To think holiday cottage company is taking the p**s

[HettyMeg]

We don't stay in holiday cottages very often so I don't know if we are a bit out of touch. But the one we're staying in has got a list as long as your arm of things we need to do before check out, including strip the beds and place all bedding and towels in a bag for laundry. It also says categorically do not put glass bottles in the bin, but there is no recycling for glass or information about where to recycle so we just need to take them home with us. If you get makeup on a towel you will be made to pay for a new one, which seems OTT to me as they can surely wash out a bit of foundation?!

well I would expect them to get rid of my rubbish - I would put it in their bin

Thanks LadyAstor it takes a conscientious person with pride in their work to get it lovely for guests 👍

well I would expect them to get rid of my rubbish - I would put it in their bin

Well, you're probably not the kind of guest the holiday home owner is hoping to attract then.

We usually stay in SC accommodation when we go on holiday as we prefer the privacy, space and don't want to eat out every night.

I also thought stripping the beds was standard, and we have done this everywhere we've been. If everybody does their own bed, then it takes 2 minutes.

Never been asked to hoover so we've never done that but we sometimes sweep the shoe area or the kitchen if it's crumby.

Never heard of the towel one, but I think of it as being in the same category as replacing damaged items.

Even with 18 of us from the last holiday, we didn't use the dishwasher in the morning and just washed up after ourselves. However, it wouldn't bother me to get dishes out on arrival.

The glass bottles one is tricky. If there is a supermarket nearby, then they usually have recycling facilities there. We did one year, but luckily the coop which was very close to where we were staying had a glass bank, so we just dropped them off whenever we needed to go shopping.

If there's too many cons, I'd just move on and find a cottage with fewer instructions.

Well, the way I see it is, guests are only prepared to pay "so much" and do "so much" housework, and cottage owners are only prepared to offer "so much" in terms of paying the costs of cleaning.

If it isn't going to work because it turns out that it isn't actually possible to pay the costs of cleaning required to minimize housework to a level that guests are happy with while still offering a rental price that guests are happy with, then the business needs to fold.

And maybe that's no bad thing. AirBnB and holiday cottages have distorted housing markets in many areas (Cornwall, pretty rural areas, popular cities) in some really unfortunate ways.

I think it would be a good thing if this whole sector shrank quite a bit and there was a bit of a shift back towards hotels (where cleaners can clean dozens of rooms at the speed of light; it's massively more efficient).

I'd also like to see more "aparthotels" and suite setups, where you might perhaps get a couple of rooms joined together, enabling adults to hang out while children are in bed. The whole "What do we do once the kids are in bed?" problem is a common reason for using cottages and AirBnB rather than hotels, in my experience; using a bit of ingenuity to solve this issue would at least reduce the demand for cottages and AirBnB.

As previous posters who are owners have said, it takes quite a long time to fully clean a property to a decent standard for guests and yes some holiday makers totally take the p**s. In my experience in 2 years the electric woodburner in my small property has had to be replaced twice due to the carelessness of visitors. Things like cutlery, glasses, blinds are routinely broken or nicked. I’m not some property magnate with dozens of properties, just own one 2 bed, 2 bathrooms lodge which forms quite a large chunk of my income. Do not charge a fortune either - about £700 for a week in high season. People who say you can go abroad for the same money are either going to completely shit places in low season or are delusional.

As an owner I’d just like to say it’s not paying the cleaners that is the problem, but finding them. Thankfully I have excellent ones, but they work solidly through the changeover days of Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, as do most in the area I’m in, and a six bedroom house takes quite some cleaning. There really is no legion of ready cleaners desperate for work.

I do ask that beds are stripped and the dishwasher set off, on a particular programme that I know will be finished by the time I’ve cleaned the hot tub (which takes ages). I certainly don’t expect anything more, and have commercial waste collection so there is no worry about recycling (it’s done at the depot) with bins large enough to take 12 people’s rubbish. I would much rather crockery etc gets a good wash in the dishwasher rather than a quick rinse, leaving smears of butter etc on plates.

Towels and bedding do get stained, but generally it’s not too bad and most marks come out. Some owners have dark towels to hide the stains, but these then suffer badly from hair dyes and bleach so difficult to win. I just accept it as a cost of running the business, along with many, many broken glasses.

I think with the various bits of legislation that are creeping in all over the country many holiday lets will cease trading, especially those that are just let when the owners aren’t in residence. The new fire regulations that come in on 1st October will definitely have an effect, as most internal doors will have to be replaced, along with wired in smoke alarms in bedrooms etc. These apply to anyone renting out a house or a room for short term use (even one night).

The vast majority of my guests leave my house immaculately, and do far more than I expect or is necessary (in fact I’m embarrassed at how I used to leave houses in the past), but I imagine this is because when they arrive it is very clean, looks better than its photographs and they’re really chuffed with it.

[[No children, dodgy hot water. Enjoy your stay!

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/641de720-0f55-11ed-93cf-b011fa7fe86b?shareToken=3f0fd11392edc6cca9effe50a6d38467

I LOLOLOLed several times!

