Agencies and other headaches, keys and cleaners, running costs and contracts...in short, all the things we spend so much of our time doing behind the scenes.<br>
enid wrote:I agree with everyone else that I hope guests will take away all rubbish and leave our gites clean but I always do my own clean and thorough check for the next guests.
We do not ask our guests to remove rubbish. I once rented somewhere that did and I really resented having to drive around trying to find somewhere to put it. We even take away their empties!
This going a little OT now, but taking your rubbish 300m up the road to a communal bin is not such an arduous task - we supply dustbins, but there is no way that they would hold a weeks worth of rubbish. If they are left unattended outside, the cats open them and empty the contents everywhere. I've never had any complaints about having to do this - it's just part of being on holiday in the countryside in France. As long as people know where to go with their rubbish, there is no problem.
Yes, I guess it depends on how handy the communal dustbin is - our is just down the end of the drive and a few yards on; the same for recycled stuff except for bottles, which is a 5 minute drive - I think 50% of the time the caretakers have to deal with those.
We don't have a communal dustbin, so that isn't an option. On the holiday we took we were directed to a communal dustbin in the next village, which we couldn't find, so we then had to drive down the motorway with a stinking bag of rubbish to the service station and leave it in one of their bins.
Even our local dump won't take household waste.
I suppose it goes back to the question of what is self catering. At home I don't take away my rubbish, I leave it out for the binmen, so why should I do it on holiday?
At home I don't take away my rubbish, I leave it out for the binmen, so why should I do it on holiday?
Because things are done differently in the French countryside - agree that fi it is a long journey to take the rubbish that's one thing but our bins are at the top of the drive - easy to drop of the rubbish each day on your way out and then no flies or smells for you n the gite. Several guests take a little constitutional to drop of their bag.
But that's not the issue - we often say to guests as they are leaving to leave their last rubbish bags for us - that's a big difference to leaving their rubbish unbagged and still on the floor or in the firdge!
We ask guests to take out their rubbish daily. There is a large basura at the bottom of our hill, which they have to pass wherever they go. It is emptied daily.I think everyone in Spain does a daily disposal.Guests seem quite happy to do this.
Yes - and why should anyone object when it is in their own interests. In the height of the summer, who wants the smell of decomposing household waste assailing the nozzies!
I agree with Kayley, in Tenerife every guest seems quite happy calling at the basura on their way out on a daily basis - these rubbish huts are not always situated in the most convenient areas to yourselves when they are on the perimeter of a complex but they have to be sited where they can be emptied daily by the council and where they are not directly outside someone's apartment door.
I agree with the spanish renters, when we have rented in Spain we have been happy to put our rubbish out for daily collection.
Here our household waste goes into wheelie bins which are then emptied either weekly or fortnightly depending on the property. Guests put their rubbish in the wheelie bins at their pleasure. It doesn't concern me in any way if the bins aren't empy at the end of their stay, why should it?
As for fridges being emptied, some of the things left in fridges at the end of stays are much appreciated. My children particularly enjoy the odd ice lolly that gets left.
Here our household waste goes into wheelie bins which are then emptied either weekly or fortnightly depending on the property.
We're talking at cross purposes then - we don't have individual property rubbish collection here at all.
Re the fridge - I agree that folks leave some tasty stuff - but we have also had rotting lettuce etc to deal with - not so tasty.
I think we are in general agreement that we are asking for guests to leave the rental in reasonable condition for us to prepare as we wish for our next guests - house rules and requirements will vary according to properties and local services.
we don't have individual property rubbish collection here at all.
Nor do we, that's rural France for you.
Joan supplies waste-paper baskets, pedal bins, flip-top bins and dust bins, all with the appropriately sized liners. She also leaves directions to the nearest poubelle, all of 400 yards away, together with a request to use it.
If that’s all too much for a guest to manage, and sometimes it is, I take the bags down each morning anyway.
We are fortunate enough (or not, depending on which way you look at it) to have the poubelle at the bottom of our drive.
It does mean that our guests generally don't have any problems disposing of their rubbish and we have never had any complaints. One group did leave us all their recycling which was a bit of a pain as our changeovers are a real rush as it is and they had consumed an enormous amount of drink.
I did wonder whether we should offer to take our guests' recycling to the dechetterie as it is a fair distance away and whether to perhaps have a separate bin away from the gite that they can put everything recyclable in. Does anyone else do this?
We are lucky in that there is a recyclable poubelle next to the household rubbish one not far from the bottom of the drive as I mentioned - but to save people going there each time they empty a plastic bottle etc, I have 2 smaller containers in the utility room where things can accumulate pro-tem. As for glass, I tell guests where to take bottles, and if they do make the effort themselves on checkout it's a bonus (a 5 minute drive away), otherwise the caretakers do it, and as Sarah says, changeover day is already pretty action-packed - for the guests too, it has to be said!
