Tuesday 13 August 2013

Dear House Guests

What a pleasure it was to rise at 3.30 am for our early flight back to Rome and arrive to find our house just as you had left it that morning - disgusting.  Some holiday renters amaze me, I wonder if your total lack of respect applies only to other people's property or equally to your own, I have no idea how your minds work.  Lets go over a few points.
I have never seen such a filthy bathroom as the en suite.  Even when Mr FF has been working outside all day amongst dust and dirt, the bath has never been that colour.  When I lifted out the non slip mat there was a perfect negative image of it in grease and dirt on the bottom of the bath.  The toilets are beyond discussion.
It was interesting how you had re-arranged all the crockery, stupid of me to keep the same items in the same place, much easier for you to stick things anywhere and who needs say 12 white plates together and next to 12 white bowls etc.  Always a good idea too to put some things away dirty, ensures that everything had to be checked and keeps us on out toes.
We do ask for the tv to be unplugged and soft furnishings from the terrace moved under cover in stormy weather, obviously we don't mean this.  It was pouring down and thundering when we arrived and the terrace looked like a badly arranged furniture showroom.
I did mention it would be helpful if you could keep an eye on my pots of plants which you said would be no problem.  Obviously walking past them every day as they turned brown and died wasn't a problem for you, its heart breaking for me to grown flowers from seed and try to make the the house look better, a large display of brown stalks is equally welcoming and so much easier.
i know the village refuse and recycling system is a pain, you need 5 different bags which you put out on 6 days for door to door collection.  I have made a chart of what goes when and there are containers in the garage to keep your sorted stuff in.    I can understand you didn't want to enter into this so leaving a weeks rubbish in the kitchen, including a large oozing bag of rotting food was the best option.  It will be a week before some of your rubbish is removed but you are miles away now what do you care.
You certainly didn't get the hang of the shutter catches did you.  You open the shutters push them back and the catch springs up to hold them in place, you got that far.  To release them you simply press the little knob at the bottom of the catch, you don't actually need to unscrew the catches from the wall though its an interesting idea if a little labour intensive.
I've also considered your idea of splattering flies on the wall and leaving them there, particularly effective in the bedroom above the bed.  I've never been a fan of rag rolling or distressing so I probably won't take this forward.
So I am getting through the cleaning and still laundering.  I do feel 12 bath towels for 5 people in a week is excessive but it looks like you used some of the white ones for sunbathing, they have already been washed twice, so perhaps you did need them all.  I know you discovered the washing machine but you must have thought this was for your ouse only.  I worked out from the detergent level that in the past 28 letting days there have been 40 washes, presumably no one does laundry when they arrive or the day they leave, so this works out at almost 2 washes per day, couldn't you fit it a towel or two., they do dry really quickly.  Mr FF blames Ryanair for not allowing us to bring much luggage.
The website where we advertise our property has come up with the idea of including guest reviews.  I am not at all interested but thinking of starting my own site similar to trip advisor where holiday home owners can black list the renting slobs, Dirt Alert I might call it or Guests who are Pests.  We have had horrible people here in the past but recent renters you are now no 1 in the charts and the jury is out about continuing to let.  A pity as most people are careful and appreciative and we prefer the village to have an occupied house and some tourist income.  You awful people spoil things for everyone else and you don't give a toss.

12 comments:

  1. Oh Jenny, what can I say but how much I feel for you, what a horrible arrival at your Italian home. :(

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  2. How horrid - I can see why you'd not want to let in the future :(

    I hope you get things back to normal as soon as possible xx

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  3. Oh, that really is horrid. I can't even get my head round how or why people behave that way. Having been on the opposite side (renting a villa that wasn't very clean when we arrived to start our holiday) I have some small idea how you feel, but since it is your own home it must be 100x worse for you.

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  4. Oh yuk. You've hit the nail right on the head regarding why we've never let our little Spanish house. It stands empty most of the time but I think I prefer that.

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  5. Did you take a deposit from them? *hopeful*

    Whenever we leave a holiday property I am paranoid about leaving anything out of place or dirty. It's such a shame that these people haven't apparently been brought up properly.

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  6. It makes my blood boil for you! I truly cannot understand why people would act like that. You have my total sympathy and I hope you do start a web-site that black lists those who are disgusting.

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  7. Oh no, poor you Jenny. How awful for you to have people show so little respect for your home. Whenever we stay somewhere, we always make sure that everything is put away clean and tidy. I hope you are managing to put it behind you and enjoy yourself. xx

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  8. They do sound rather inconsiderate, did you not have something similar last year too? The few bad ones spoil it for the rest.

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  9. Ugh! Oh how I know how you feel, even if in the years when my parents let out the beach rental, only one group turned out very, very bad in terms of leaving the place reasonably clean. That's when my parents started charging a higher cleaning fee...to compensate for the extra time in getting the place in shipshape. It does spoil it for the rest, but sadly the world will never be rid of people with such filthy habits.

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  10. Ugh, I seriously hope those people lose their deposit. We have our apartment in Spain on long term rental and not holiday rental cause I really don't want to be dealing with that. Brilliant idea for a website though! Hope the rest of your stay is uneventful and happy.

    Hugs
    Brenda

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  11. Unbelievably shocking! Hopefully, once you're ship shape again, you will be able to enjoy your lovely home in the sun! Ros

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  12. Just catching up, and oh boy, what a post. It amazes me how awful people can be. Since my son's girlfriend moved in with him, she has been renting out her flat. She has had nothing but trouble, rent not paid, fixtures and fittings damaged. She is now going to sell it.

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