Holiday let, disrespectful guests.

Nannarose
Just don’t do it!
Holiday lets cost a fortune now and the owners either clean it themselves or pay a cleaner to do it.
It’s not the job of the tourists to leave it immaculate, what a bloody cheek.

Luckygirl3

I always leave the lets we have had tidy, but do not vacuum or wash floors unless there has been spillage or some out of the ordinary dirt. I know that a full wash and vacuum will happen with the cleaners after we have gone. I would hate to do them out of a job!

I can't believe someone moved pictures around!

I have definitely had the impression that we were to do the cleaning, and the "cleaners " job was to make the beds (which we had to strip and place linen and towels in washing bag, in a certain place for laundry collection) and do a quick check. We were instructed to clean all surfaces, fridge and oven, vacuum and sweep. I think that in some popular holiday areas, cleaners are at a premium at swopover times.

You are all very lucky to have holiday homes.

Jaxjacky

Sadly it comes with the territory.

Some do live messy lives presumably.
The reverse of this tho, some years ago we stayed at a holiday cottage.It was nicely presented, but could have been better in a few ways.The owner left a nice goody pack for us but came round ten mins after we got there and bored us stiff for quite a while with a list of do’s and don’ts for every room of the house. We were tired and wanted a cuppa and to unpack.
Two days into the holiday the washing machine packed up, and the owner said it was old, they should really order another.They did, and told us it would arrive in a fortnight.
So I had to handwash towels, beach stuff and smalls and socks for the four of us.Not my idea of a holiday.They also made it clear we should hoover before we left and strip all the beds and put them in certain bags.Sorry but that’s their job!
It didn’t need hoovering while we were there in any case.
We left the house clean tho and emptied bins.

M0nica

We only let family and friends use our holiday home but despite that we have had one or two get perilously close to being banned.

Fortunately, no trashing but, as others say, moving things around. We have colour coded sheets for each bedroom with the spares kept in the same room and we went through a patch when we kept finding all the sheets mixed up and on the wrong beds. Another time we arrived on a cold afternoon and could not find a single box of matches or gas fire lighter to light the stove. I discoveed then a month or two later on the top of one of the kitchen units. And items are constantly moved and not put back - and this is people we know and like.

Same here. Only family and people we know well. I always keep some dish wash soap next to the sink because I hate mugs having stains. It’s never there when people have been here. Last time, after a week of searching we ordered some more but then found it in the utility room (which is in the garage). And we keep the toaster on a metal tray to catch the crumbs and the tray usually ends up in the garage. The glasses in the kitchen are usually swapped round with glasses that are kept in the garage and this time they were replaced with glasses that weren’t ours. I think they were for whiskey or something like that. When those people stay again I’m going to hide them in the garage! ( I know I’m being very bitchy about this….)

Sago, you say you wish you could give them a bad review but you can't - why not?

We only let family and friends use our holiday home but despite that we have had one or two get perilously close to being banned.

Fortunately, no trashing but, as others say, moving things around. We have colour coded sheets for each bedroom with the spares kept in the same room and we went through a patch when we kept finding all the sheets mixed up and on the wrong beds. Another time we arrived on a cold afternoon and could not find a single box of matches or gas fire lighter to light the stove. I discoveed then a month or two later on the top of one of the kitchen units. And items are constantly moved and not put back - and this is people we know and like.

I always leave the lets we have had tidy, but do not vacuum or wash floors unless there has been spillage or some out of the ordinary dirt. I know that a full wash and vacuum will happen with the cleaners after we have gone. I would hate to do them out of a job!

I can't believe someone moved pictures around!

It is hard to understand the mentality of some people, isn’t it?
My daughter runs a holiday let and rarely complains, but occasionally she has horror stories of guests” trashing the place”.

We stay regularly at the same cottage. We try to put things back as we find them, vacuum the floor before leaving, collect up the towels and often strip the bed and put the things in the washing machine. If friends stay part of the time with us we wash their bedding and towels when they leave.

If you have photos of the mess the "guests" left to help you remember, I'd let them come again but put everything back as they left it previously. When they complain you can say that you thought they preferred it like that!

Sadly it comes with the territory.

I'm ok with things being moved (within reason), though it does take more time to put them back. We had 3 houses on site once and the large group mixed everything up between the properties, never again!
The worse thing for me is smelly rotting bathmats and towels, but on the whole we are very lucky.
I hope your parting guests don't give you a bad review, I think people will ignore it if it is the only one.
🍷 you deserve it!

My son was letting his flat as an (immaculate) Air BnB. The last people left it in a disgusting state. They were living in a van, travelling, and had obviously used his flat to wash everything they owned and had a dog whose fur was everywhere. The kitchen was filthy, grease all over the place. The carpet was full of unidentifiable dirt, the tablecloth saturated in some sort of oil. In a two night stay I can't imagine how they managed it. They turned the heating up to 30°, presumably to dry the clothes. Sadly it's put my son off letting it now although it was an income he needed.

How very bizarre! Are you able to keep their deposit? I presume you took photos as evidence.
After a lifetime camping, we are just getting used to holiday lets. I have posted on here about places that effectively asked us to clean through thoroughly for them, which I feel unreasonable. Many of the replies echoed what you are saying - that unless you insist that guests to leave the place spotless, this is what will happen.
Now, if we have a long journey ahead, we book a B&B for a night after, so we can clean through before leaving.

Similar situation. We arrived to find cooked food in the oven, grill pan full of fat. Log store had been moved to another part of the garden. But the bit that really annoyed me was the carefully arranged pictures on the walls in the dining room had been totally rearranged, moved to other walls. Some pictures had been placed on top of the dresser. I still can’t get over the pictures! Bedside table broken and someone had spilt a drink down the side of the bed. As for missing items turning up in odd places, I’ve often had to replace things (eg the toothbrush holder from the bathroom) only to find them in the weirdest places! I am actually going to put labels on some things saying ‘I’m here for a reason’. I dread to think what some commercial cleaners have to clear up. I understand that things get broken: I’m terrible at breaking things, but I don’t understand people rearranging another house.

That's awful Sago how people can do this beggars belief , hope rest of break goes ok.

We stayed in one recently and left it in pristine condition as we had found it we got a thank you and great review from the owner it’s only fair I d be ashamed not to

What a shame that is and shame on them.
I have always been able to say that we leave a place as we find it.
My D and I had a cottage in Wales for the last week in July, it was a beautiful place and I could really recommend it as long as you like solitude.
My D got an email from the owner thanking us for looking after the place so beautifully and offering us a discount if we want to go again.