Question about villa contracts and cleaning

[coastgirl]

(Is this a duplicate? I was sure I already hit post, but now I can't find it. Post vacation brain, I guess!)

Hi folks, we've just returned and are on the verge of an "issue" with our damage deposit. I will try not to devolve into he said/she said (though I'd love to rant--I shall control myself). I am curious about standards for leaving a villa.

We were there for two weeks: two adults, two kids and a small dog (she was part of the deal, and we followed his rules for her). The dog appears to have chewed a comforter and we missed it, so that's fair enough.

We took out all the garbage and recycling before we left, and we washed all the sheets and towels and washed dishes/ran the dishwasher. This was required by our contract "leave it in a tidy condition", with dishes, laundry and garbage specifically mentioned. I did not sweep or vacuum, mop, clean toilets, etc. However we are being assessed extra cleaning because of the "mounds of garbage". My 13 yo was eating junk in his room and there were some things under his bed. I did get him to sweep, but I didn't check, and there were a few things. (Not enough to fill a Publix bag though!) I noticed a few tissues and a cash receipt or two on the floor, but didn't have time to pick them up, as I was busy doing laundry! Seriously, the works across the 4 bedroom house still wouldn't fill a single grocery bag if you swept it all together. And it was a 2 week rental.

Sorry, I'm afraid I am straying rant-ward, so I'll stop! I know this is my arrangement and I must deal with it, but wondering about things like requirements to do laundry (I would've started a load/run the dishwasher as a courtesy), and "leaving it tidy". I had contacted the owner when we checked in to tell him that there was a fair bit of dust and crud left by the cleaners when we arrived.

The comforter I'll wear (though I hope he doesn't charge me for top-end bedding when we were sleeping under Target stuff). But I feel put out that we are being dubbed pigs (and being charged accordingly) when we made an effort to do the laundry and so on.

So what has your experience been with private home rentals and check out tidying? We have rented houses before and been asked as a courtesy to start the laundry and dishwasher, but it's never been a requirement (though I did meet the requirement once I read the contract). But I've never been charged extra because the house needed to be swept up after we left. Wouldn't you expect that a cleaner would, you know, clean the floors?

 

[Upatnoon]

(Is this a duplicate? I was sure I already hit post, but now I can't find it. Post vacation brain, I guess!)

Hi folks, we've just returned and are on the verge of an "issue" with our damage deposit. I will try not to devolve into he said/she said (though I'd love to rant--I shall control myself). I am curious about standards for leaving a villa.

We were there for two weeks: two adults, two kids and a small dog (she was part of the deal, and we followed his rules for her). The dog appears to have chewed a comforter and we missed it, so that's fair enough.

We took out all the garbage and recycling before we left, and we washed all the sheets and towels and washed dishes/ran the dishwasher. This was required by our contract "leave it in a tidy condition", with dishes, laundry and garbage specifically mentioned. I did not sweep or vacuum, mop, clean toilets, etc. However we are being assessed extra cleaning because of the "mounds of garbage". My 13 yo was eating junk in his room and there were some things under his bed. I did get him to sweep, but I didn't check, and there were a few things. (Not enough to fill a Publix bag though!) I noticed a few tissues and a cash receipt or two on the floor, but didn't have time to pick them up, as I was busy doing laundry! Seriously, the works across the 4 bedroom house still wouldn't fill a single grocery bag if you swept it all together. And it was a 2 week rental.

Sorry, I'm afraid I am straying rant-ward, so I'll stop! I know this is my arrangement and I must deal with it, but wondering about things like requirements to do laundry (I would've started a load/run the dishwasher as a courtesy), and "leaving it tidy". I had contacted the owner when we checked in to tell him that there was a fair bit of dust and crud left by the cleaners when we arrived.

The comforter I'll wear (though I hope he doesn't charge me for top-end bedding when we were sleeping under Target stuff). But I feel put out that we are being dubbed pigs (and being charged accordingly) when we made an effort to do the laundry and so on.

So what has your experience been with private home rentals and check out tidying? We have rented houses before and been asked as a courtesy to start the laundry and dishwasher, but it's never been a requirement (though I did meet the requirement once I read the contract). But I've never been charged extra because the house needed to be swept up after we left. Wouldn't you expect that a cleaner would, you know, clean the floors?

How much is the extra charge? Obviously, it is a subjective decision on what is tidy enough and what isn't. The more little things left -- the chewed comforter, the hidden trash -- the more likely someone would go for the extra charge as they may feel there may be more problems to be uncovered.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

I can see being charged a reasonable fee for the chewed comforter. However, normal cleaning when a renter moves out should include sweeping and mopping floors. Picking up a few pieces of missed trash here and there shouldn't be an issue either.

