First lot of disruptive guests

From the moment they step through the door your bookings become guests, and their experiences determine whether they ever come back.
oldpolicehouse
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First lot of disruptive guests

Post by oldpolicehouse »

A last min booking for a mum and 2 daughters and a dog to see Loch Ness.... Entry is 4pm but if I am finished early I text my guests to let them know which is usual.... This lady turne up 2 1/2 hours early "to drop off shopping and bags" which was ok no problem... I was just finishing so I gave her the keys. That night a friend of hers arrived... they had a party. She left and I went in to start cleaning... I was on my own today. The mess was rediculous rice crispies and milk all over the floor and curtains, carrots in the bed! I left toys and have jigsaws in teh cupboard...all the jigsaws were mixed up.. still sorting them! I left apples in the dish each one had a bite and was left.... a missin saucepan!? I still have the lid! All the baby blankets had been used... by the dog .. shredded toilet rolls in teh bathroom. yes it is all superficial... and a dozen dog poos left in the garden! Then I emptied the "glass bin" 5 bottles of wine and 1 ltr bottle of vodka! the friend only stayed 1 night... took me hours to clean this time... maybe I have just been so lucky?... She was there for 3 nights rant over :-)
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PW in Polemi
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Post by PW in Polemi »

How horrible to find such a mess, and have to cope with it on your own.

However, do you take a damages deposit? What are your departure instructions (i.e. "leave the place clean and tidy, remove all rubbish..." etc). What are your rules & regulations regarding dogs and especially their poo? Were you aware at time of booking that the friend was going to stay overnight?

If all these points are covered in your T&Cs, then you would probably be justified in charging/deducting from damages deposit. If not, consider it a hard learned lesson. :( :lol:

Oh, and why did you leave baby blankets? Anything not locked/taken away is presumed by the guest to be there for their use....
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zebedee
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Post by zebedee »

If you haven't taken a damage deposit, and can stay calm, the following may help.
Work out a cost for the extra cleaning (I have one stated in my TCs if there is any trace of a dog left behind).
Then ring your lead guest for a nice chat, ask her if she had found everything in order during her stay and during the course of the conversation raise the way in which she left it and the additional cost. If you can stay very calm she may be prepared to pay you.

Do make sure though, as PW says, that you have watertight TCs about the need for guests to look after the property and the state in which it is left. That way you can quote the TCs.

I have been able to persuade my guests to pay my costs on the couple of times things have been problematic. One instance the guests had actually broken a banister and left the broken parts in position which could have been very dangerous if leant against.

If you cannot trust yourself to keep your voice very calm, you may have to put this down to experience. In my experience, a carefully worded email or letter just inflames the situation and gets you no-where
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AngloDutch
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Post by AngloDutch »

Unfortunately we see this kind of behaviour very often - you are certainly not alone here, oldpolicehouse.

About 1 in 3 of our guest groups will try to arrive as earlier than asked. This is especially so with groups of retired people, who are looking to get an extra half day out of their stay added on for free. Families arriving for a weekend often have to work on the Friday and then drive an average of 2 hours to reach us, so they won't be here until later on in the evening. The 'can we just put our luggage in the hall and our perishables in the fridge/freezer' is often used to get a foot through the door. We often say that we wash down the laminated floors as a last step, so we tell people to leave the luggage in the cars, park up and go and explore the village or sit in a cafe until we're ready for them. We text them if we're ready earlier than expected.
We have had families arrive several hours earlier and ask if they can come in and feed their baby. We have always agreed to this, but they have to leave again once baby has been fed. The problem is that once they're in, they use the loo and the father wants the code for the WIFI while waiting on the baby...

Recently we have seen some amazingly cheeky enquiries with requests to arrive early in the morning, saying that they will only book if they can check in earlier. We have just accepted a last-minute booking for November (difficult for many of us to fill November availability of course), where the person was very demanding, saying that they found our Friday and Saturday night rates too expensive (that's why they're called 'weekend rates' :roll:), so, in order to save money, they said that they wouldn't stay the Friday night, but could they just check in on the Saturday morning at 8 a.m. instead?
We explained that we could not rent out the Friday if we allowed that, but finally agreed on a half-night rate, as they were booking through until the Tuesday.

As for damages, we set aside around €750 per year to cover this. We don't ask for security deposits for guests coming from outside the NL as we find that this just increases the rate and puts people off booking. For the local market, where it is customary to ask for a multitude of additional costs (including energy, tourist tax, end-cleaning, security deposit, baby equipment and pet charge), we also charge €7 per person for linen. It is the takings from this that covers our yearly damages.

