"Booked last minute as a cheap few nights ..."

 The title says it all. It is part of the title of a comment from a "guest".  That person then goes on to moan about the cottage in the comment section. Most of the person's comments are unjustified but difficult to disprove, such as the cottage smelt musty.  The cottage had just undergone full deep cleaning including carpets, plus a Covid secure clean a couple of hours before their arrival. Prior to the deep clean, the cottage had been fully redecorated on the interior. We've since taken to videoing the entire interior of the cottage after each cleaning session to help counter these types of allegation. Cleaning for "Covid Secure" adds four man hours to each turnaround cleaning session. Guests are not currently charged for cleaning man hours.

The person fails to mention in their comment that they'd demanded  a discount on the already discounted price. We'd turned down the discount demand. The comment was posted after the rejection, but as their title says, they wanted "cheap".

They probably don't realise that we effectively subsidise every guest stay as annual expenditure on the cottage exceed the income at the rental rates charged by Sykes. That expenditure does not include the cost of the capital invested in the property, in effect a nominal interest rate. Over eight years we have yet to break even on the cottage. Indeed, if we'd taken the capital we've invested and put it into financial investments over the same period we'd be about £80K better off without the hassle of rude guests who expect discount on a holiday home rental at half the price of the nearby Premier Inn. We also let guests bring their pets for no extra charge, resulting in them saving on animal boarding fees too.

Holiday home owners really need a reverse Trip Advisor where we can pass comment on how good/bad the guests were during the stay.