Should I charge for cleaning ?

[KathyC]

Whilst on the subject of definitions, it's worth pointing out that the phrase "self catering" refers to the ability of guests to prepare meals for themselves and has nothing to do with housework, washing etc. Considering that many self catering properties are more expensive than similar hotel accommodation, I really feel that some gite owners just want to sit back and pull in the money whilst making little contribution to their guests holiday. As I've said before, nobody should wreck another person's property but if you want cleaning done to your exacting standards you should really do it yourself or pay for a cleaner.

[Miki]

Please see the logic. If a gite owner puts in his T&C's  and the hirer is quite clearly told that the place must be

left as found but a quick clean up after their departure will be

undertaken and up to so many hours/minutes as standard, then that is the way it is.

Anyone looking in and wanting to take up a holiday next year or an old

hand at hiring (who probably know the regs inside out), please don't

ruddy sign it, if you don't like the conditions of the booking. And I

cannot emphasise enough, walk away if you don't want to clean on

holiday, look elsewhere. I don't know, you put it as simply as you can

and still it gets complaints !!! Two sides to a booking both have the

chance to say yes or no, the owner makes the rules to suit them, the

hirer chooses yes or no to agreeing or not.........

Will, again pedantic perhaps but gîte, to be honest,  is really a

simple resting place in the old terms of French accommodation,

obviously it has nothing to do with cleaning but nothing really to do

with Hotels either. Hotels were and even today, always asked for as

Hotels but logically, I guess I would put those lovely One star carpet

and wallpaper up and over the walls and ceiling places as old style gîte accommodation!!.

From a French angle, all the early years of G de Fr gîtes, one was

expected to clean after your stay and the owners had an inventory that

was rigidly checked on arrival and along with checking the cleaning

after the stay, went all through the inventory again.

I think it was Susan who said it earlier, French guests think it normal

to clean their hired place, it has been part of self catering since the

days it all began. Some will pay the asking price to have it cleaned

but so inbred are the French in to the gîte system, that very few ever

leave it anything but extremely tidy.

We are here mostly all here in France but are bringing British habits and why's and wherefores  in to the equation, why...well

we all know that, the Brits will pay far more than the French and will

expect more but, to blow it all open a little more, there are some

bargains to be had with the French but be warned, you will be expected

to clean and in many cases Madame will be looking very carefully for a

good clean and no breakages [;-)]

[Chancer]

I was invited by some French friends (him English ex pat, her native French) to join them on a ski-ing holiday, they had already rented an apartment that was part of the French owners home, I don't know whether it would have been described as a gite.

Anyway we shared all expenses and generally took turns in cleaning up each day, but not to the extent of what I would call a "handover clean".

On the final day we ate breakfast a la francais, usual messy croissants and baguettes without plates, crumbs all over the floor etc. When I offered to clean up she (my French now ex-friend) told me in no uncertain terms "NON" - we are not paid to do that.

I don't know whether there was a seperate amount in the rental but to me it seemed bizarre to leave the place dirtier than we had kept it all week.

Anyway after the way she treated me when she stayed with me at my UK house this year I hope that she does not represent all French women.

As a separate question to the forum users when thay have let friends stay F.O.C how have they treated you or left the place? have you sometimes felt let down? and if it was a paying guest would you have felt the same way?

[hastobe]

Caveating what I am about to say by assurances that I am not implying all gites are the same but...

Some of the gites we have stayed in over the years have been the dirtiest, scummiest places out - I have had to chip weeks worth of burned food from the cooker / grill pan, scrub grease from work surfaces, bleach the fridge and remove mould and decayed food residue from cookware, plates etc before I could think about using the kitchen safely - and the toilets - well I don't even want to go there.... 

So just to balance this out - it's not always the guest that are taking the Micheal.

Kathie

 

[Cassis]

[quote user="J.R."]

As a separate question to the forum users when thay have let friends stay F.O.C how have they treated you or left the place? have you sometimes felt let down? and if it was a paying guest would you have felt the same way?

[/quote]

No idea, J.R., as friends pay the same as everyone else and we do them breakfast and clean their rooms.  Only difference is we'll normally do them evening meals FOC if they buy the wine.  Maybe gite owners do have friends for free, but as they are occupying a room (B&B) that we would otherwise have let to someone else, friends and family generally pay, unless we have invited them for some reason.

[Miki]

Well if it was me, I doubt if I  would ever have taken a gîte

holiday again. I am of the school that will give anything a go once,

maybe twice but if it is still as bad the second time or twice in so

many bookings, that's it.....finito, no more holidays without first

finding one that I am sure will be fine. We must be lucky, no that's

wrong, not lucky perhaps, good at seeing through the text and talk.