It sounds to me like the owner schedules his cleaners for a very minimal amount of time, and charges the tenant if they have to go over. He should schedule the cleaners and pay them a reasonable amount to clean a 4-bedroom house. That would include scrubbing bathrooms, cleaning the kitchen, making beds, cleaning floors, dusting, etc. I think requiring tenants to do all of the laundry is excessive. It would mean getting up extra early on check-out day, stripping all the beds and running it all through the washer and dryer. That wouldn't feel much like a vacation to me!

We checked out of a Windsor Hills townhome two weeks ago after a 10-day stay. The check-out instructions were pretty minimal. Load the dishwasher (OK to leave it running). Turn off all lights/TVs. Leave the thermostat at 75. Put all trash in the receptacle provided on the front porch. Lock all doors and windows. That was it. Nothing was said about laundry. I left the sheets on the beds and piled all of the used towels in one bathroom. There was a note not to leave any appliances running except the dishwasher, so I didn't start a load in the washer. In fact, no one was scheduled to check in the day we left, so it's possible the cleaner didn't even come until the next morning. In that case, they wouldn't want a wet load sitting in the washer overnight anyway. We got our full security deposit back along with a nice note from the owner, thanking us for taking good care of the place.

I, too, would be frustrated by your owner. I would hardly call a few pieces of trash "mounds of garbage."

 

[coastgirl]

He has $500 of ours and says he must assess a new comforter and a second full cleaning. Truly we didn't "hide" garbage, my kid had a few wrappers under his bed.

 

[eduk8r26]

I've rented through VRBO in San Diego a number of times and never had to do laundry. It was specifically stated to strip beds and put sheets and towels in the tub or just leave in a pile. We were supposed to run the dishwasher, take out all trash, and I usually swept the floors. But since we were usually charged a cleaning fee as well as a deposit, I figured the rest of the cleaning came out of the cleaning fee.

 

[sympatico]

I only do what it says in the binder: take out the trash, wash dishes, strip the beds, start laundry, clean out the leftover food. Don't do any vacuuming, sweeping or cleaning bathrooms. Last home we stayed at they didn't want us to clean out the leftover food so we left it.

 

[Lewisc]

.... The dog appears to have chewed a comforter and we missed it, so that's fair enough.

We took out all the garbage and recycling before we left, ....condition", with dishes, laundry and garbage specifically mentioned. I did not sweep or vacuum, mop, clean toilets, etc. My 13 yo was eating junk in his room and there were some things under his bed. I did get him to sweep, but I didn't check, and there were a few things. (Not enough to fill a Publix bag though!) I noticed a few tissues and a cash receipt or two on the floor, but didn't have time to pick them up, as I was busy doing laundry!

You're complaining before you even know how much of your deposit the owner intends on keeping?

You obviously owe for the comforter. Was it part of a set? Were all the linens matching sets (at least by room)? If the comforter is part of a discontinued set the owner might charge you to replace everything. Are they using a property manager? I don't know how much extra they'll be charging to send a person to Target (or wherever) to replace it. I wouldn't challenge anything under $100.

I'd think the cleaner is responsible to get dust, and maybe crumbs, off the floor. I'd expect you have the responsibility to up stuff on the floor. You saw stuff under one bed but chose to leave it. We have no idea what else you missed.

It's entirely possible you missed stuff. Did you leave any food in the fridge? In a cabinet?

Could your small dog have left "droppings" in a place you missed? Left pieces of partially chewed comfortable in some hidden location. Maybe chewed more the one comforter? Chewed the mattress? Sheets?

It's also possible the cleaner is exaggerating to justify a second cleaning.

I'd clearly accept responsibility for the comforter. I might say the cleaner is greatly exaggerating the condition of the unit.

My opinion. The renter must do exactly what is required per your rental agreement. That might include washing the sheets and running the dishwasher. It might not.

I'd take it as a given a dog is likely to do something, even a well behaved dog, which required extra cleaning.

Did you pay "top dollar" for your rental? We're you charged a separate cleaning fee as part of your agreement? I'd really push the issue if either condition applied to your rental. Otherwise I wouldn't threaten to sue, which is your only option, unless the owner wants to keep more then half the deposit.

I don't know how it works. Could the first cleaner have simply walked out when the saw the garbage under the bed and the damaged comfortable? The unit exceeds what the cleaner was paid to clean so they leave.

Did you have a car? Did you even try to replace the comforter before you left? Sounds like you didn't even tell the owner about the damaged comforter.

 

[coastgirl]

Thanks for the feedback, folks. Sounds like "tidy" is subjective, but full laundry is a bit unusual. That's helpful.

