Lay My Hat

Hi all, this is my first post although I have been a long time lurker / reader. I was hoping to get some other owner views as I am doubting myself.

Had a couple stay at our holiday cottage a couple of weeks ago. We (husband and I) had taken the standard £150 damage deposit. The guests left us a lovely remark in the guest comments book and sent a message thanking us for a lovely stay and enquiring about future availability.

After the guests had checked out we discovered they had lit a fire on the concrete floor of the patio courtyard, next to a treated fence. The fire lighting liquid and kindling were put in the kitchen cupboard.

The guests appeared to have doused the fire in water and this caused a large scorched area on the ground which was discoloured and unsightly. The scorched area was a lighter colour than the surrounding floor area and looked awful. The embers from the fire had burned holes in the parasol umbrella that is part of the table and chairs set. Finally they had dumped a number of large logs (not proper firewood, but some tree logs and the end of a post with metal bolts sticking out), round the side of the property and deep in the hedge which runs along the side of the property.

Unfortunately sweeping the patio floor did not solve the discolouration and so we had to spend a significant amount of time pressure washing the ground to remove the ingrained ash to put right the damage. We also had to replace the parasol and retrieve and properly dispose of the dumped logs.

We deducted £60 from the deposit - £30 for the parasol (less than a year old) and £30 for the time taken to return the patio to its original state and time taken retrieving and disposing of the logs and informed the guest. The guest accepts the £30 parasol charge but is asking for the other £30 to be returned because she believes this is classed as 'cleaning' rather than 'damage'. We have said that we do not charge a cleaning fee and that we deem the state of the patio as damage. What they had left us to sort out went over and above the usual tidying up that we would expect.

The guest has now complained to Home away and we have sent a full response with photographs. I was hoping that Homeaway would back us up but they have simply thanked us for providing an explanation and suggest we work with the guest to resolve the dispute. They don't seem to want to get involved.

I am uncertain whether this complaint will be added to our advertisement. I suspect we might be left a negative review by the guests but I will be able to post a response.

I guess I am seeking your views about whether you think we have been reasonable? This is the first time we have had to do this in 11 months of holiday letting. I don't like having dissatisfied guests.

Hi, sorry to hear of your problem.

Whether the guests consider it 'cleaning' or 'damage', it is not general wear and tear and any extra cleaning was not caused by general 'living/use' of the cottage. The extra work was caused by a wilful act of gross stupidity IMO. Therefore, I think you are being totally reasonable in deducting for the Damage. In fact, for £60, I think they have got off quite lightly. I guess if HA don't appear to want to get involved, you will hear nothing more from them. I would reiterate your position to the guests and leave it at that. I would then ignore any further communication.

Also sorry to hear you had to deal with this (and welcome by the way!)

I think you've been reasonable. It was damage that you, thankfully,managed to correct. I have done the same for bedding I have managed to rescue after hours of stain removal. So the guest is being unreasonable.

As a side note....the guests must have been barking who an earth creates a fire on a patio!? Personally I'd have been shamed to get in to any type of conversation about it. Shows how hard faced, or stupid, they are.
Don't worry about a complaint.....anyone would think they had a screw lose after they explained about why you charged.

Thank god you managed to get it clean. But what were they expecting to do with the huge logs!

Mousie (who thought she'd heard it all)
x
p.s. it was also a terribly stupid thing to do. Your fence could have gone up in flames!

Ditto the above.

Stupid to light a fire (wouldn't be allowed here in France) and then totally unreasonable to leave you with the mess.

In 20 years we have had two guests complain to the advertiser we use and they have then contacted us for our side of the story. We explained our side and then they say pretty much what Homeaway have said to you - advertising sites just do not want to get involved/referee/arbitrate in any way. Homeaway will probably have told the guest they aren't going to take sides.

So, I doubt you will hear any more from Homeaway. If you've got photos of the damage etc. then you're covered by any complaint or bad review the guest might choose to leave and can dispute it with Homeaway if they publish it.

I would not worry too much and, as said, not get involved in any more discussion.

