Guests charging electric car with our house electricity.!!

[zebedee]

There is an underlying principle that we should not lose sight of.

You would not expect a guest to remove and take home all the cleaning products, tinfoil, kitchen roll dishwasher liquid etc etc that we provide for guests and expect to be used by a series of guests during their stay until they are used up, and then we replace them at our expense.

I would not expect my guests to use my heating oil to fuel their diesel cars and take my supply of logs home for their log burner.

The electricity provided by Cleanforum as part of the rental payment is for use within the property and for use during the stay. Nothing else.

[AngloDutch]

You would not expect a guest to remove and take home all the cleaning products, tinfoil, kitchen roll dishwasher liquid etc etc that we provide for guests and expect to be used by a series of guests during their stay until they are used up, and then we replace them at our expense.

I would not expect my guests to use my heating oil to fuel their diesel cars and take my supply of logs home for their log burner.

Unfortunately (and from experience), many of our Dutch guests will use anything on site, whether it's part of the rental or not. Many will not ask permission to do so either. Pluging their electric/hybrid cars into our power supply or charging 9 electric bikes via splitter from our AC outlets in the sheds is a regular occurrence here. To help cover this, we charge €10-13 per night (depending on season) for gas and electricity usage to agency guests. This is calculated into the rates on our listing site ads.

Before 2010 most of our guests were locals and we had toys, DVDs and CDs disappearing on a regular basis. The covers of the CDs would be left behind, but the discs would be removed. The best DVDs would not be there when we checked the library. We do not leave many cleaning products in the farmhouse because they have a tendency to just disappear.

[Bassman]

Electricity here in Spain various almost by the hour.

Fair enough, but you're still talking nickels and dimes

Its relative, 5€/night would be around 30%* of my profit in low season in our smallest gite and 0.4%* high season in our largest gite.

*please bare in mind these calculations have been made after a large scotch

[CSE]

AngloDutch the way you have written that post makes us wonder why members here are very often looking for guests from NL. Are they all pilfering little G**s?

Bassman If you can afford a large Scotch then you are not doing so bad.

[AngloDutch]

AngloDutch the way you have written that post makes us wonder why members here are very often looking for guests from NL. Are they all pilfering little G**s?

casasantoestevo, as I have mentioned in many postings on LMH, it has been some of the Dutch agency guests who have been the most problematic. Sadly, some of these have been the biggest thieves.

We will never forget a family from Alkmaar (Belvilla guests again!) who asked when they would receive their security deposit back. We replied that we would give it back on departure after checking the property with them. With this information, they decided to remove several small items from the property, including an expensive gas igniter and several of the DVDs (mostly the miniseries double sets!) which we of course didn't notice on the quick check we made of the house before they left.

Because of this (and after several years of similar experiences) we decided to retain all security deposits until the farmhouse could be properly checked. We also have our sheds (those which are not for the use of guests) padlocked now as well.

It is sad that some guests act in this way, but when people come into your house, you have of course very little idea of what you're going to get, especially bookings via agencies where the most you hope to get is a phone number and address!

[Bunny]

Oh Cripes AngloDutch, I've got guests arriving from The Netherlands today. It is was a direct booking, so I'll take my chance and live dangerously, and not go and bolt everything down.

Hope this doesn't come back to haunt me...

[French Cricket]

Down here there's a saying that NL tourists bring their own potatoes and take home the peelings .

Not especially my own experience, and it may or may not have any basis in fact, but it's true to say that they're not especially coveted as guests round here as people believe that they don't spend anything in the local economy.

[annedab]

Down here there's a saying that NL tourists bring their own potatoes and take home the peelings .

Not especially my own experience, and it may or may not have any basis in fact, but it's true to say that they're not especially coveted as guests round here as people believe that they don't spend anything in the local economy.

Yep - spot on. Lovely people, but they do tend to bring *everything* with them to avoid having to contribute to the local economy

[Essar]

Be careful what you say or you could be acused by some EU unelected bureaucrat of "Dutchism", evidently, it carries a sentence involving watching all the past 10-years EU Parliament debates on health and safety regulations applicable to mending waterwheels as a profession (They run to some 1100 hours).

[CSE]

So what other guests do you wish to complain about??????
Come on get it off your chest.
Maybe a new thread as this was about Hybrid cars.

[AngloDutch]

Oh Cripes AngloDutch, I've got guests arriving from The Netherlands today. It is was a direct booking, so I'll take my chance and live dangerously, and not go and bolt everything down.

Hope this doesn't come back to haunt me...

I'm sure you'll be fine, Bunny. Most Dutch are very respectful but they can sometimes be a bit cheeky when it comes to trying to save themselves some money!

[AngloDutch]

Down here there's a saying that NL tourists bring their own potatoes and take home the peelings .

Not especially my own experience, and it may or may not have any basis in fact, but it's true to say that they're not especially coveted as guests round here as people believe that they don't spend anything in the local economy.

We've actually heard this as well from some British owners of a B&B in Normandy where we stayed a few years ago. They told us that because the Dutch usually travel in caravans, they are referred to as 'Les Escargots' in France and that there is quite alot of anger that they do not spend enough in the local economies. They mentioned that the mayor of a certain town, I believe in the Dordogne, had made it known that as so many Dutch tourists were bringing their groceries all the way from the NL, that he was going to make it clear that they could take all their rubbish back home with them.

My OH did feel a bit attacked (although we weren't travelling in a caravan and hadn't brought much food from home with us!) but I did say at the time that the Brits get an even worse bashing in France, for example for the fact that many of us do not attempt to speak the language of the country where we are holidaying.

[PW in Polemi]

I was telling OH about your guests recharging their car on your electricity, and he made a very salient point.

If they had come in a petrol only vehicle, would they be expecting you to foot their fuel bill?

[Sam V]

I was telling OH about your guests recharging their car on your electricity, and he made a very salient point.

If they had come in a petrol only vehicle, would they be expecting you to foot their fuel bill?

Funny, yes I had the same convo with my husband with same response!

I also have a good Dutch 'antenatal group' friend of over 14 years with a squeaky reputation amongst us. One year it was obvious which were her secret Santa contributions as they were quite obviously recycled items and not of the £5 spend criteria the rest of us had followed.

[Bunny]

I was telling OH about your guests recharging their car on your electricity, and he made a very salient point.

If they had come in a petrol only vehicle, would they be expecting you to foot their fuel bill?

Because we have a tractor we store a large quantity of red diesel on site. If I caught guests helping themselves to it to fill their cars I would definitely consider it theft. To me it makes no difference if it is petrol or electricity; it should be obvious to anyone that a cottage rental does not include any means to fuel a car.