Gite cleaning

[Rockchicknana]

For the past 6 years DH (both in 70s but very active!) and I have booked through Gites de France for our holidays. Up until this year we have always had the option to pay for cleaning at the end of our stay - usually about €50 We always leave the place clean and tidy, wipe down surfaces, clean loo empty fridge, strip bed and take out rubbish. This year we weren't offered the option to pay for cleaning - instead the owner has given us a very long detailed list of the cleaning we need to do before leaving. Madame will meet us at 7.00 am before we depart to ensure it is done to a standard that the next guests can come straight in! All she has to do is put clean bedding on.

AIBU to be p*ed off that I have to spend the last night of my holiday scrubbing the bathroom including polishing the tiles, cleaning the kitchen, sweeping and mopping floors etc. etc - the list is endless! We've obviously got to use the bathroom before we leave so I'll have to double check DH hasn't splashed the bathroom mirror!!

Apparently this is normal for Gites de France properties and we've just been lucky before that we've never had to do this. It's really putting me off booking with them in future as I want to rent somewhere that's been professionally cleaned. I would have though after Covid that this would be the norm. Interested in others experiences!

Only last year were we given the option - every other time its been deducted on depar6from our deposit. So we assumed the same this time.

It's definitely a French thing.

This has happened twice to us when I hired ski apartments, in both cases I paid a hefty cleaning fee but was berated by the cleaner. On our most recent stay I was accused of being a dirty cochon and quite seriously insulted.

I will only rent from British owned properties in France or hotels now.

We had this years ago with Gites de France. Our children were primary school age. I scrubbed the place from top to bottom and was pretty pleased at how good it looked considering packing, feeding children on the morning of departure and managing to be ready for 10am check out. The owner came and scrutinised my efforts and pronounced she was satisfied which
left me feeling disappointed! I think I might have got off lightly reading others replies.
I haven’t booked with them since. In hindsight I wished I had mentioned to the owner the dead birds that we found in the indoor pool - poor things had fallen from a nest which was really sad but not hygienic either….

I've read about this on MN before and so booked a hotel when we went to France last year. DH annoyed as he prefers a house/apartment, but I wouldn't enjoy my holiday if I was worrying about cleaning and getting told off!

This is why I dont like self catering in France. You're still paying enough for them to get a cleaner in. Eurgh at the doubt that there's even clean sheets

I would be making my exit the night before and not bothering with the cleaning. I absolutely hate cleaning and rarely do it at home. I'm certainly not doing it on holiday!

Happened to us on a campsite in France when we stayed in a chalet type home . Spent the last evening and morning cleaning . Never again . Put a serious dampener on the holiday .

Totally agree @FoodieToo
I was up at 6 , left at 10 or 11 …whatever the check out was ( has anybody else noticed the check ins are really late and outs really early now? ) . I was so stressed.

Last year was the first time we've been given an option - previously the owner has always taken the charge from our deposit. We assumed - wrongly - that would be the case this time or be offered the option to clean ourselves. This is the first time we've ever been told we HAVE to clean ourselves.

We’re wise to that. Stayed in lots of properties, but if there’s no cleaning fee mentioned they expect you to do it.

Lessoned learned I guess. I wouldn't ever rent a property with that sort of condition, what an awful and stressful way to spend your last day of holiday.

When I last stayed in France- in a gite we did have to clean before leaving. However the owner was English and told us that a quick hoover would be ok.

I felt the their general standards were lower than English equivalents. Things like tin openers and corkscrews missing.

I am currently in a gite in france and have the same situation. I am extremely pissed off about it. We've been coming to france for years and ths is the first time this has happened.
Im absolutely not spending my last evening cleaning. I'll do the usual basic tidy and wipe up etc but im not cleaning loos etc.

This is so common in France and it really pisses me off too!
I mean, when you arrive you expect the place to be clean for your stay, you've paid for that in the rental price of the gîte, surely.
And the next renter after you has also paid for a clean property. But the only people doing the cleaning are the renters!

At one place we stayed in the cleaning instructions were on two sheets of laminated A4 paper (double sided) and included hoovering under the beds and cleaning out the filters in both the washing machine and tumble dryer.
Another property charged us an extra 50 Euros as we were leaving because we hadn't polished the leather sofa with the special leather cleaning cream. We were going to leave a 30 quid bottle of single malt whisky for the owner as a thank you (he had been lovely up till then) but DH grabbed it smartly as we left.

Yes I'm very aware of that!

Review it so others don't fall into the same trap. Very difficult if you've got up at 4am for a ferry and have children to deal with too.

We went to a gite where the floor was so filthy our socks were black and I do t think it was ever cleaned.

I own a gîte in France. I offer cleaning and sheets/towels for 50€ per stay and most people take me up on it. In spite of that, a lot still strip the beds and leave the place in a pretty good state. The most time consuming thing is mopping the floors and I've only had one person do that. I don't leave a list, I assume it's common sense.

British and Dutch owned gîtes are more likely to offer the option.

I had one group of youngsters who didn't want to pay and had clearly not brought their own bedding. They'd also pissed in the courtyard 🤢.

Airbnb gives a very warped impression of how much owners make. I charge 85€ a night but it shows up on the site as around 112€ because of their fees! I only had one booking through them last year, most were from Leboncoin (no fees for either party) or word of mouth.

I have a gîte in France- and don't charge extra for cleaning and provide all linens.
All I ask our guests to do is treat the place with respect, do the recycling as they go (made easy by clearly marked bins outside) and to put things back where they found them before they leave. No huge list of instructions, no grumpy inspections.

I dont advertise with Gîtes de France- they can be tricky to deal with, but with Gîtes dot com and Gîtes dot co . uk (one is a Dutch company and the other uk) as well as the major OTAs who all charge more commission and fees.

Traditionally Gîtes were basic accommodations usually provided by farmers to give extra cash- they've gone more upmarket as time has gone on.

Could you not leave before the owner arrives?

Most French properties demand a large cash deposit.

I had this with the ski apartment. The cleaning lady reluctantly handed over the 500 euros cash deposit, whilst retaining the 60 euros cleaning fee and simultaneously complaining about my lack of cleaning .

This is what I’d do.

Leave the night before!