What is wrong with some people?

[brendan]

Ye Gods AD...you´re very patient. I´d have difficulty containing myself in these circumstances and would have to take a step back and ask the more diplomatic OH to handle it.

Some people!

[salmoncottage]

You work hard and take your business seriously in the hope that stress and frustration as described can be reduced if not totally avoided. Would it be an option in future to take full payment in advance for the hire of equipment on site including a small returnable d/d to cover breakages. We wouldnt let anyone take possession of our property without paying first for the same reasons. It's such a shame that the few can spoil goodwill for the many.

[Normandie]

'No problem', I said. I grabbed the EUR 100 and walked off with it. I did give them their EUR 4 but left a whole hour before I did that.

I understand your frustration and these sound most difficult guests but really, don't descend to their level; don't play their games.

Can you get the bike hire to take a deposit against damage and payment? Then you aren't put in the position of piggy in the middle of two sets of people who should really be contracting direct. For me, getting the commission would be too high a price for managing the contract - and that sounds as if it is what you're doing.

I hope the cleanup isn't too horrendous.

[Bunny]

'No problem', I said. I grabbed the EUR 100 and walked off with it. I did give them their EUR 4 but left a whole hour before I did that.

I understand your frustration and these sound most difficult guests but really, don't descend to their level; don't play their games.

I fully confess - I wouldn't have been able to resist making them wait either!

[Nemo]

What an awful week you've had; like the others I hope the clean up isn't horrendous. I'm with the others in that no money up front in future, no bikes.

[Wonkeye]

I am afraid you have to understand the karma is in the giving of your time and not expect any feedback, if it comes accept it & appreciate it

So just keep thinking of all the good karma you've built up, AngloDutch! And in your next life ........ ?

[AngloDutch]

Thanks again for all the support.

Well, having yesterday cleaned (cleansed) the farmhouse, we discovered that the guests had not been honest with us at all.

Apart from the broken garden table that they had showed us, on further inspection the other garden table has also been damaged and now has to be replaced as well, as it will no longer support the parasol. The area around the central hole has also split and what they did is push it all back together so that you hardly see the splits. The other table had a huge piece missing, so they were not able to conceal that.

The discussion that we had had about the damage to the bike, that someone else had originally broken the chain guard was obviously not the whole truth either, because two huge plastic pieces had been concealed under the recyclable plastic, so that I didn't see that when I went with one of the men into the farmhouse just before they left.

Also, a carefully positioned chair had obviously concealed damage to a large hard plastic air vent which had been smashed to pieces after having a football kicked against it (this vent was near to where we heard the ball banging against our windows and wall a few days ago). They had collected the shards and thrown them in a corner.

Inside, it didn't end there and, for the second time this year, the oven gloves had once again been incinerated.

Also in the kitchen (again, behind a table, so difficult to see) the skirting board had been smashed loose, probably by a chair leg (there was an indentation to the side of it, so something had hit it).

More damage in the kitchen, our white wall there had a long black mark, running in a straight line where the backs of chairs had been pushed right up against it.

A flood in the bathroom greeted us when we opened the door, with the corner of the bathroom submerged.

The state of the toy cupboard in the main room was probably the worst we have seen in the eleven years we have been running our business.
The adults had obviously left the two smallest children to run riot there and they had removed every game, thrown the pieces into a heap, added lego, blocks, puzzle pieces, toy soldiers, you name it and made a 'soup' which was then thrown back into the cupboard and took me 45 minutes to sort out, on my hands and knees....

There were fresh marks on the newly-painted walls upstairs and we noticed that the second mattress from a rollaway bed had a sticky orange spill down the side of it.
One of our daughters said that she had seen through the window a few days ago that there were mattresses piled up downstairs in the main room but had forgotten to tell us, so obviously people had been sleeping all over the place.

Also, the covers on two of the four sofas had to be washed , as they were covered in coffee stains and melted chocolate.

So, we knew that we had about four hours after clearing the rubbish and stripping the beds (thank you for reading our departure information, not) to put everything right before our next guests (four Americans) were due to arrive at around 3 p.m.

Then a miracle happened. One of the Americans called and said that they were at Amsterdam airport to pick up the other two family members but had been told by Icelandair that their transatlantic flight had missed the connection at Reykjavic and that the rest of the family had been put on a flight to Oslo to connect with a KLM flight from there to Amsterdam. He reckoned at least a 3 hour delay.

