The perils of letting a Holiday Home

Last year we had an unfortunate development linked to our holiday home. It shows some of the risks associated with letting out your property to other people. We had a regular customer, who'd frequently stay in our cottage. For the sake of this article I'll call him John. He always booked the cottage through our holiday let agency Sykes Cottages. On his first visit he arrived with his "wife" at the cottage and his pet dog, an older black labrador. We showed them around the facilities and then left them to get on with their holiday. At the end of the week they left the cottage in a clean and tidy state.

After the initial visit, John became a regular client booking several weeks at different times throughout the year. We never saw his "wife" after the initial visit, as she would be "waiting in the car with the dog." It got to the point where he'd just pick up the keys, without being shown around.  To be honest, we thought John had a mistress in town and was visiting when he could get away. 

Not long after one of John's stays at the cottage, we'd let the holiday cottage to another couple, a pair of elderly pensioners. They seemed to be comfortably settled in with no problems.

However, I received an anonymous phone call at our home from a very distressed and angry lady. I didn't know this person or had any previous contact with her. She was angily accusing me of being a dog trader and demanding I paid back the £1000 she'd paid for a "pedigree" dog, which turned out to have lots of problems.  She told me she'd bought the dog from "me" at the cottage. I said I didn't live at the cottage nor use it for any trading and that it was a holiday cottage where guests stayed, only booked through Sykes. She then wanted me to divulge the identity of the person (John), she even read over the phone to me, details of a presumably forged veterinarian document for the dog with the address of the holiday cottage and "John's" name. I told her to contact the letting company Sykes and see if they would help as I had no details of "John". This is true, in order to protect their client list, Sykes do not tell us the contact details, other than phone number, of the people staying at our cottage.

Shortly after her call, I had some threatening phone calls from another man, I discovered later it was her 22 year old son, demanding I paid up or he'd come and "sort me out". At that point I decided things had got out of hand, so I referred the whole matter to the police. This lady and her son had tried to obscure their identity by withholding their phone numbers. They'd also been abusive to the innocent elderly couple who were staying as guests. The elderly couple had given the lady our contact phone number.

The police subsequently agreed with me that the son would be given a formal warning rather than prosecution as the words were said in the heat of the moment. The police also implied they were investigating "John's" activities.  John had told me he was travelling from Manchester, but I was later able to prove he was travelling from Northern Ireland.

What lessons did we learn? It is very easy to suffer reputational damage. With the GDPR privacy regulations, the letting agency will not reveal details to the owners of the holiday cottage. The contract is between the guests and the letting company. The owners merely provide a facility/service to the letting company. With hindsight, we believe "John" rarely stayed in the cottage, but used it as a kennel for the dogs he was trading. He would use the cottage address to provide a respectable Front for his illicit business. He would use a lot of our towels, and often wash them, we presume he'd use them to dry the dogs after shampoo. We still, to this day, have a permanent rust stain on the tiled kitchen floor, we think this was from dog urine in a steel dog cage. After his visits he'd leave upstairs windows open, to reduce the smell of distressed dogs. After one of his earlier stays, we found dog poo on the bedroom carpet, presumably where a dog had been left unattended. We also suspect carpet damage and kitchen units were damaged by his dogs.

We subsequently told the letting company we'd no longer accept bookings from this gentleman

Unexpected guests at the cottage

A couple of weeks ago, we had a bit of a panic when a guest SMS messaged me saying they'd be arriving in an hour's time and how do they get the keys to the cottage. Unfortunately our holiday rental company Sykes had made a rare mistake and not told us about this guest's booking in advance. So, we were not expecting them to arrive. Having a week's gap in bookings, we'd removed the covers from the furniture and the cottage was not "made up" ready for the guests.  Indeed, I had been planning to start stripping paint at the cottage in preparation for some redecorations.

