How clean do you leave a property?

[clarycat]

Hi everyone. Just finished a week away in a cottage, and cleaning bath/sink/toilet etc and planning on whipping hoover round later. My question is, how clean do you leave a property at the end of a holiday? I seem to have different scales for privately owned places and self catering in caravans i.e. Haven.

Would you expect to have to leave it as clean as you found it? Or do you expect the owners/company to do some cleaning?

I expect the owners to do some cleaning before the next arrival, especially as the cleaning products they leave are usually pretty limited e.g. no dusters or polish.

I do clean it to the best of my ability i.e. bathroom, kitchen, empty bins and hoover. I like to think that nobody would walk in and instantly be able to spot that I'd just left - but I don't think a property would look good after a whole summer of that sort of whip round.

BTW the last place I stayed didn't have a hoover - just a carpet sweeper - I did my best, but it was a struggle. If they want me to do a better job - they need to give me the right equipment.

I clean far too much, DH usually complains I'm going too far, but I can't help it - I don't want anyone to know how slutty I am think I'm dirty/lazy! .

I would expect them to clean it after I left and new people moved in, so would leave it in a reasonable condition but certainly not spotless.

I certainly would not dust, clean bath or toilet or shower. I would however, swoosh them about and remove skid marks. I also would not necessarily hoover, unless it was quite in need of it. I would wipe down worktop in kicthen and leave it tidy. I usually pop the dishwasher on as I leave so the dishes are clean for when the cleaner has finished.

Always had my depost returned so far.

We own two properties and get a huge variety of renters. Some (rare) leave it spotless so we just have to check things over and change the beds. Some (often) just walk out leaving the fridge full of their food, bins full, place filthy. We do't really mind but would prefer that they at least took their stuff away or binned it themselves. Most fall in the middle and leave it tidy, bins emptied, dishes washed but not clean.

We charge enough that we expect, and leave time fr, a full scrub of everything so anything less is always a bonus.

Oh and for some strange reason I do strip the beds!

My family have self catering. We wouldn't expect things like the bathroom to be cleaned. it would be nice if you'd hoovered mid week but i wouldnt bother on the day because we'll do it anyway because everything will be pulled out to hoover behind. Basically the things that we would hope you had done are...any washing up done and put away. The grill pan cleaned (if you've had a lot of bacon). Also any leftover food taken out of the fridge. If youve stripped the beds we'll love you forever but would never expect it. That's it really because it will be cleaned to a point that looks like no one has ever stayed there.

We spend about 2 hours per cottage. But have taken up to 7 hours because some people leave them in such a state!!! You would not believe it. And they are always people who say 'you won't have to do much, we've given it a good clean.' You walk inside and find the sink ripped off the wall! So many good stories!

Thanks everyone, it's great to hear opinions from both sides! Sounds like I do it about right. Funny to read about taking left over food out of the fridge - reminds me of when we left a bottle of wine in there, we were gutted lol!

We've come in this time to find pans not clean. Don't really blame the owners but the previous holidaymakers. At least the sink was still in situ!

Phew, never hoover unless it explicity says so, leave it pretty much as Iheartcrunchiebars says i.e. put all washing in the washing machine, grill pan cleaned if used, leftover food removed and do usually strip bedding.

I always strip the beds too.
I think one place actually asked us to do so and to put the dirty stuff in the bath.

I found most landlords give some guidelines. The majority if houses I stayed in the last year either charged a bit for a final clean or it was part of the rental price. They just expect you to wash up, empty bins and fridge.

I don't like cleaning before I leave, I am happy to pay for it

I clean holiday properties, one has an agreement for 'guests' to put the bins/ recycling into wheelie bins, empty fridge, do washing up and strip beds (even though they pay up to £1300 per week)
Other has no agreement but most guests do the above anyway.

I've never known any guests to hoover!

Hmmm, a tricky one about the hoovering then. The only reason I was going to hoover is because we have a dog, and the one rug in the property has his hairs on, but it is only one rug........

Actually found that it says it would be appreciated if we left the cottage as we'd like to find it - wow!

I'd leave it as my house would be the day before the weekly clean iyswim.

We clean up after ourselves in the same way we would at home, so things will be decent when we leave, but I wouldn't do any actual housework. e.g if something got spilt I'd hoover it up, but I wouldn't hoover just because we were leaving. The kitchen will have had a daily wipe round as I finished the washing up, but not a proper clean.

I consider proper cleaning to be part of what I've paid for and would expect the owner to be sending in a cleaner anyway.

We could tell some tales.....poo on a pile of very white towels - adult poo all over about 4 of them. (not dog) Not even skid marks but big chunks. Furniture completely rearranged and moved to different rooms, lightbulbs removed. Dog hairs everywhere, including on and in beds. We have found items of furnishings being used in cars (cushions instead of booster seats) and doors kicked in, walls scuffed and broken glass in really odd places.

But most people are really good and leave it tidy but in need of a clean, which is fine. Stripping the beds is a bonus and emptying the bins definitely a good thing.

We've recently started renting out a holiday place, and just say that we'd appreciate a basic tidy up, ie rubbish in bins, food removed from fridge, dishes washed.

I wouldn't expect anyone to hoover or clean (unless they've broken a glass or dropped a bag of sugar or something obvious) because they've paid me rent to have a holiday, and I pay a cleaner to make it spotless for the next guests.

I take the same approach when we go away.

Thanks everyone, very interesting reading. Oh, and I've done the hoovering now!

The last property that we stayed in we left cleaner than we found it.
The amount of dust on upper shelves was unbelievable.

Yikes! We own a holiday house in France and do our own cleaning. We've never encountered some of the ghastly things above! I'm delighted (lucky?) the worst we've had are from families who obviously have cleaners at home and are just not used to cleaning thoroughly. Whatever people do upon leaving I'm grateful for, but I don't judge if they haven't had time, and I clean just the same regardless of what's been done, as you can tell from the horrible state of my knee's and washerwomans scabby old dried up hands

Jenpetronus: sorry but I think that's a bit rubbish. If I rent a property and it doesn't say you need to clean than I just tidy up, wash up and remove food/rubbish unless food can stay (oil, spices, sugar etc).

I have a cleaner since years but still now how to clean a house. And in 2 weeks I don't mess up a house so much that I need to do a full spring clean.

I pay for the house and if you feel the cleaning is too much I think most people will happy pay a bit more and you can employ a cleaner to do it.