'Oh, that's terrible!' I was saying, almost jumping around with joy and thinking what a bit of luck that they had chosen to fly with Icelandair. Last year some other American guests had also flown with them and they had also missed the connection in Iceland and had finally arrived here at midnight.

So, we had another 3 hours to breath. The new guests actually arrived at 7 p.m. and we finished the repairs to the farmhouse by 5.30 p.m. I even managed to glue the skirting board back, paint the wall again (for the 4th or 5th? time this year), clean the mark off the mattress and even remembered to give the new guests our own oven gloves.

A great relief that we managed to turn it all around (thank you, Icelandair!) and an even bigger relief that the two Danish families are finally gone!

The four Americans we now have staying are so nice. One of them even called me a second time to confirm that they were finally leaving the airport.
That shows consideration – something that the last lot didn’t have an ounce of!

[AngloDutch]

'No problem', I said. I grabbed the EUR 100 and walked off with it. I did give them their EUR 4 but left a whole hour before I did that.

I understand your frustration and these sound most difficult guests but really, don't descend to their level; don't play their games.

Can you get the bike hire to take a deposit against damage and payment? Then you aren't put in the position of piggy in the middle of two sets of people who should really be contracting direct. For me, getting the commission would be too high a price for managing the contract - and that sounds as if it is what you're doing.

I think, Normandie that the delay was probably more caused by the fact that I had to persuade my teenage daughter to hand over EUR 1.15, because she was having none of it, and we were out of change....!

The bike store normally charges EUR 50 security deposit per bike, but because they know us, they don't charge our guests that.
Most of our guests who don't bring their own bikes, reserve through us, because, although the tariffs are the same, they don't have to hand over another EUR 500 for ten bikes.

Many of our guests come here to bike through the forests. The commission we get on rentals throughout the summer is quite a boost to our income. When I see the bills that some of our guests pay for renting bikes - sometimes EUR 1,500 - I think we should be renting out our own bikes, broken chain guards or not!

[alcooper]

really feel for you AngloDutch, we have had some terrible guests, I can so understand your relief at being granted a few more hours to put things right!

[AngloDutch]

What an awful week you've had; like the others I hope the clean up isn't horrendous. I'm with the others in that no money up front in future, no bikes.

We have been thinking long and hard, Nemo about how we can better organize the cooperation we have with the bike store.

We receive an invoice from them (in duplicate, gross and nett amounts, one for the guests, one for us) but only after the guests have picked everything up and are satisfied.

The problem we have is that guests first reserve 10x 7-gear bikes by email, then when we bring them to the shop, they decide that the grandparents should be on electric bikes (double the tariff). Then the next day, after crying his eyes out all night because he's been given a purple bike to sit on for 2 weeks, the father finally gives in to his little son and returns the bike to the shop only to find out that there are no child bikes left. So, they go for a 'tag-along' bike. Again, different tariff.

It drives us absolutely crazy. The number of times we've had to tear up numerous invoices with some groups is quite amazing.

Is it worth all the trouble? Definitely, commission is 20%

[Bunny]

Phew, what a relief and how lucky. I've had a few where I've walked in and just wanted to cry, so I know that feeling. Thankfully they are rare.

[AngloDutch]

really feel for you AngloDutch, we have had some terrible guests, I can so understand your relief at being granted a few more hours to put things right!

Thanks, alcooper, next week we are going away for 2 weeks to stay in someone else's farmhouse in France. My daughters are already on edge because I will be making them read the house rules when we get there, before I let them have their copies of 'Smash Hits' back!

Welcome to LMH by the way!

[alcooper]

Thank you AngloDutch - that was my first post, I wish all our guests had your consideration for their hosts!

[AngloDutch]

Phew, what a relief and how lucky. I've had a few where I've walked in and just wanted to cry, so I know that feeling. Thankfully they are rare.

Next Friday we have a Canadian family staying that comes over very frequently, and we can just leave them on their own as they are such considerate and careful renters.

The problem groups for us are the dual-family combinations, with 5 small children running amok.
I suppose that we could try unticking those 'suitable for children' boxes on some of the listing sites that we're on, but we've had families with many young children were there have been no problems at all.
Also, we once had a booking from an agency for nine female university students (no prior information on the group). After thinking that they were going to wreck the place, they left two days later and we hardly had to clear up after them at all....

[Bunny]

The problem groups for us are the dual-family combinations, with 5 small children running amok.

Yes, I find that. I think when children are suddenly mixed with sharing a house with others on holiday they get more excitable and the parents tend to leave them to get on with entertaining themselves so that they can catch up with the other adults in the party.