complaint you may or may not make?

In all honesty it's more about making them aware so they can have words with the cleaner, it's just not good enough and they're clearly slacking off and doing the bare minimum.

Hmmm, that's not necessarily true about the cleaners, I totally agree that the standards are not good enough and you definitely need to say something - but It's not necessarily automatically because the lazy cleaners are slacking off and taking the proverbial - it could just as easily be that the cleaners are through the agency and have too many places to clean in the time they have, or the owners/agency have not allocated enough time to this cottage and therefore the cleaners do what they can in the time allowed.

Interesting though that the first thought of most and seemingly the only explanation is that the cleaners are the ones taking the piss and slacking off.

Photos for evidence and then complain.

YANBU to complain. In fact you’d be unreasonable not to complain

I use Air BnB a lot. In 2019 I arrived at the place we often stayed at in London, with my baby and five year old. Took the key from the safe and went up to the apartment, one of many the host owned. Never, ever had a problem with any of the apartments, always clean, ample bedding, clean towels, complimentary toiletries and tea/coffee etc. Well, this time it was disgusting. Beds unmade, stained sheets, broken wet towels everywhere, a turd in the toilet, unfinished food on table/in kitchen, half loaded dishwasher. I got straight onto Air BnB.

I should’ve called the host first but it was 8pm and I was tired and pissed off. I couldn't start cleaning other people’s literal crap with a baby and child and I’d had a shit experience at a previous Air BnB where the host never left a key and I knew I had to call them to get authority to book a hotel or I’d not get reimbursed. Ironically the host sent me a text while I was on hold. I texted back with photos, saying I was on hold to Air BnB, still sat in this filthy apartment. He told me to go to the key safes and gave me the code for another apartment key. I took the kids downstairs but left our stuff in the apartment. Got the new key and the new apartment was lovely, and an upgrade. Went back to the dirty one to get out stuff to find a very confused French couple. Turned out the key to the dirty apartment was put in the wrong safe as the couple were mid-stay there. There was nothing wrong with my original apartment. If the host hadn’t messaged me I’d have gotten through to Air BnB, booked a hotel, and then had to lug the kids, bags and pushchair across London to wherever it was for no reason. Always let your host know!

I would complain with photos. If they can put it right, I'd let them but otherwise I'd want money back.