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Jenny P

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Everything posted by Jenny P

  1. What do other gite owners consider reasonable as a security deposit ?  I recently looked at gites in competion with ours, (i.e. in our area with a pool and the same number of people) and found the security deposit ranged from 200 to 1000 euros.  The rental prices also varied between 500 to 1600 per week in very high season. For the past three years we have asked for 150 euros as damage deposit, by cheque which we hold and send back after we have inspected the property. This year we have decided to increase it but are not sure to how much.  700 euros seems excessive to me. Jenny
  2. Thanks for all your comments. On reflection, we have decided to go ahead and charge them even though they didn't sign and return a copy of the booking conditions, they did receive them as I still have a copy of the email. We don't want people like that to come back as we are quite happy with our French and Belgian guests and if they do happen to recommend us to their friends, we may end up with the same problem. I understand that some people don't want to spend their last day or two of their holiday cleaning, in which case they should either chose a gite which has a paid cleaning service or ask the owners if they can forgo the cleaning and pay something extra towards it. We do spend the time between guests making sure the gite is clean for the next guests, but I don't expect to have to clean the whole gite (which has in fact got 3 bedrooms and 4 beds to change as we provide linen).  I do check the oven, hob, microwave etc, clean the windows and then we also have to make sure the pool is sparkling clean, do the mowing and any strimming and so the time passes quickly enough without having to do a full clean. Thanks again and if anything, we have learnt our lesson about not checking if people have sent back the booking conditions signed (it is the first time it has happened!). Thanks also to Sabrina. We have already had the thought of putting a note on the booking form that signing it means that they agree to the T&C's but yours is better worded, so we will use that.
  3. Thanks everyone for your comments. I see both sides of the argument.  Like Miki says, these people  should have left it clean and I am very disappointed in them (especially as they are the first English people to stay there and we were pleased to get the booking), but on the hand if there is a chance that these people recommend us and someone actually books, then it will bring us a lot more than the suggested 60 euros we could charge for cleaning. We do have the clause in our terms and conditions that the property should be left in a the same clean state as they found it and as it was English people, we sent a copy to them in English so they could understand it. Unfortunately since posting my query, I have been looking through my files and I can't find a copy of our terms and conditions signed by the clients. I have the email when I sent it but when they sent back the booking form, they didn't return the conditions signed and I never checked until now.  Unfortunately the decision will have to be to let it go, as I can't prove that they accepted the terms to leave it clean and I hope that we do get a recommendation by not deducting anything Thanks again Jenny
  4.     We are into our third year of renting out our gite and until this summer we haven't had any English guests, just French and Belgians. It is part of our terms and conditions that the gite is left in a clean condition, like it was when the people arrived.  We haven't had any problems with this as the French and Belgians have always left it very clean, but we are very disappointed with our first English guests. They had 3 children who were probably in and out of the pool a lot but after inspecting the gite after they left on Saturday, they don't look like they have done any housework for the 2 weeks they were here (hoover, mop and all cleaning products are provided). Now admittedly they had to get up at 3am on Saturday morning to get to the airport for their flight home, but they could have cleaned up during the Friday at least. We spoke to them on Friday night to say goodbye (as we didn't fancy waving them off at 3am!) and so never saw the condition of the gite whilst they were there. They said they had a lovely time and would certainly recommend it to friends. We actually have the time to clean the gite properly as they are our last guests, but if we had had new people coming in, it would have been a rush to get it all clean, plus changing all the beds in time for 4pm, our arrival time. So the question is, do we charge for cleaning and take off their damage deposit, or put a note in when returning their cheque for the damage deposit saying how they should have left it cleaner, in either case they might be miffed and not recommend us, or do we say nothing and hope that we get a recommendation which actually turns into a booking. What do you more experienced gite owners think ? Jenny
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