Lewisc, I have come to the conclusion that $100 for the comforter is reasonable also. I didn't hide the comforter, I had no idea that it had happened. Which, in itself, now strikes me as hinky. There was no "fluff" around the house, and no evidence of "dietary indiscretion" in my dog's digestive system. She is 7 lbs (7.3 at the vet before we left, actually). They did attach a photo of the comforter, and honestly, it looks like a mastiff had at it. And she has never chewed anything fabric in the 10 months we've had her. She does chew--she shreds paper incessantly given the chance, and we have to guard tissue boxes and toilet rolls. But to have her do that kind of damage to a comforter without us knowing is really, really weird. But to say it wasn't her makes me look like a whacko, so I will wear that unless I can *prove* otherwise. Which I can't. I stripped my daughter's bed to wash the sheets, and while I didn't examine the comforter, I was, you know, handling it, and I had no indication that anything was amiss.

I assure you there was no hidden poo. If there had been, I'd have a picture of it! They claim urine but the only evidence I saw was on a manky toilet mat, which I laundered and subsequently kept her away from. I "caught her in the act". The mat showed myriad old stains when I turned it over, and I am being blamed for all of it. The house is almost completely hard surface (a few scatter rugs like the bath mat, and two "bald" area rugs), which I'm sure was put in to make the house more pet-friendly. And, I didn't choose to ignore my kid's bedroom. He cleaned it up under my supervision a few days before we left, and on the day of departure I made sure everything I could see was gone. No, I didn't get down under the beds; I had the kids do that because I have bad knees. Ds was shown the photo of his room and will be taking responsibility for a share of any fine from his own vacation money. Dd has offered to pitch in for the comforter, as it was her room, but that doesn't seem fair to me. They both came home with leftover savings.

There was no additional cleaning fee; it was a two-week rental, and extra fees usually apply to short rentals in my experience. The price we paid was middle of the road, neither the cheapest nor the most expensive, though just after I booked he lowered his prices on his website and never offered us a commensurate discount. I didn't try to re-negotiate the rate despite the general reduction, as I had already made a deal I could live with. In the past a long stay has gotten us a discount also, and it didn't here.

I do think you are probably close with the idea that the cleaner wanted to make an extra charge.

I have had my question answered, I think. Thank you all.

That said, if you choose to read on, I will give a bit more context. I may rant. When we arrived, the house was quite dusty and...gritty. There was crud in the dresser drawers, on the floor, and the rugs, such as they were, needed a vacuum. There were damages not reported--a broken drawer, a broken window blind, a broken glass on the tv cabinet, a dining chair taped together. The internet wasn't working. The pool table and air hockey in the garage were quite dirty with particulate--dust and crud. But it's a nice house, and I can see he's put effort into upgrading stuff like the pillows and mattresses, the TV's are almost all newer, etc. I emailed him my concerns, and called the mgmt. co. I was told the AC had just been replaced, and that explained a lot of the crud blowing around. Though not everything, to be sure. (Like pet hair from someone else's dog under the master bed. Wrong colour.) Prop mgr came over, did a quick sweep (not adequate, never followed up with a real crew, but I didn't feel like pushing it) and called the cable co to fix internet. Fixing was not forthcoming and a service call was scheduled for Tuesday. Which meant we had to connect the laptop via a short Ethernet cable and be tethered to one spot in the living room. Minor to some perhaps, but important to me--I never would've chosen a house with non-functional wifi.

When I called prop mgr on Tues about wifi service, she said the service call had been rescheduled to Wednesday. Groan. So I coerced my dh to try to fix it, and after about 90 minutes, he did. He gave it a network name and used the router ID as a password, because it wouldn't take anything else. This was not the name the owner had given us, nor the password, but dh hadn't read the contract the way I had, and he did his best. I knew it would need to be re-set per the owner's preferences, so I called the prop mgr to explain the situation, and that we didn't need an immediate service call. She said she would follow up with an email and get the new info. She was pleased it was working. I waited 10 days for her email (I didn't have her addy but she said she had mine), and the day before we left, I emailed the owner with the info. He got very upset because it was not set per the contract, he said we "altered" it (we altered it from not-working to working, it was not named as he wanted when we got there but set to a default "network" name, and it had NO password). AND we did what we thought we should to notify him about the change.

Prop mgr denies knowing anything needed fixing with the wifi, and basically says I'm making it up. Plus I had emailed the owner initially saying I didn't think the house was well-cleaned. So she looks bad two ways.

