Lay My Hat

Maybe, your last sentence is the key here. Apart from clumsiness and that there will always be the odd guest who doesn't behave it may be that guests do see your accommodation as impersonal.

It has been said elsewhere (here or another, similar thread) that guests who book through booking sites, agents etc. believe the property belongs to a faceless organisation who are coining in money at the poor holidaymakers' expense. They treat the place like a hotel.

Is there any way you can make it clearer to your guests that this is your home, you are just ordinary folk renting out a property when you're not using it yourself to cover running costs etc. etc.

We have gites beside our home but also look after a second home for friends which is rented out and at that property we make it clear that it is someone's second home and not a business in the big, corporate way of things.

GillianF wrote:Maybe, your last sentence is the key here. Apart from clumsiness and that there will always be the odd guest who doesn't behave it may be that guests do see your accommodation as impersonal.

It has been said elsewhere (here or another, similar thread) that guests who book through booking sites, agents etc. believe the property belongs to a faceless organisation who are coining in money at the poor holidaymakers' expense. They treat the place like a hotel.

Is there any way you can make it clearer to your guests that this is your home, you are just ordinary folk renting out a property when you're not using it yourself to cover running costs etc. etc.

We have gites beside our home but also look after a second home for friends which is rented out and at that property we make it clear that it is someone's second home and not a business in the big, corporate way of things.

Gillian, I think we will have to make a laminated sheet with pre-departure instructions and hang it up. We have seen a similar card from a Dutch agency that had some good points which we can use, and maybe we can make another one in English.

Things like 'please remove the linen from beds and place on the bathroom floor along with the towels, empty all waste bins, switch off all appliances and lights and turn off heating, ensure dishwasher has been emptied, if furniture has been moved please return to its original position' saves us around half an hour's work to begin with!

We don't want to come across as overly-authoritarian with too many notices stuck on walls (I remember staying in a B&B in Northumberland where there was a notice on the wall in the bathroom saying it was not allowed to shower after 10 p.m.!) but you have to take action sometimes.

I put the following in the house folder (under 'Before You Leave')and hope that it sounds helpful rather than authoritarian!

"There’s a lot to think about before you leave - perhaps the following will help:

o Check you’ve left nothing beside the pool or in the pool and garden.

o Check under beds and in drawers and cupboards for a missing sock or toy. Check inside the washing machine.


Cleaning

Our Terms and Conditions ask you to leave the house as you found it. As a general rule we would expect you to have cleaned up after yourselves during your stay and a final clean up should not, therefore, be too onerous. It helps if you strip the beds (sheets, duvet covers and top pillowcases) but you don’t have to do so. We would expect you to have cleaned the bathroom and loo and to have cleaned the kitchen sink, surfaces and appliances. You should wipe up any spills or ’debris’ in the ‘fridge. Please make sure the oven and hob are clean and there are no food deposits and grease left on the barbeque grill.

Please take your glass bottles and jars to the bottle bank. Empty all your bins and put the bag(s) in the wheelie bins at the end of the lane as you leave.

If you have enjoyed your stay, eaten at a good restaurant , enjoyed a forest walk or visited a town or place of interest you would recommend please don’t hesitate to leave a note in the Visitor’s Book for other guests to see."

I laminated an A4 "Welcome" notice which includes......... "at the end of your stay" instructions. It's attached to the front of the fridge with a magnet thingy.

This seems to work ....mostly!

Thanks, Gillian. Yes, it is also good to remind guests to check drawers and cupboards before leaving. It is quite amazing what people forget to take with them, we've seen just about everything left behind. The most usual items are phone chargers, often left hanging from the mains socket, clothes found everywhere imaginable including coats still on the coat rack, as well as toys. But over the years we have also found a huge 1.5m board game, a laptop, a game console, a pot containing hundreds of euros in coins and some false teeth left behind at the farmhouse.

Your cleaning notes are very clear and come over as a friendly suggestion as to how guests should leave a property. It still aways amazes us that people need to be told to strip a bed or at least clean up areas of the property which have become very untidy or dirty during their stay.

Some nationalities almost always leave a note in the guest book thanking us for an enjoyable stay, other nationalities rarely leave anything. It is also certain nationalities who will write about nice places they went to during their stay, other nationalities will only write about what they liked/dislked about the accommodation/area, etc. But if they do have a complaint, then better to write it down in the guest book, than online. Better still just let us know during their stay - and not put it in writing afterwards!

The 'things left behind list' is interesting.

We've discovered a very expensive watch on the bed post, shoes under the bed (he blamed his wife), trousers, The Bag which had the nappy change, books, house keys, ferry ticket, money etc. etc. as well as quite a bit of very skimpy/sexy/lacy bras and knickers one lady left in the washing machine. Another chap also left a large packet of condoms in a bedside drawer and as we know they were going on for a week somewhere else we wonder how he got on ...................

People. You can't beat 'em!

My cleaning team like the bedding left on the bed so that it is easier to spot any stains.

Hells Bells wrote:My cleaning team like the bedding left on the bed so that it is easier to spot any stains.

I prefer it too - and of course, it's one less thing for the guest to have to do so they can spend more time cleaning the toothpaste splats off the bathroom mirror, etc!

Hells Bells wrote:My cleaning team like the bedding left on the bed so that it is easier to spot any stains.

You are of course assuming that all the bedding takes place on the bed in the first place that could result in the stains on the bedding for the cleaners to spot it!

Essar wrote:

Hells Bells wrote:My cleaning team like the bedding left on the bed so that it is easier to spot any stains.

You are of course assuming that all the bedding takes place on the bed in the first place that could result in the stains on the bedding for the cleaners to spot it!

Dammit man, the title of this thread is “English Guests”.
English!
What are you thinking of??!!!
Bah!

greenbarn wrote:

Essar wrote:

Hells Bells wrote:My cleaning team like the bedding left on the bed so that it is easier to spot any stains.

You are of course assuming that all the bedding takes place on the bed in the first place that could result in the stains on the bedding for the cleaners to spot it!

Dammit man, the title of this thread is “English Guests”.
English!
What are you thinking of??!!!
Bah!

Precisely - you do check the potting shed, I presume?

Mols

Moliere wrote:

greenbarn wrote:

Essar wrote: You are of course assuming that all the bedding takes place on the bed in the first place that could result in the stains on the bedding for the cleaners to spot it!

Dammit man, the title of this thread is “English Guests”.
English!
What are you thinking of??!!!
Bah!

Precisely - you do check the potting shed, I presume?

Mols

Mols old chap, do consider the sensitive fillies. I really don’t think that sort of smut is acceptable on here.

And what a chap does in his own potting shed is between him and his dibber.

dibbur
[dib-uh l]

noun
1.
Also, dibber [dib-er] (Show IPA). a small, handheld, pointed implement for making holes in soil for planting seedlings, bulbs, etc.
verb (used with object), dibbled, dibbling.
2.
to make a hole (in the ground) with or as if with a dibble.
3.
to set (plants) in holes made with a dibble.
verb (used without object), dibbled, dibbling.
4.
to work with a dibble.
5.
sometimes slang for sex partner.


There doesn't seem to be any synonyms other than "diver" and that could take us anywhere!