This year alone we have replaced (or will have to replace) 2 discoloured plastic tablecloths (€25 each), a melted toaster that someone placed too near the oven, a kettle with a broken lid, a sofa cover (which has had red wine, coffee and ink dropped on it by 3 different groups since the summer), 3 of 4 white side-tables in the sitting room which have been marked by non-removable drink rings (even though there are 16 coasters..) and deep gauges into the surface on one of the tables, various toys that have been smashed, broken or where parts are incomplete, all the non-stick pans as their protective coatings have been worn away, cooking implements/cutlery that have been bent, burnt, snapped, or are missing (teaspoons and egg spoons seem to be a favourite to go missing). Several broken/cracked bowls and plates and an average of 20 broken glasses per year (used to be around 50 glasses per year until we bought a different dishwasher with better racks). This does not include the constant redecorating - repainting walls, re-varnishing banisters and repairing skirting boards in the dining room which have been worn by chair legs (boot polish works wonders here).

To counter some of what you have described, oldpolicehouse, we have been placing all jigsaw pieces into re-sealable bags. This after we had a family whose children emptied the contents of 10 jigsaws onto the floor and mixed them all up. We had to ask our daughters to invite their friends round for a 'jigsaw afternoon' in order to get everything back in the right boxes. Actually, this year we have removed a lot of toys with too many loose parts. Not only was this a risk for small children (although we always tried to keep these kind of toys at the top of the toy cupboard), but it took us an age to sort everything out again. Some parents just seem to let their toddlers loose and allow them to take out every toy, pull every part off that can/should not be detached and then, at the end of the stay, everything is just thrown pack inside the cupboard, and the doors quickly closed.

Some toys that are maybe best not to have in a holiday home are building blocks and small toy cars (half of them you will find under the sofas at the end of the season), small figure sets such as 'Little People' (they seem to get all over the place), dolls and all their possessions, games such as 'Buckaroo' (if you still have all the small parts after a season, then it's a miracle), any battery-operated devices that need a constant supply of a multitude of energy cells (that are always running out because the dears forgot to switch them off), board games with too many small parts which can easily get lost and are a choking hazard.

Books and cuddly toys seem to be the easiest to tidy up. In the past, we have had some nightmare situations where it took us 45 minutes to sort out the mess in the toy cupboard, the reason why we have now removed some of the above.

As for pets, we take out the rugs and vacuum intensely after they have departed, and apart from the odd doormat which had been used as a lavatory, we have come away relatively unscathed.

Our groups are normally between 8-12, so a larger mess than when you have groups of 3-6 for example and our farmhouse takes an almighty bashing sometimes. More often than not, when our groups have left, we go inside (through the unlocked door), and are greeted by an unemptied dishwasher (if it has been switched on!), every appliance out on the worktops in the kitchen, an overpowering smell from the fridge, furniture moved around, unemptied waste bins in the bedrooms/loos, unstripped beds, radiators left on with windows open, and marked carpeting on the staircase that brings us almost to tears every time. But anyhow, you know that you have 5 hours until the next group of 12 is arriving (just don't answer the doorbell when they arrive 2 hours early :shock: ). Ah, the life of a holiday-home owner.... :lol:
Last edited by AngloDutch on Fri Oct 21, 2016 5:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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NeatandPicky
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Post by NeatandPicky »

Tip re jigsaw muddling:

When sorted, mark the backs of pieces with a different colour for each jigsaw.
mmg
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Post by mmg »

Neat and Picky, that's genius! Thank you.
oldpolicehouse
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Thank you all and AngloDutch

Post by oldpolicehouse »

I am calm :-)
ok I am just going to sit down and count my blessings! Oh boy! Ok I started in July 2016 (lots to learn) most of my bookings come via OD and a few via TA ... do I still need T's & C's ... yes I have a welcome pack with all the information and rules about dogs... I knew about the friend who was visiting.... I think the woman spent 3 days drinking by the amount of booze consumed and let her 5 & 7 year olds "get on with it" I did initially have a security deposit but it put the price up too high and put people off . This is the first guests who have tried to get their foot in the door... I started rewarding the guests by stating if they leave the cottage in a reasonable condition they will get a small % off their next visit but only through my web site which until now has worked. I am fortunate as I live next door to my holiday cottage and can store things at the house. I like to find out the age of kids arriving and leave a "special" box available for their age that way I know if anything got broken who it was...As for arriving early... living way up North Inverness .. it will be getting dark at night soon and I think I need to get my guests in before it gets dark as we live in the country with no street lights etc... fun :-) this is not a problem I will not be duped so easily next time (I hope) I had a feeling about this woman before she arrived.... I just felt sorry for the kids being dragged to a cottage with a mother who obviously was too over the limit to drive each day... Now there is another story!! Thanks for all you info.... I love the jigsaw ideas perfect especially the coloured back ground. I like the idea of a linen charge.... but not really I do my own and do the washing while I am cleaning and invested in a large steam press. Up here the laundry companys are rubbish!!!
PW in Polemi - you are quite right ... why did I leave baby blankets??? lesson learned.... I left a hoover in the cupboard and they didn't use that!! lol Thing is .. the woman wants to come back :lol:
On the departure note... should I leave a page in the welcome book to state please leave the place tidy?... towels in the shower room etc