We also had a problem with the AC and were without AC for two very hot days and nights. It was a fluke--lightning struck the brand-new ac unit and fried it. We got serious run-around about the fixing. It did get fixed about 24 hrs after our initial call, but the prop mgr and the owner were not communicating well. We couldn't just go and find a cool mall or something because we had a dog to consider. We cut our day short to come home when we realized the service man who swore he'd be back at 8 am Sunday, hadn't come back. We had to make several phone calls to find that out. He swore he'd be back at 8, so we went to the parks. At 10, after several phone calls from me, the prop mgr called back to say "he's on his way to the house". By noon we were home because we didn't trust the news we were getting, and another call from us got the news "the supplier wasn't open, he's going there now." At that point it was 89F in the house. The prop mgr basically told us we were "barking up the wrong tree" (yes, direct quote) when we asked where we were going to sleep if it wasn't fixed. (3:00 on a Sunday afternoon by then, have not yet seen the repair guy, and that's not the best time to be left stranded!) Again, stuff happens, but someone should've let us know what was going on, and someone should've said they were sorry.

I understand the ac issues are more or less an act of God. And I appreciate that he was upgrading the system to begin with. However, I might expect an owner after all that, to say at least, gosh I'm sorry. I'm sorry the house let you down. Not, you're a slob and I'm going to keep your $500. Trust me, the house needed a "double clean" before we even arrived. The whole internet/wifi thing is just weird, and I can only assume the prop mgr is telling the owner a different story. And the condition of the house was not unusual, at least not because of our stay. The comforter, as I said, I'll wear, even though I do find it odd.

Haven't heard from him since his initial email early yesterday morning. I am anxious to know what he's concluded, and I just wish he'd get back to us.

 

[Lewisc]

You brought a dog. That might make you a "target" for an owner who needs some cash. You left some rubbish under the bed, maybe more you missed. That might make you a "target" for a cleaner who claimed the unit was too dirty to clean as per the contract and wanted to schedule a second cleaning. Sounds like you were in a rush to leave, you said you didn't have time to pick up rubbish left by your child. Maybe you missed some other stuff.

CONCLUSION.

A lot of posters like staying in offsite vacation homes and condos. A lot of posters like renting at the best possible price. Great if everything works out Not so great if you have "issues". Sounds like the unit needed a cleaning when you arrived. Had some items damaged. Would have been much easier resolving the situation if you were staying at a hotel. Would have bee easier if you were staying at a timeshare where the complex takes care of cleaning and repairs.

Posters love the extra space and low prices offered by vacation homes. People like to overlook the issues inherent with dealing with absentee owners. The issues if you need to cancel, or change, your vacation. Travel insurance might help, if you purchase it and if you need to change for a covered reason.

 

[coastgirl]

You're right Lewisc. We do love so much about renting a home, and with a family, a hotel just doesn't work for us. But I will be very, very reluctant to rent direct again, and I'm sad about that. Perhaps we'd be better off with a rent-from-the-resort sort of situation. We were at Emerald Island and loved it, despite the headaches. The resort does rent directly, and that may be the better route for us next time. Many of our problems would've been simplified if there wasn't the whole mix of three-way incomplete communications between owner, mgr and renter, and the opportunity for unsupported finger-pointing.

 

[cash]

I have read your posting and as any posting like this I always think " There is always two side's to a story just like 2 side's of a coin"
We can only read your side of the story but for what you have said I would be horrified if I rented my home out to some one who let their dog chew up anything in my home.

I am sorry if this sounds too blunt but as I said, always two side's to a story.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Haven't heard from him since his initial email early yesterday morning. I am anxious to know what he's concluded, and I just wish he'd get back to us.

JoAnne....have you had any news?

 

[Lewisc]

JoAnne....have you had any news?

I wouldn't expect an immediate response. Honest owner...waiting to replace comforter and report from cleaners. Less honest owner may figure if he waits a few weeks OP will be happy to settle for a hundred dollars or so. Is the OP going to court?

I'd be curious if this owner has a history of keeping deposits

 

[Ametista]

$500 deposit?????

What was the clean fee? It sounds like it should have been minimal since you were required to do so much of it! I have been asked to leave the sheets in front of the washer but I have never been asked to clean them! Did you happen to take photos before you left? The comforter part is fair.

We always stay in villa and townhome rentals and this guy sounds out of line. I would definitely be leaving some feedback on this guys VRBO account because what he is charging (a second cleaning fee) is excessive. And I would say "I will have to leave this in a review on your property because I feel I cleaned an excessive amount, also paid a cleaning fee, and now you want to charge me again. Other guests need to be aware of this." I would never rent his house if I knew about this!

 

[taylorcpa]

Well I have learned something! When I check in my townhouse in a few months if my unit is not clean, I will take pictures upon arrival and send them to both owner and manager. That way I have proof of what I experienced and they can actually see what I see. Then, I will take pictures of what it looks like when I leave so there is no question if they want to keep my deposit!