To not want owners around?

[HolQues]

Hi, posting this to get alternate views because aware I can get annoyed over silly things sometimes! I’m on holiday with my young family; husband and two toddlers. We’re staying in a semi detached villa, separated front gardens but a shared back garden with pool. Both rentals, but second house isn’t occupied until day 5. We’re here for a week and it’s day 5.
On day 2 we arrived home from the beach to the owner watering the grass, she had let herself in to the house because we reported an issue with the toilet flushing. She stayed to clean the house next door and was in and out of the garden while we were in the pool. She said the would be there on day 3 to clean the pool, so we went to the beach that afternoon. They never came.
On day 4 we arrived back to three people cleaning the garden and the house next door. They were walking back and forth across our section of the garden cleaning the tiles and hoovering inside the other house until 7pm.
it’s day 5 today and before 8am they have been here cleaning next door, and walking back and forth across the garden to get supplies.
AIBU to think this is a bit much? I know we don’t have exclusive use of the place but I expected other guests, not 3 days of people working in the garden while we’re trying to enjoy the pool. We also felt a bit weird having dinner on our patio yesterday evening while they were here.

I think some degree of maintenance / gardening / cleaning is to be expected. Three days cleaning one house seems a bit OTT.

I think all you can do is provide feedback, and next time book a detached villa in its own gardens if you want total solitude.

I know we don’t have exclusive use of the place

so… remember that and enjoy your holiday op
don’t get in an arse about this

Unfortunately it's normal. I've had it while staying in cottages. In one place, the gardener turned up on a Sunday afternoon and sat on ride on lawn mower for an hour - unannounced. Work has to be done but it can feel intrusive when you've paid to stay and want peace and quiet.

You went to the beach because she said she’d clean the pool

Was that some kind of hardship?

So you wouldn’t be miffed if you planned your day around the owners’ plan to clean pool, go away for the day, come home to discover you could have been at the pool as it turns out they didn’t stick to the plan.

I would be annoyed too op. I would mention all the visits in the feedback. I would do it in a balanced way, recognise the good features then explain why the presence of owners affected your relaxation and enjoyment of the facilities

No really

cleaning the pool involves walking around the pool with a net. Doesn’t take long. Quite therapeutic actually!

and the beach? Lovely!

I don’t think you can complain about them being around to vacuum and clean a completely separate house when you knew that it was semi-detached and a shared garden set up when you booked. Leaving a comment about pool and gardening works during the day over several days preventing you using them fully, worth a note to the owners or a comment in your review.

Go for exclusive use next time: had there been another group booked in next door, you’d have had their presence, using the pool, being in the garden etc whilst you were trying to eat on the patio.

Nice bit of xenophobia there.

I don't really understand the difference between sharing the garden and pool with other holidaymakers and having the owners walk across the garden occasionally.

,I'd hate it.

So presumably wouldn’t select somewhere with shared access

I’d hate that too OP, but that’s why we wouldn't book a semi detached villa - we usually try and find one thats about 1/2 a mile to the nearest neighbours!
It’s usual for the gardener/pool man to come a couple of times a week, but they usually turn up very early before its hot so don’t very often see them.

I do think that it’s out of order. You want privacy and full use of the facilities when you’re on holiday, maintenance should be booked in between check out and check in on changeover days. Owners shouldn’t be hanging around after something has been fixed.

We never book a property if the owner lives on site, when we book a holiday villa we book a detached villa, yes a pool guy comes in, but generally they let themselves in through the gate, it doesn’t take very long for the pool check. Perhaps look at these options for future to save any inconvenience. Enjoy the rest of your hols.

We’ve been lucky with villas in that generally owners or housekeeping have only been in on specified days to clean, or fix any issues we’ve had, and have never taken long. However, we did stay in one villa where the owners turned up at 8am and spent several hours cleaning, mowing the lawn, then sitting at the bottom of the garden with lunch and coffees whiling the afternoon away 🙄 It felt very awkward and intrusive. Yes, we did give feedback to the villa company.

Look up "xenophobia" in the dictionary. I'm an English person.

You can still be xenophobic. Also, what has the OP's nationality got to do with her post?

It does feel a little excessive to have someone around most days, I’d probably leave a comment on any review.

For comparison, we holidayed in a villa last year. The pool guy popped by for no more than an hour midweek and a cleaner came in one day whilst we were out so no idea how long they were there.

YABU about people accessing next door when you booked a shared garden.

If that bothers you, how would you feel if next door had actual tenants who would be using the pool and garden full time?

They only cleaned the actual garden on day 5, so just one day? That is a bit annoying because you want to use it, but walking through a shared garden to go in and out of the house is not unreasonable.