A couple of urgent calls to Sykes established the booking had been made, but not paid for by the guest. Sykes couldn't get the guest to answer their phone. However I, by SMS message, I was able to contact the guest and establish he had in fact paid in advance and had a booking number. I forwarded this information to Sykes who were able to sort out their problem and release the booking to me. At this point the guests were on public transport just 30 minutes from the cottage. I really didn't want to ruin their holiday.
Cleaning the cottage and making it up, normally takes a couple of hours work for my wife and me.  Unfortunately my wife was away from our home, at a charity committee meeting. I had to start the process of getting the cottage ready for the guests, and we live 20 minutes drive from the cottage. My wife understandably was not answering her mobile phone at the time, so I had to hurriedly gather clean bedding, linen, towels and chair covers, then head off to the cottage.  I could at least let the guests into the cottage when they got off their bus, but there'd be a delay while I prepared the cottage for them.

The couple duly arrived when planned, about five minutes after I'd arrived. After greeting them, I carried on preparing the cottage while they went and did some food shopping.  Not long after my wife materialised, having seen my messages and leaving her committee meeting. We set the cottage up in record time, including recovering the lounge furniture.

Health and Safety

The kitchen window in our cottage needs replacing. There's some wet rot in one corner of the frame. It was caused by poor manufacture which allowed a place where rain water could accumulate. The cottage is located in a conservation area, so we need to replace it with like for like wooden frame. Another complication is that we'll need to schedule the replacement around guest occupation.

I contacted a local joinery/builder whose premises is just 200 metres away from the cottage. They've been established for at least fifty years as a family firm. They were very polite and helpful, but told me they can no longer make bespoke windows for two reasons. Firstly they'd have to be members of FENSA and secondly for "Health and Safety" reasons they are no longer permitted to use the wood machinery tools installed at their premises. 

Apparently the HSE visited them and demanded they only operated machinery which had automatic immediate braking features. These type of machines immediately stop the machine if flesh comes in contact with the blade. I could see their existing machinery, a planer/thicknesser, a table saw and a band saw. It was all heavy duty industrial equipment. Even though the company had a good safety record and all of their team (6) were experienced and trained craftsmen, they had to stop using the machinery. They'd not had any earlier accidents.  The bureaucrats insisted on them purchasing the new machines at the cost of many thousands of pounds, for no additional profits. The fines arising from accidents in the work place, causing bruising, are large! For example £150K in this case.

The company decided to lay off most of their team and to stop performing any joinery work. What a waste of skills, caused by overarching officialdom who computed any risk as an absolute predictor of injury. If the company had gone against the HSE instructions it would have invalidated their business insurance. There's no compensation for loss of business and no real appeal against the HSE demands.

Below is a video clip of the type of activities where the HSE would better spend its time.

Junking the Indesit Washing Machine

Our last set of guests in our holiday cottage reported the Indesit washer/dryer machine failed leaving them with wet clothes. This machine was hardly ever used by our guests and is just a couple of years old. It's purchase price was £315, but it has cost us more because we've had to close the cottage for rental until it can be fixed or replaced. 

The engineer came and visited yesterday. After three minutes' diagnostics he declared the machine to be beyond economical repair as the main circuit board had failed. Apparently, it's a common fault with the Indesit machine (Model IWDD 6105).  Of course it is out of the main warranty period.

We've opted to pay £700 for a good quality Bosch machine to replace it. It won't be used much by our guests, but it is worth the peace of mind.  Meanwhile Indesit junk will never darken our doors again.

Note (17/4/19): The guy who supplied the new machine, had a delay in getting the appropriate machine, form Bosch. He usually gets the machine in a couple of days, but Bosch were "out of stock" of our model. We lost two weeks rental because of this delay. The joys of running a rental self catering holiday home!

A typical Turnround between guests

After one set of guests departs and before the next set arrives we have to clean the holiday cottage, change the linen in bedroom and bathroom and check the facilities/stores. Normally, we have about four hours to achieve this task and, depending on the state of the cottage, it takes 90 minutes for two people.  

Checking the facilities/stores, includes safety checks (such as smoke alarms), replenishing beverages, supplying fresh milk and biscuits, replenish household paper products (loo rolls, kitchen towels, tissues), checking the rubbish bins and performing an inventory check. We also check the Internet service, phone and TV (satellite service, DVDs and soundbar. All the lighting is checked and blown bulbs replaced and where necessary batteries replaced. We also tidy the maps and walk guides; each guest seems to find a different way of organising these items before departure. We change the access codes on combination locks. All electrical devices are checked for safe operation.

