Lay My Hat

Hi All,
It's a while since I've posted but our Scarborough holiday apartment is very close to go go go now. I've a query as to whether people generally include a mid break clean and bedding /towel change for bookings 2wks or over. If so is that weekly? Or do you charge extra for a mid stay clean and is cleaning and bedding etc all included or separate costs? Atm we have it set up to give a discount of 15% for bookings over a week and an extra charge of £50 for a mid stay clean/bedding (which is a bit less than we'll pay). I just don't want un saveable towels that have been used for weeks but either do I really want guests to wash our towels and bedding and wash in stains

Gina .

We charge the rental per week (Saturday to Saturday) and all linen and towels is included. So, for a two week rental guests are offered a change of all linen and towels on the middle Saturday. Some take a complete change, some don't and some pick and choose what they want and that tends to depend on how energetic they feel to change beds, how hot it has been, how many they are (they might use spare towels if not at full occupancy), how 'fussy' and so on.

One guest famously asked me to help her change all the beds. I was on site and couldn't refuse although I wouldn't normally do so as it is 'self-catering'. We changed her (double bed) together and then she said "That's OK now thanks. The others can do their own beds." !!!

On the odd occasion guests book for three weeks I offer a complete set of clean linen and towels every Saturday or suggest they have it midweek of their second week (ten days in to their holiday). Most go for the latter option.

I do not offer and would not provide a mid-stay clean. No-one has ever asked but I have friends who do it occasionally and it seems to be a nightmare of cleaning around teenagers having a lie-in or slumped on the sofa and cleaning around people and all their belongings. Even guests that have said they will be out for the morning/day/whatever often change their mind and are insitu when the cleaners arrive.

Thanks for your reply Gillian.

I hadnt thought of the hassle for the cleaners having to clean around guests and their stuff. I guess we could leave spare bedding and towels for them to change the beds themselves which I hadn't considered doing (though we were having spares in case of any accidents in bed!). I'd rather the cleaners/laundry people collect the used bedding midstay especially if its a 3wk stay (someone is interested in 3wks) ..don't want to run out and we've already spent a fortune on bedding! Plus I think things are better washed sooner rather than later. I'll check see if the company does a collect and wash service only without the clean.

In previous posts on the subject of changeovers mid stay, some commented that cleaners can feel very vulnerable entering a property with guests' belongings around. Whether or not this is justifiable or not, I couldn't say, but I can understand it.

I generally ask guests who book for 2 weeks what they would want. Some opt to leave used bedding in the kitchen at an agreed day and time for the cleaner to replace with clean linen and guests make beds themselves.
Others say they do not want a changeover, and specifically book self catering to have a degree of privacy and not be disturbed.

I once had guests staying for 4 weeks in January following a flood in their home (insurance paid for the accommodation). My cleaner delivered clean linen each week as described above, as I didn't want the linen and towels to be not at their best as a result of poor laundering but I didn't offer a clean.

I wouldn't charge extra as my cleaning fees are already factored into a weeks price, in fact I may offer guests a small discount on what I don't pay my cleaner, to encourage 2 week bookings.

The advantage of doing the basic clean mid-stay is that the dirt does not become engrained and much more difficult to remove in the limited time you have available before your next guests arrive - if they are arriving the same day as your current guests are leaving. Also if anything is being damaged - for example water spilt on a wooden surface and not cleared up - you can make sure that the damage doesn't get worse.

I have a two week booking in July. Not being sure of the protocol, I offered him a £50 discount if he did not want a mid stay clean and bed change, as this is what it costs us. He took me up on the offer saying he did not want to be disturbed. Next time though I may offer a smaller discount and just provide a clean set of bed linen and towels as it seems a bit icky not to.

For a two week stay we leave a spare set of sheets for each bed. The used sheets are left in the kitchen for our caretaker to collect and wash. We don't provide towels. No mid stay cleaning either.

In addition I also leave an emergency set of bedding for a child's single bed in case of accidents.

I only offer a mid stay exchange at the door of linen and towels for three week bookings half way through only.

Won't offer a mid stay clean, too many things could go wrong. Working around guests and there belongings is hard work and fraught with potential issues afterwards, re potential claims of thefts and damages of belongings etc. Also I found that offering a mid stay clean / change of linen and towels opened up the opportunity for them to ask for more. Whilst your here can you do this that and the other and can we have more of something. Is it OK if we leave at lunch time rather than 10am on the day we leave?

Let them in and stay away unless you feel there is a need to visit for some reason.

I think guests want to be left alone and feel that they are at home. We leave a cupboard full of sheets and towels and the guests can change bedding whenever they like and the system has never been abused. If they do happen to wash teatowels etc which aren't as pristine as they might be I can aways take them home to give them a soak in Vanish and wash them again.

We do the same as Blanche regarding guests' access to our linen cupboard, and so far, only one set of guests has abused this in 11 years. Our manager still always offers a mini-clean for stays over ~10 days but most guests say not to bother and they will help themselves to new sheets/towels. Our house is just for 2 people so they've only got 1 bed to make up.

I think it depends upon the type of rental. My deal was always that there would be a mid-term change of bedlinen and a light clean after seven nights. No one ever asked to forego it, and to be honest it gave my managers the chance to make sure that nothing was amiss. Theoretically I was not supposed to provide this as a Spanish 'vivienda rural' because this counted as additional services which would put me in the same compartment as a B&B (mad, as the property was wholly self catering other than the linen change).

We do change the bed linen and towels mid way through a 2 week booking and the cost for this has already been covered in the rent. Some guests say they will do it themselves and we just arrange a time to give them the clean bedding and towels and they leave us the dirty ones, but there are some guests where I would want to have a look around and see what kind of a state the place is in so I have some idea of what we are in for when they leave.

It's been a while since we've taken a 2 week holiday but from the perspective of a guest, I find it quite intrusive when cleaners turn up early in the morning when we;re on holiday and trying to have a lazy morning. We didn't expect daily cleaning on one holiday, but that was what we got, and I got fed up of having to get teens out of bed before 10am after a late night, so I had to ask them not to clean in that room on a few mornings.
The gite holiday in France didn't include anything, beds weren't even made on arrival, and we were expected to clean ourselves before departure.

So, I now don't include the cost in a 2 week booking, but it is there as an optional extra if someone wants it. No-one has paid for it.

We have b een doing changeovers now for 15 years and none of our property owners offer clean linen for a 2 week stay anymore. All gites have washing machines (some driers). However if it is more than 2 weeks arrangements are made for guests to leave their dirty linen in a specified place and clean linen will be left when dirty is collected. We refuse to do a mid-stay clean now because once a wallet went missing and although we were not directly accused it left a nasty feeling. The wallet was found in the local supermarket a few days later and handed in. Hence we have vowed never to do this again. Also not good trying to clean around peoples private possessions.