Guest trying to be a smart arse - "ooh, it's not damage, it's cleaning." Yeah, right.
Send a replacement invoice:
Replacement of damaged parasol £30
Repair and restoration to property including pressure washing of discoloured and scorched concrete where a fire had been lit without permission, restoration and making good of grounds including removal of guest's debris (logs, and posts). Time taken X hours at £Y = £30
Hire of pressure washer for restoration FOC
Concrete restoring chemicals FOC

Then for the future make sure your T&Cs state the deposit is for damage and/or excess cleaning; that's pretty much a given and the norm, but some moronic pedants who think they're clever might need it spelling out so that they don't proceed to embarrass themselves by disputing it.

Oh, and welcome to the forum!

Hi welcome too. I think the guests got off lightly and if they do post a -review will make themselves look even more stupid.

So ha don't want to do anything for their 8% tsf plus your 2% commission. Nice work if you can get it.

I am with the other posters, to light an open fire on a patio is a stupid thing to do, next to a wooden fence is downright irresponsible, I would wait and see if they leave a poor review and reply appropriately, no-one is going to blame for the steps you have taken given what they did.

got no idea what your place is like. But maybe you should have something in the T&Cs that states no open fire.
And welcome to LMH

Welcome Margarita, I like your calm and measured approach and feel sure it will serve you well in the future as you become more and more aware of the stupidity and measured denial of some of your guests, thankfully they are rare and most are a pleasure to serve. Please drop by and post here more often as the experience and feedback you'll receive from most of the regulars here is priceless.
Now, where's me firelighters?............

Welcome to the forum.
Don't forget that HA now allow the owners to rate the guests before they can leave a review. Do not suggest in any emails that you would leave a bad rating on HA (could be construed as attempted blackmail), but the option is there to rate them.

Thank you all for the warm welcome!

So basically, it's a resounding 'yes' from everyone - we've been reasonable.

Husband says I worry too much and he wanted to charge more. Probably because it was him doing all the hard work pressure washing the patio on a hot day when he'd rather have been splashing about in the paddling pool with our 3 year old daughter on his day off work.

I don't understand why they lit the fire either (though, by the look of the contents of the recycling bin, they were consuming large quantities of booze while they were here and stupid ideas tend to seem like good ideas when drunk!). Also, they seemed like quite a young couple, so maybe it was partly immaturity. The courtyard is completely enclosed by the fencing, with a gate for entry. If it had gone up in flames they'd have been completely trapped (though they could have escaped through the bedroom window I suppose).

Our Cottage is a small, cosy 1 bed in the countryside in South East England, and we tend to get a lot of romantic weekenders escaping the urban life. Maybe these guests wanted to go extra rustic and wild?!!

The Cottage is formerly a self-contained granny annexe attached to our own home, and the thing that irked me most was how they'd traipsed down the side of the house towards our back garden to dump the logs in the hedge. Think they must have lit the fire late one evening but I was kicking myself that we didn't notice it at the time.

Definitely going to amend the T&Cs to add in the 'no open fires' bit too!

There was an upside to the whole thing - the guests left a big, unopened tub of Ben and Jerry's ice-cream in the freezer, which I scoffed in an act of mis-directed revenge!!

haaaa haaaa its nice to scoff ice cream whilst thinking of ways to commit murders

Mouse wrote: who an earth creates a fire on a patio!?

Hubbie and I once made a BBQ using old bricks on a concrete path. All was going well until late into the evening there was a large bang and the concrete exploded

Luckily all the kids had been sent to bed so there was only drunk adults left to be covered in burning embers

I think you let them off too lightly - how dangerous to light a fire & so close to your own home too. It could have had tragic consequences.Disgraceful.

Re the ice cream you enjoyed (and deserved).

We had guests leave a very large, posh box of chocolates in the 'fridge. I decided to save them until the evening when we could relax and indulge.

Mid-afternoon the guests returned "We'd only got a little way and realized we forgot the chocolates - a present for the friends we're staying with tonight."

It took all I had to hand those chocolates back with a smile ...... but it has taught me a lesson: Don't eat the goodies left behind until you know they've definitely been left for you!