Hi everyone,
After a bit of advise, just received a booking for two weeks in August and after finally regaining consciousness, a thought came to mind not having had a two week stay before, what would you recommend with regard to changing of beds cleaning etc after the first week, ie do we tell them we do have a mid stay change over, and we carry it out, or offer them the opportunity to do it themselves,
Did you give them a discount or did they pay the full weekly rate x 2? If they get a discount I usually leave clean sheets& towels in airing cupboard for them to do themselves, if not & you are local offer to do it for them but I bet they decline - they probably won't want to feel that they have to 'tidy up' because you are coming in! Even when I leave clean linen I usually find it's not been used!
I always offer a change of bed linen and towels after a week (and don't charge extra for it). I would say that the offer is taken up 50% of the time, and the guests do the change themselves. If a clean were requested, I would charge extra, but it never has been so far.
If I have people coming for two weeks (or even three), I don't usually give them a discount unless they are returners and I leave a change of bed linen weekly. I also leave them towels to change as they want (every 3 to 5 days) and they leave me all the washing in a bag which I collect or they deliver to me (I am only yards away). A surprising number are eco-minded and do not change the towels as often as that but I give them the option by leaving supplies.
I do offer in advance, to have someone to come in to clean/change beds if they want (and if I can find somebody as I would feel awkward doing that myself while they are there, and so would they I think), but they have to pay her directly.
Depends on your market - here we do almost a changeover clean, and guests wouldn't expect to do it.
The only things we don't do is the roof terrace, clean the BBQ, arrange the outdoor stuff, and we leave any dishes or rubbish.
Mousie
x
p.s. I've never discounted for a 2 week or 3 weeks stay as there's just no savings on bills.
We don't do a mid stay clean or changeover but there are lots of spares in all our closets so if a guest wanted to change their bedding they could do it.
We can offer a mid stay clean and our MC charge $45 to do it and this is charged to the guest.
We rarely have guests who stay less than a week, it's usually 2 or 3 week stays.
Depends on your market. We did a clean and change of linen weekly (which was free, ie included in the rental cost), but we were aiming at a pretty upmarket sector and it goes with the territory.
In our market, the norm for ALL types of properties is maid service 3-5 days a week included in price, with linen change once a week, towels changed 2-3 times a week.
We give people an order form (with the days of their stay marked) for them to say when they want towels and bedlinen changed and if they want a mid stay clean. We say towels every 3 days, bedlinen after 7 days and mid stay clean if they are staying a fortnight. We leave them to change their own bedding unless they have requested a mid stay clean in which case we do it when cleaning. Over the year, probably less than half use the form. We don't charge.
Marks wrote:
I provide a washing machine and a line to dry sheets and towels
Me too, but I don't expect guests to wash, dry and iron their own bed linen whilst on holiday. I've already saved on the cost of a cleaner, so offering a bed linen change is normal for me.
Here maid service isn't common, have only been asked for it once, thank goodness. As has been mentioned before on this forum, cleaning around guests and their things isn't easy.
I always do a mid stay clean and linen change (even on 12 day stays which are in the majority this year). It's included in the price and consists of linen change, towel change and the cleaners do both bathrooms, the kitchen and mop all the floors. At the same time, the pool is cleaned and the lawn gets a mow (is that word??).
I prefer to do this as I know the villa is kept in tip top condition.
However, I've just started letting an apartment which is over an hour away and I plan to leave linen, towels etc. for guests to change themselves along with a laundry basket for the dirty linen and towels. The rental charges are much lower there and don't warrant a clean included.
Marks wrote:
I provide a washing machine and a line to dry sheets and towels
Me too, but I don't expect guests to wash, dry and iron their own bed linen whilst on holiday. I've already saved on the cost of a cleaner, so offering a bed linen change is normal for me.
Here maid service isn't common, have only been asked for it once, thank goodness. As has been mentioned before on this forum, cleaning around guests and their things isn't easy.
Difference is LV my rental charges are much lower so offering a mid term linen/towel change cuts into my margin. I guess I could up the prices and offer a mid stay change. I'll think about it though I don't like the thought of making beds, picking up wet towels etc whilst guests are loitering and not keen to do when guests are out either (or turning a blind eye to the mess.....)
Some guests just need a sympathetic pat. On the head. With a hammer.
We're in the UK as well; our typical profile is for a week or less, but when we have guests booked for a fortnight we provide clean linen and towels mid-stay. We'll ask guests if they want us to change the beds, most of them choose to do it themselves. We don't offer a mid-stay clean, and I don't believe guests would welcome the intrusion. However, our guest profile doesn't include those from the type of cultural background where they might expect full service, and due to our location we don't attract the wild party and clubbing groups where it might be worth having the excuse to pop in mid stay. (I'll probably get into trouble for saying that - it's meant as a wide generalisation to cover the situations when gut feeling suggests you might just like to go in for a look.)
There again, we're on site so we're not spending two weeks chewing our nails and wondering if guests have burned the place down.
and due to our location we don't attract the wild party and clubbing groups where it might be worth having the excuse to pop in mid stay. (I'll probably get into trouble for saying that - it's meant as a wide generalisation to cover the situations when gut feeling suggests you might just like to go in for a look.)
Not from me GB! I think it's a fair point and to be honest one of the main reasons I did a mid-week clean in the first 2 years even though my margins probably could have done without it.
Oddly enough...now we've increased our price, and so weeded out the 'clubbers' we were thinking of doing without this year. We didn't advertise it and it had no effect on bookings. However we're still doing it because it would have been just as much a hassle for me to go in to change the towels, as it is to pay cleaners...so maybe next year.