In cleaning the cottage, we swap out the towels, soaps and shampoos. We make the bed, with clean linen. Every room and the stairs are vacuum cleaned. Furniture is cleaned with a vacuum cleaner to remove any pet hairs then put back in the correct location. The bathroom fixtures are all cleaned and checked, the toilet is cleaned and disinfected. All surfaces are dusted and wiped. All linen, seating covers, curtains is checked for damage or stains. The ground floor windows and doors are cleaned on the outside using specialist equipment and solutions. If any rugs have become stained, they are replaced during the turnround.

The kitchen is cleaned including all work surfaces and tables, We check all plates, cups, cutlery, glassware, pots and pans for cleanliness and and chips. We check the kitchen stove for cleanliness and grime. The washer drier machine is checked. The refrigerator is emptied and cleaned. Any waste is disposed of, and waste bins are provided with new liners. Any missing items are replaced. Just before our departure, we mop the tiled kitchen floor.

At the time of writing, five years from opening the business, we have yet to break even for income against expenses. At the moment we subsidise every guest night by a few pounds. We anticipate that eventually we'll make a profit. It means that every breakage, breakdown, damaged or stolen item just pushes the break even date further into the future. We have zero sympathy with any guest who says the cottage is too expensive! Our rates are about half the local Premier Inn and the accommodation is about twice the size of a Premier Inn room.

At the last turnround we discovered that the shower drain fitting has been damaged.  Fixing this damage will require the removal of the shower cabinet, and lifting the floorboards. In the same turnround we discovered that the hair drier was missing from the bedroom dresser. It has been stolen. We discovered earlier in the week, during the laundry process, that one of the large fluffy bath sheet towels had become indelibly stained and will need replacing.

Improving the soundproofing

Our holiday cottage is at the edge of the village's main road. The road has trucks and buses as well as cars during the day and evening. The road is literally one metre from the front door of the house. We do not hide this fact from people booking. It is noted in the cottage description and there are photo's showing the road by the front door on the booking page.  In fact we offer a lower rental fee than the facilities of the cottage would normally attract in the village because of the road. However we still get comments from some people who are blinded by the word "cottage" when they book the place. Possibly they visualize a thatched cottage with a front garden of roses just off a village square with a stream and duck pond.  Wirksworth is an old mining town/village with a history going back to medieval/Roman  times. The road has always been busy.

However we believe the customer is always right, and within reasonable spend limits, we are doing something to reduce the noise level within the cottage. We have to be mindful of getting some return on our investment, so it is a matter of balance of customer expectations and the cost of remedial action. The front windows are already double glazed, but a lot of the noise floods in through the front door which is of a half glazed (single layer windows) wooden construction. The cottage is a conservation area and the local authority has a history of being picky about changes to the outward appearance of the property, such as changing the front door.

We're going to install a secondary front door and lobby within the lounge. The room is not massive so we'll keep the lobby quite small to reduce the amount of space this takes. When guests are inside the house they'll be able to close the inner door to cut down the sound coming through the existing front door. It won't be possible to open the front door without first opening the inner door.

The new lobby frame will have double glazed clear poly-carbonate panels and the new door is also fully glazed (safety glass). I'm building the frame and double glazing of the lobby in my workshop, the door itself is purchased pre-glazed. It is a heavy oak door weighing 35 kilograms including glazing, so I'm making the lobby frame quite sturdy.

The next step will be to triple glaze the front lounge and bedroom windows using poly-carbonate windows. It is possible to install acoustic glazing using specialist glass to reduce the sound coming through the windows, but that may require planning permission for the new frames. It would be a much greater cost.

Unwelcome present from guests at the cottage

We currently allow guests at our holiday cottage to bring their pets (up to 2) to stay with them on holiday. Normally there's no problems with this, but we might change our minds and not allow pets. This weekend I popped in to the cottage to check it after our last set of guests had checked out. They are regular visitors and normally leave the place clean and tidy, though they do switch off the heating and leave the upstairs windows open when they depart. This is not the most sensible idea in December.

After this most recent stay they left an unwelcome present on the bedroom floor. It was a pile of dog poo.

This couple, and pet dog, book through an agency so we don't have their contact details. I'll challenge them the next time they arrive to see what is their version of the story.