The way you have descibed your luck in booking, I certainly wouldn't

risk another one !! The sound of the places you booked defy description

and I have personally seen many (hundreds of hire properties I reckon)

over the years and NONE have ever been like that, some poorly decorated

and badly furnished but none with kitchens or toilets like

that.................and I have seen many budget ones, at less than

1000 francs (around 150 euros or so) a week

[Russethouse]

 Its all very well using 'gite' as a broad term but I wonder how much the type of people you are marketing your gite toward (couples, families, big groups etc) would have a bearing on the 'cleaning' question?

[hastobe]

As I said Miki - its not all gites we stayed out - some were great.  But there were several that certainly benefitted from our visit (aka our  clean!).  The bad were a mixture of French and English owned - so no national bias here. The problem is that when you have a young family, and have had a long journey to get to the gite, its sometimes easier just to resign yourself to scrubbing the place up first than to face the prospect of finding somewhere else.

We now have our own place...so we have only ourselves to blame for any mess LOL.  We're strictly B&B en route now :)

Kathie

[Miki]

I take my hat off to you, I really do. If a place was that bad with us,

we would have got the owner in and let them take a look. If they had

not sorted it out then I would have asked for a rebate or even left and

sorted it out later. No way could we put up with that kind of filth and

we had 4 kids with us for many years !

After working hard all year for a holiday, people really do deserve a

proper clean and tidy accommodation and we have never forgotten that with ourselves being in the tourist trade.

[Owens88]

[quote user="Miki"]After working hard all year for a holiday, people really do deserve a proper clean and tidy accommodation and we have never forgotten that with ourselves being in the tourist trade.
[/quote]

 

I agree wholeheartedly and I also believe that to do a thorough clean whilst not yet departed is extremely difficult (I often try but still pay for a backup clean) and a waste of a holiday. I don't expect it of my renters.

Tidy, with empty bins and clean cookers and dishes/pots etc.I do expect.

[Georgina]

JR said"As a separate question to the forum users when thay have let friends stay F.O.C how have they treated you or left the place? have you sometimes felt let down? and if it was a paying guest would you have felt the same way?"

I am replying to this earlier point as it was a good one:

This has got to be different, I mean when the relatives stay and treat the place with no respect.  At least the gite owners get paid. I asked my relatives to bring slippers as I had just finished their room and varnished the floorboards, and also did not want the outside bringing indoors, a bit of a problem as we have yet to sort the garden out.  They brought the slippers but then did not wear them, but wore their shoes inside.  I think when you go to someone's house and stay for free and then they ignore your polite requests, that takes the biscuit.

Georgina

[Chancer]

I may go into some more detail later about how some "friends" have left me wishing that I had charged them - I am not a gite or CDH just renovating an old and interesting property.

The key thing is that in each case they have invited themselves i.e. "can we come and stay".

After explaining to my neighbours why I was happier when they had left I learned a new French phrase - "Trop bon - trop c##"!!!!

[Cassis]

Indeed - it is a real con when friends you have not invited invite themselves!

[Miki]

No cassis, it's friends of friends that are the greatest !!

Or even worse, the arrival of friends you didn't even know you had.........[8-)]

[Georgina]

[quote user="J.R."]

I may go into some more detail later about how some "friends" have left me wishing that I had charged them - I am not a gite or CDH just renovating an old and interesting property.

The key thing is that in each case they have invited themselves i.e. "can we come and stay".

After explaining to my neighbours why I was happier when they had left I learned a new French phrase - "Trop bon - trop c##"!!!!

[/quote]

Yes, please go into more detail JR, I would like to know  I am not alone. It's the ones that come and then moan about everything that bug me.

And also, how do gite owners go on with relatives who come, you know the ones that grate on you. Do you want to charge them??[:D] Sounds awful - what about the ones that always eat your last jar of peanut butter or marmite.

Georgina

[P]

There are some genralisations in this lot.

Self catering - to me that means that there is the equipment to boil a kettle anything else is not required as on holiday I do not expect my wife nor myself to cook.

Cleaning - as some others have said it is a holiday so cleaning service please.

9am leave - fine with me - even if we were travelling to catch a ferry, let's look at some of the countryside on route.

You are running your businesses and some will be successful. But within the forums I have read moans that there are too many gites and B&Bs chasing too few punters.

To go in for a bit of management stuff. There is one theory that businesses (and indeed personal relationships) need to change and the time for change is whilst successful.

An example of leaving it too late is M&S who have been really struggling to reverse a decline. They believed that they were doing everything right but how wrong were they.

Reading some of the comments it would eem that you, the gite owners, are doing the punters a very big favour letting them rent your gites. Seems a little Basil Fawlty to me.