Thanks all for you valuable info

Susan
oldpolicehouse
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oh and ...

Post by oldpolicehouse »

I saw the woman as she was departing and she informed me that the downstairs loo would not flush and that she could not lock the patio doors..... I got my 9 year old son to test out the "problems" which he managed just fine.... and for one of my bots to be able to flush a toilet is a novelty lol
oldpolicehouse
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aagghhh

Post by oldpolicehouse »

Help .. what do I say about departure and leaving the cottage tidy?...... I got the first line started but now stuck!

Susan
e-richard
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Post by e-richard »

I wonder if you're trying to build a business policy/process on the basis of very rare occurrences.

98% of your guests are probably very considerate, clean and tidy, and its that type of guest you want to attract. Draconian T&Cs, hefty Damage Deposits and similar confrontational approaches will actually lose those ideal guests.

Relax, concentrate efforts on attracting more guests, and win.
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greenbarn
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Post by greenbarn »

e-richard wrote:I wonder if you're trying to build a business policy/process on the basis of very rare occurrences.

98% of your guests are probably very considerate, clean and tidy, and its that type of guest you want to attract. Draconian T&Cs, hefty Damage Deposits and similar confrontational approaches will actually lose those ideal guests.

Relax, concentrate efforts on attracting more guests, and win.
That is sound advice - taking a step back and a third party view.

A "What to do on leaving" page in the info pack could be useful (some guests might even read it) to at least give an idea of what you'd like to happen, and just as important - what isn't necessary. But I very much doubt if it would've made the slightest difference to Ms Lush; you can't plan for someone like that, it's just bad luck.

As for marking the backs of the jigsaw pieces, I rather like that idea; but I'm thinking - why not take it a stage further and number them all in sequence? Helpful host or what? :wink:
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AngloDutch
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Post by AngloDutch »

NeatandPicky wrote:Tip re jigsaw muddling:

When sorted, mark the backs of pieces with a different colour for each jigsaw.

We've noticed that some newer jigsaws have patterning on the back (which is never the same, even among various jigsaws from the same manufacturer). That is certainly a step forward when you think about the older jigsaws which often just had the plain grey cardboard backing.
oldpolicehouse
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e richard, greenbarn

Post by oldpolicehouse »

This episode just made me realise that I have been so lucky so far I opened in July and this is my first "untidy" episode.... last week I had a family with 2 dogs and struggled to find a dog hair!!! I am not "raging" at the woman... just need to make sure my I's are dotted and T's crossed I think..... I would not like to set rules as to please clean the house before you leave as everyone up till now has been fantastic maybe a wee bit in the welcome note... as for attracting more guests ... I am so lucky just now and have had very few days empty since July and November I have a week free and so far 3 in Dec which will give me time to have a tidy up of the house... paint etc 2017 I have 15 weeks booked already which is fantastic and 1 booking for 16 days!!!
As for the jigsaws.... a 30 piece where the sizes are set for 3 year olds sounds good :-) I had another look round for my saucepan today .... its gone ... thought maybe the kids hid it ... like the dolls house contents ... poor kids really such a shame... anyway my next lot of guests tomorrow will put me back on track..... always happy ... love my job
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Goes with the Territory

Post by Stewart »

Of the 270 bookings we have taken in four years we have had three groups who have abused the place and flagrantly ignored T's and C's. Interestingly these events corresponded to deeply discounted prices out of season. We have stopped this and only reward "returners" now. I really believe you attract poorer customers the cheaper you pitch yourself.


Finally apart from returners I would not drop the damage deposit.
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Post by amandajane »

Only a bit relevant . I had a very good baking tray which appeared to go missing. Couldn't fathom it at all. Then a day or two late found it wedged in the top of the oven between the grill element and the casing! And a patchwork quilt under the mattress.

So maybe the saucepan will turn up!
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