Youngsters

From the moment they step through the door your bookings become guests, and their experiences determine whether they ever come back.
cromercrabholiday
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Youngsters

Post by cromercrabholiday »

Hi

My wife took a booking from what seemed a nice young man who was looking for a chill-out week with six school mates before he went into the army and they went to university. Our cottage is in a quiet Norfolk village and he had been to see the location.

She thought "should I accept such a youngster?" but then felt that she would be stereotyping to reject him on age grounds.

By Wednesday, our key lady who lives two doors away was reporting noisy drunken nights into the small hours disturbing neighbours. We got a mature friend to go round and he sat down with four of the boys and discussed their behaviour and the nature of Norfolk village life. They appeared to take the messages on board and promised good behaviour. Jane also spoke to the lad's mother, who said that they were all good boys and it was only high spirits.

For two nights they were fine but the last night reverted to their bad ways. Our cleaning team arrived on the Saturday (by which time they had gone). The cottage had beer on the floors and walls, vomit in kitchen and living room, three doors that seemed to have been damaged by kicking, enough rubbish bags for several weeks (mainly beer bottles and cans!). They spent their normal time that day and on Sunday we drove up 180 miles and spent the day and the cleaners worked 7am 'til noon. Fortunately, the new guests were not coming until the Sunday.

We got the local carpenter to sort out the damage and the carpets are being cleaned throughout.

I've just put a costs schedule together for the extra costs incurred (including compensation for the customers in the next holiday house whose holiday was ruined - they had two young kids). It comes to over £800. I will now try to recover this from the lad - I've dropped a recorded letter in the post and will move to the small claims court in a couple of weeks.

Needless to say, we will not take bookings from groups of youngsters in the future! What have others done when they had disruptive guests?

John
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tansy
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Post by tansy »

Never had such a major trashing problem - but now I can see why the boating companies have 3 pages of terms including one about throwing things in the river... that all sounds a nightmare - we did have a big debate about this issue when Linda had some youngsters turn up - but they appeared to behave.

The only positive thing I can think of is that hopefully the Army will knock some corners off them!

But welcome to the forum - hope talking to us lot will help take the sting out a bit.

Let us know if you get compensation from them.

All the best
it's all a learning curve!
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Alan Knighting
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Post by Alan Knighting »

John,

What a nightmare!

My normal approach is to be as invisible as possible but not faced with that sort of behaviour. I'm not sure what I would do except that, living on-site, I would have been constantly "on their backs". It sounds more like the mindless animal raves they have in Ibiza rather than human beings having a break.

Is that really what "chill-out" means.

Alan
Hells Bells
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Post by Hells Bells »

Some friends had a problem last year with a month-long let. There wasa rubbish all over, and a duvet was set on fire (They'd thrown it over the electric heater. Fortunately in the last few days anothe guest arrived who was an army sergeant. The place was left spotless, and a large wad of cash left for the damages.
alexia s.
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Post by alexia s. »

I know the horse has bolted, but "six school mates + going into the army " would ring alarm bells here. I woudn't touch a single-sex group with more than 2 in it. In your situation I would probably have called in the police - disturbing the peace - sounds harsh but I can't see what else one could do. And one should do something!
All my sympathy: you took them because you are too kind.
Best,
Alexia.
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

a nice young man who was looking for a chill-out week with six school mates before he went into the army and they went to university
Lots of alarm bells ringing here! Sorry about your disaster, hopefully you will get some money off them.
Paolo
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Fraise
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Post by Fraise »

Oh yes!Alarm bells a-plenty!! My daughter (21) asked to use the house for herself and 5 other friends-they would pay- I said "no" - I love her dearly but I just know that people of that age,once they get together,can't but help make a mess!! Usually alcohol related,also smoking,even though it's not permitted. Once I explained my reasons to her she completely understood and will come another time but in a smaller,more managable group!! :wink:

www.thepetitmanoir.com
alexia s.
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Post by alexia s. »

Fraise,
If she lived closer, I'd send my daughter to you to look after such a booking. She had a party at home, in the garden, when she was a teenager - lots of crashers, too much drink - she spent the whole evening controlling the whole thing (we watched, admiringly, from a window in the dark!): she was a tiny 15yr old - was used to pushing horses around - and we were astonished to see her pushing the drunken young men along the path, out of the gate, into their cars - talking to them calmly all the time, just as though they were horses!
(She was also great on turn-over day for us - a dragon with the cleaner & totally efficient with the guests.... only problem is she's moved to the Atlantic coast.)
Best,
Alexia.
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Alan Knighting
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Post by Alan Knighting »

Alexia,

I don't care whether or not your daughter is a letting property owner, you should get her to join the forum. We could all benefit from her skills with cleaners, guests and even horses.

Alan
alexia s.
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Post by alexia s. »

Thank you, Alan! She's now 24 and trying to make a life for herself a long way from home - she followed her boyfriend to the other side of France - when she has settled down a bit more I'll put it to her.
BTW, her first graduate job (which she left to follow boyfriend) was with the Four Seasons resort near Cannes: this gave her perfect training for dealing with demanding, difficult guests and also ensured that her standards are at least as high - if not higher - than mine.
If you read between the lines you will have guessed that I would love to have her near us to manage our properties! Boyfriend's career, though, is in the La Rochelle area, so she'll only come back to Provence if she breaks up with him. (She didn't give up her career to follow him: she couldn't have lasted much longer with the hours of the 4 Seasons.)
Best,
Alexia.
Fraise
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Post by Fraise »

Oooh,she's not toooo far from me then,maybe I could adopt her? She'd fit my portfolio nicely-I've got one a year older,another 3 years younger and a couple more a bit older so I've deffo got a gap in the market :wink:
cromercrabholiday
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Post by cromercrabholiday »

I'm intrigued by the recent posts. Can you tell me when my 16 year-old daughter will turn from a drone (other than schoolwork, where she is very diligent) into a helpful member of the family.

Jane is away on a cottage maintenance trip and I was moaned at this morning "Am I going to get anything to eat?". I had already made her a cup of tea and expressed the view that she was perfectly capable of finding some food for herself. In great dudgeon she managed to pour some cornflakes into a bowl and add milk, even finding a spoon to eat them with.

Does the independence of university life force them to become more self-sufficient? Or should mine be looking for a Mr Right who is capable of financing domestic staff?

Any helpful hints gratefully received.

John
Fraise
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Post by Fraise »

Ha!!Not sure about an answer for this one!!Could be a long wait :wink:
alexia s.
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Post by alexia s. »

John,
Diligent at schoolwork & you're complaining? I should have been so lucky. Nobody's perfect - but ours were both teenagers from hell. 16 is a horrible age: stick with her, though, it can only get better! Ours (the daughter) got better around 22...
Fraise, when ours was 16 I would have paid you to adopt her! We used to complain that we could never get divorced because we would never be able to agree on who would get the children - neither of us wanted them!
Best,
Alexia.
alexia s.
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Post by alexia s. »

ps John,
Our son (26 & still financially dependent - he is a trainee avocat - barrister - in Paris) is the opposite of "a helpful member of the family". If I twist his arm he might do a little legal research for me, but anything more than that is life-threatening - to both of us. I've given up & dropped my expectations. He's alive & well. Can't hope for more. Well, I do hope that he will become financially independent: I can't believe how long young people in France are maintained by their families.
Actually, I've never met anybody with a child lazier than our son. He used to swallow the cherry pits because it was too much trouble to spit them out. I always use this as the acid test when people complain about their lazy child. Ours is still No. 1.
Best,
Alexia.
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