Marketing - yes. What group are your target audience (the travel industry does this - some have divisions that cater to different types of people whilst others have one niche market - 18/30, Saga etc). This will influence where you advertise. Knowing what the target group expect will help to provide them with what they want so that they enjoy their holiday and, in some cases, respect your property more.

I can imagine that at times it is very hard work, specially being nice to obnoxious people, but in a sevice industry you have to take the rough with th smooth.

[KathyC]

[quote user="P"]

 

Reading some of the comments it would eem that you, the gite owners, are doing the punters a very big favour letting them rent your gites. Seems a little Basil Fawlty to me.

[/quote]

This last sentence is so true. I'm really pleased we're moving into our own house soon as some of the feelings expressed here and on the chambres d'hotes board have really put me off staying at this type of accommodation. I've stayed in places in France where the owners have made me feel that I'm getting in the way of their lifestyle, but I hadn't realised just how many people seem to dislike their customers and begrudge them using the accommodation. I know that it's the end of the season and make allowances. Perhaps you don't realise how it comes across?

[Miki]

Sorry but I do have big grin on my face. [:D]

I am always amazed at the folks who offer opinions about something they

have never run or understand. It reminds me of the "don't do it like

that, do it like this" comedy sketch.

Does anyone really think that we all go around mumbling "what do you

guests think you're doing spoiling our day staying here, be off with

you but leave the dosh at the door on the way out" ?

We have, for the greater part, as most, if not all of us have

said,  great guests, so that's a smile on our face and for the

whingers, we have our fixed grin. If anyone is so blind as to think

everyone is just so lovely and nice, then move over, make space for us

C D'Hôte or Gîte owners who know different, very different but wouldn't

mind moving to the planet that these people are on and everyone is just

beautiful !!

Anyone who now doesn't want to stay in a Ch D'Hôte (or gîte) after

reading this thread, gives me the impression they thay may well fall in

to the very category of folks that we don't really want anyway [:P]

If anyone reading this is put off of staying Chez Miki (or Chez anyone

else ?) ....well tant pis, we will just have to pack the game in

then.............................[:)]

[Cassis]

Hang on Miki - I can thank this site for at least, ooh, let me just check the spreadsheet ....

..... got it.  0.19% of our bookings by value this year!

[:D]

[Miki]

In which case I apologise and recommend that readers continue to use Chez Cassis

and apologise that as we are sullen, miserable old gits who will bite

yer 'ead off, we are best given the proverbial swerve.[;-)]

Thank you for your kind consideration in this matter. Not that it

matters, our bookings show a....0.00 % increase on last years, 0.00 %

So what was their name then cassis,  Mr & Mrs Archant? [:)]

[Cassis]

No, not Mr & Mrs Archant!  However, a quick Yahoo image search for Archant leads to this:

[img]http://www.theadvertisingfestival.com/uploaded_images/IMG_7816.jpg[/img]

MR.ENZO TESTA OF ARCHANT MEDIA & GUESTS

[Jo Taylor]

Well, thank goodness Miki and Cassis answered first.

"P", please don't be so sanctimonious. A well-known phrase involving grannies and eggs comes to mind, and it's very rude of you to assume that those of us in the "hospitality industry" (awful phrase, but we can do business-speak with the best of 'em) have no inkling of target markets and 'having to take the rough with the smooth'. How patronising.

Kathy, I for one am not at all bothered by "how it comes across" - we're not touting for custom here. We advertise in the appropriate places; which is not a Gite Owners' Forum. Here, if nowhere else, we can display our darker side [6].

This section of the forum is clearly labelled Gite Owners - we're not here to advertise our properties, simply discuss with other owners and have a good moan if we feel like it. Which we sometimes do.

Ironically, the owners here are, for the most part, probably some of the more conscientious - there are still many absent owners out there who let their cottages, furnished with mouldy cast-offs, relying on each tenant to leave it clean for the next, and wouldn't even think of joining a forum.

*Goes off to make faces [:P][geek][:(][:'(] at guests*.

[Cassis]

Exactly, a lot of posts are just to gossip, blow off steam, whatever.  

Anyway - what's interesting about posting about the good experiences? Bo-ring! [:D]

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote user="Cassis"]Hang on Miki - I can thank this site for at least, ooh, let me just check the spreadsheet ....

..... got it.  0.19% of our bookings by value this year!

[:D]

[/quote]

0.19 % more than we got then...mind you, I don't post a link to our

(immaculately crafted) website on this august forum. Not that I have

any problem at all with those who do - more power to their arms, say I

- but personally I like very much to keep our business seperate from my

periodic ravings.

[Miki]

Yeh, we don't do nicey posts about goody two shoes guests, we only want

to grumble about the stuck up, smelly no good ones....[:P]