Cottage holiday - Cleanliness

[Spanieljoker]

We have a cottage in the Cotswolds and we had guests staying there. The property is managed by a thirdparty and we had cleaners there staying (4 hours!) and they state they cleaned the property from top to bottom.

The couple left 3 days early because the property was not up to standards…
she claims :

there is lichen on the furniture in the garden

the aga had some dust and one cupboard was dirty (i know this cupboard has chipped paint inside but it was dusted and cleaned) It is an old cottage kitchen and we didn’t renovate

pans with worn nonstick surfaces

floor with paint stains from past decoration

They claim this was too much and they could not have a restful stay and therefore left early?!
I really don’t understand. It is a lovely rural cottage with character. Is this that bad ? It is scaring me and wondering if this business is worth it. If every guest will complain for anything and make our life impossible.

If you've had good reviews so far, I'd just ignore it. You've addressed the pots and pans and you'll address the other issues, so just forget it now.

None of that would bother me at all, except the pans, as using damaged non stick pans means your basically eating plastic and chemicals

Direct that at the OP not me.

I never fail to be astonished at the codswallop people will moan about!

I think your cottage sounds lovely, OP.

I definitely wouldn't leave early because of any of those things. I would find it frustrating if the outdoor furniture wasn't usable, the chairs need to be clean enough to sit on without clothes getting dirty. The rubbish pans is annoying but kind of expected in holiday let's because people don't look after things as they do at home. I'd just check up on all the little things more regularly. Doesn't sound like there's any major issues but lots of little problems can become annoying when you want to relax.

@MummyWillow1 🤣🤣🤣🙄

It's absolutely ludicrous to leave three days early on account of a few minor quibbles. If as PP mentioned there had been an offensive smell or the heating or hot water broke down or the roof leaked. These are reasons to cut short a holiday not because there is lichen on the garden furniture. There was probably something else going on that caused them to abort the holiday like the couple were arguing or one of them didn't want to come on the holiday & they were just looking for an excuse to explain why they cut short their stay.

A non-stick pan cannot be used, so effectively there wasn’t a frying pan. Chipped paint cannot be cleaned properly, so thats a big hygiene issue.

@Spanieljoker if you were in a hotel and somewhere in the room was dirty would you expect reception to give you the cleaning teams number so you had to arrange an additional clean yourself?

exactly! lichen is a good sign and I wouldn’t expect the cleaner to have a power washer for it or have anything to remove paint from a floor 🤷🏽‍♀️
I think they wanted to leave early for other reasons and as others have said trying to get some money back 😕

But if owners don’t buy non stick they’re a pain in the arse to clean.
I use stainless steel pans. Nothing sticks.

I once complained about cleanliness in a cottage. I left an email and answerphone message the evening we arrived. We went out the next day, and on return the cleaner had clearly been back - the place was spotless, every issue addressed and a note and bottle of wine as apology. If I’d been given the cleaners number and told to arrange it myself I’d have left too!

Lichen takes more than two weeks to grow surely!

OP, I think she overreacted. The pans are the only sticking point, in my view. And it sounds like you are already ‘on it.’ Hope your next guests are less fussy!

Because it's not up to you what they do

That actually seems far too cheap a price even if the cottage isn't perfect. But as you can see from this thread, people still want perfection. It would make more sense to do a bit of a quick cosmetic overhaul and charge more.

@PoliteSquid the cleaners told us they couldn’t afford to come back. They spent 4 hours cleaning the place before them. They thought she was absolutely ridiculous 🙄 So I thought well let’s see what happens and if she sends pictures or further complains…

🙄

Yes, it seems the pans really were the sticking point! 😆

In that case ignore this guest. Our 6th guest left after one night, he had a litany of ridiculous complaints. I was so upset as I'd poured my heart and soul ( and vast amounts of money) into our cottage in our garden. 6 years on we are in the top 1% of homes on Air BnB and have wonderful reviews. But I still think about James and his 2 star review!

You get what you pay for, and your cottage is a great bargain for the size and location.

We regularly stay in a cabin that has a ratty kitchen and bathroom dating from the early 1980's, old kitchenware, etc., but like yours, it's priced well. We could pay far more for a modern Airbnb in the same location, but we choose not to.

I'd replace the pans with stainless steel ones for convenience, but the rest sounds fine. Some people want five-star accommodation for a two-star price, which is ridiculous!

Lichen on the garden furniture just shows the air is clean

The other things need investigating tho - and you seem to be on it

Maybe the cleaner should send you photos when they’ve finished so you can see they’ve done everything right.

I agree that flaking non-stick pans would be a pain and I would let you know, but I wouldn’t leave early over it.

Sounds pretty shabby, and not worth the money if I'm being honest.

That’s a very over the top reaction. I’ve stayed in a lot of similar premises and there is often something a bit tired after a lot of use. It does tend to be kitchen equipment or garden stuff. Last place we stayed which was expensive the fitted fridge door kept coming off. I used some sticky tape to wedge it shut for the duration.

@JMSA, The housing stock on the rural unremarkable village I'm from is now 25 % holiday lets. The village school closed down because family homes are now holiday lets. Locals can't afford to live there. It's destroying the community.