I'm sorry, you expect guests to take their rubbish home with them? That's somewhat 'unusual'.

@Molecule, get rid of the ot the hot tubs. They just aren't worth the hassle.

DB was told they should really get a hot tub as it would make their holiday cottage more marketable. Agents couldn't answer when he asked where they would fit all the extra customers it would attract in, given that the cottage was fully booked already.

Well yes, we do have glass recycling. Increasingly councils are doing this as standard. If I had a holiday cottage, I wouldn't want recyclable stuff in with the general rubbish.

I've never been asked to strip beds in holiday cottages since lockdown ended.

I dont usually stay in airbnbs because of the annoying rules, but If we bring our dog sometimes it’s easier. I hate the dishwasher having to be unpacked as it means you can’t use it in the morning. And with the rush trying to leave on time the dishes only get a quick rinse.

No, @CatusFlatus. If the holiday cottage I was staying in had no facility to recycle glass, I wouldn't put it in their bin regardless. I'd take it to the nearest recycling place, either the second last day of holiday or on the way home. We've done that often enough before.

We stayed in a place on the mid wales coast when there was a £500 fine of it wasn't vacuumed properly and left as they liked it. The vacuum was ancient as well. Not easy to be that meticulous when you have a houseful of people to get out, and by 10.

There's a hygiene element with this, especially with covid protocols. I'd much rather take a bowl out of a dishwasher for my first breakfast that I know has been through a dishwasher full wash than one out of a cupboard that someone has hurriedly and begrudgingly given a quick rinse under the tap while busy trying to rush out the door for 10.00. How do you know they've used detergent or hot water. I'd be much happier to get stuff out if the dishwasher knowing they're properly clean.

I think owners are taking the piss post COVID and trying to use the previous guests as part cleaners. Then they just pay for someone to come in for a short time and whizz round. I expect a cottage to have been properly cleaned by a professional cleaner with full equipment, not had some distracted outgoing guest begrudgingly forced to do a half arsed attempted at a full hoover etc.

Good grief, who on earth books a cottage where you may have to pay £500 on the whim of someone you don't know? I hope you highlighted this in any reviews?

I am always very sceptical about the cleanliness of hot tubs (actually, unless someone convinces me otherwise I assume they are a hot bed of filth and germs).

We’ve stayed in a flat in France this summer. Had to strip the beds and put in the bath and leave tidy. Can’t remember the dishwasher rule. But rubbish had to be taken to municipal bins a five minute walk away.

I remember staying in a rural cottage in France when my dc were tiny and the municipal bins were a drive away and only available certain days. There was only a tiny bin in the cottage and each time we went out we had a bag of dirty nappies with us to try and find somewhere to dispose of.

It seems reasonable apart from the glass. I would have left it on the side with a note to say there was no way to recycle it. I wouldn't be driving round trying to find somewhere to recycle it!

I never use towels in hotels or cottages, always take my own. I have ruined one with fake tan once and felt really guilty.

If the local council have strict demands on the way the recycling is collected then it's fair enough to ask you to comply. It may be that you have to take the glass to a bottle bank. But this should be made clear.
Stripping the beds and paying for damage is pretty normal these days. Putting on dishwasher before leaving is acceptable but not asking it to be emptied due to timing of cycle and checking out time.

In one holiday let I was asked to ensure that I had taken up the cushions of every chair and sofa and hoovered underneath. As well as hoovering the entire property, cleaning bathroom stripping beds and wiping down all surfaces.
However the nightmares were not over. I broke a wine glass, and bought a cheap 4 pack as a replacement. They tried to charge for replacements of their tumblers, high balls and shot glasses, because the wine glasses now didn't match!
Lesson learned -always read reviews. Our horror story was mild compared to some of the reviews.

Definitely don't rent in France. I will only stay in hotels or properties owned by British people in France after being called dirty pigs by the cleaner when we excited our ski rental. This is despite paying an additional 60 euros for cleaning ( small 2 bed apartment) and thoroughly cleaning kitchen area and of course toilet.

@ZadocPDederick When the hot tub dies I will not be replacing it. I bought into the letting agent’s spiel , and for the first few years it was definitely well used. This year there have been a few weeks when guests haven’t used it at all, so I think their appeal is beginning to fade. But many guests do say it’s a highlight of their holiday, especially as it has a great sea view.

@IWillNoLie my hot tub is extremely clean, hence it taking so long to ready for next guests. I run it with a special antibacterial cleaner for half-an-hour, then pump the water out, whilst cleaning the sides etc, once empty I vacuum out the water from all its internal pipes, have another wipe round then fill with fresh water. However many owners rely on companies to clean them, and from what I’ve seen they just empty them and refill (my cleaners said that often these companies don’t even bother with the emptying; if they look clean they just chuck in some chemicals). So you are right be sceptical about the cleanliness of many.

Wasn’t there a thread a while ago by someone who’d been told that all rubbish had to be taken off site? The AirBnB people hadn’t organised rubbish collection so people were expected to take bags of rubbish to the dump.