Nightmare!

[Marie]

We returned yesterday from spending a week in our gite, and before we even got home we got a call on the mobile from the new locataires to say that the gite hadn't been cleaned or the beds changed.  Having personally spent nearly 3 hours cleaning and changing beds, I was not impressed!  I tried to be philosophical, and put it down to very picky guests, although the cynic in me wondered if they were trying to get a refund.  We assured them that the whole house had in fact been thoroughly cleaned and the bedding was fresh - their reaction "what a disappointment". AAAARGH!

We've just had another call from them, saying that the septic tank is making a nasty smell and they are sure we have a cracked pipe (how do you decide these things in a strange house after 14 hours?).  What do others think it might be? Does anyone else get an increase in smell after heavy rain storms like we've had the last few days? They're threatening to go elsewhere, and while part of me is tempted to let them after yesterday's comments, I still have to try and keep our reputation intact.  Suggestions anyone?

 

Marie

[Iceni]

If they have paid in advance and you hold a deposit against damage etc then let them go find somewhere else. Money in the hand beats reputation every time.

John

not

[Christine Animal]

Could it be that they are finding "excuses" in advance for leaving your place without cleaning up themselves, by saying that that is how they found it?

John, I am not at all in the gite business, but how can you hold a deposit againstdamage if you have not done an "état des lieux" when the people went in?

[Coco]

Yes, just occasionally we get a waft of a nasty smell from our fosse but it's once in a blue moon!

Some people just HAVE to moan, it's what makes their holiday!  There may be a more sinister motive behind it, ie they want a refund or as someone has said, they want an excuse for not cleaning it themselves.  Others just like to pick holes in everything.

When we used to rent our house out we had a great missive sent to us by email when the couple returned home, telling us how half the grouting was missing from the bathroom tiles, which would create a leak through the bathroom floor, that every piece of crockery was chipped, there were no matching glasses and that the place hadn't been cleaned properly on arrival.  I checked with the lady who did our turnrounds (trusting her implicitly, as I know she always did a good job) and she told me that she thought everything seemed OK and that, yes, she had done a thorough clean before their arrival.

We were going to the house ourselves a couple of weeks later.  On arrival I checked the crockery and out of a full dinner and breakfast set of 4 settings there was one side plate with a chip on it that hadn't been there before.  There were a couple of new, odd, glasses, where people had obviously replaced ones that they had broken, but as there had been 6 of each type there were still enough for a matching set, as the house only slept 4.  And as for the grouting, it was an area of less than one inch that had broken away!!!

Don't worry about them.  YOu have their money and if you are satisfied that you left the house clean and tidy then if they go elsewhere all the better I would say!  As I've said somewhere else, when you're dealing with the general public it is absolutely impossible to please all of the people, all of the time.

[Maddie]

Goodness me!  I'd be terrified to think what they would to to my property if they left to go to another place and I or my caretaker was not there to "supervise" their departure!

Having read this I am very happy that I live on site and can personally show people around every aspect of the gite to demonstrate all is clean, tiidy and in good order.  Makes you wonder sometimes what people expect or are after when they make this sort of comment epcially if YOU know it was left in perfectly good order..

[Eslier]

Oh, this really is a difficult one to answer honestly without causing offence to anyone. (None is intended so please don't be offended.)

The problem is, as anyone who has stayed in different gites will tell you, there is clean, very clean and spotless. With more people going down the high quality gite route now, there are more places around that could be classed as spotless. That doesn't make the other places dirty but it does make them look a bit poor in comparison.

We always ask our guests to leave the gites clean (cleaning is not included in the rental price). If they prefer, they can pay for a local agency to come in on the Friday before their departure and clean the place from top to bottom. Even so, after they leave on the Saturday morning, we spend a great deal of time cleaning to a high standard. As an example, our three bedroom gite might have a 3 hour clean from the agency on the guests last day. After they have left it will then get another clean of around five to six hours. Furthermore our bed linen is high quality and always neatly pressed.

Now just because we operate to that sort of standard, that doesn't mean everyone should. But it does mean that someone who compares our gite with one that has had a quick three hour clean will certainly be aware of the difference. We often have guests making comment on the high standard of cleanliness and they come out with things like "you should have seen the state of the place we were in last week" or "I cried when I arrived at the place we stayed in last year". What they forget, is that they have paid us top prices (we are not cheap) and therefore we are only providing what they have paid for. The trouble is that many brits feel they should always get the top standard even when they pay bargain prices.

We can only offer the sort of service we do because we live on site and it is our full time job for the two of us. The prices we charge enable us to regularly replace linen and other items of equipment to ensure everything looks good. You couldn't expect that sort of standard if you aren't there to do it yourself, neither could most people afford to pay someone to provide that sort of service.

Back to the original question, if you don't already do so, it is worth putting a sachet of Eparcyl down the toilet every week as you can't be sure what the guests have washed down the sink. Also, keep an eye open for dried out waste traps - perhaps on the washing machine or on the expansion valve trap of the water cylinder. If they dry out then the smell from the fosse comes straight back up into the house ! Regarding your guests, just remember they'll be leaving soon and you'll hopefully never have to speak to them again. If they are there for two weeks then you could offer to send someone in to provide a mid-stay clean as a gesture of goodwill which might pacify them. Don't take it personally, some people just like to moan and once they get started they'll find fault with everything. Once they've chilled out a bit and drunk a few bottles of wine they'll probably go to ground.

[Lizzie15]

Hi.Yes,this is tricky. I also spend approx 6 hours getting the house ready for the next people and that doesn't include the time taken to do the laundry etc of course. I had exactly what you describe happen a couple of weeks ago.The people left our place for somewhere in the Vendee-on paper,same sort of property,same price-but they rang me up as soon as they arrived and asked to come back!They wanted to jump in the car and come straight back down to us because the house was so dirty! It may well not have been dirty ,just not spotless-he did say" she hasn't got the same standards as you and I ".My house already had the new guests installed so it wasn't possible  but I did feel sorry for the old guests and I wondered about the place they went to...maybe of the standard that used to be acceptable 15 years ago? .We've probably strayed a bit from the original posters query but food for thought none the less.