Am I “too fussy” with cleanliness?

Agencies and other headaches, keys and cleaners, running costs and contracts...in short, all the things we spend so much of our time doing behind the scenes.<br>
Penlan
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:55 am
Location: North Wales

Am I “too fussy” with cleanliness?

Post by Penlan »

I’ve been cleaning my own let for 7 years now, it’s a large house with 5 bedrooms, but reduced it to 4 to try and reduce the workload a little. There are three en-suites with shower and a master bathroom, kitchen diner and lounge.

I have now decided to try a cleaning firm to take all the workload, but they keep missing little things like dusting the tops of fire extinguishers, they don’t always do under the beds, a common one is they don’t empty the fluff out of the tumble dryer. Door rails on the odd occasion, they don’t do a thorough clean of the cooker and don’t check the crockery.

I do all the maintenance and repairs myself, so I’ve been there while they were there and pointed out the things they were missing, I’ve called them back every other week after I’ve done checks.

The cleanliness is not anywhere near the standard that I used to do.

Is it me being too fussy?
Should I be complaining all the time to them?

Cleaners are not easy to find especially on the coast.
Drax
Posts: 185
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2016 4:36 pm
Location: Yorkshire Dales

Re: Am I “too fussy” with cleanliness?

Post by Drax »

My wife and I clean and maintain our holiday let but unlike yours Penman, our let is just a small 2 bedroomed bungalow that sleeps 3.
The time spent cleaning it takes us approximately 4 hours to complete, which equates to 8 hours (2 X 4 hours). This does not include the laundry of bedding, towels etc. which my wife does the following day.
I know our bungalow is 'spotless' when we finish and our guests can be assured of a thoroughly clean house when they arrive.
Our village has quite a few holiday lets and we live opposite one of them. We sometimes time the the cleaner (I know it is being nosy) and she takes approximately 2 hours to clean the house, which is larger than our bungalow. It is obvious she cannot have thoroughly cleaned it and must have skipped cleaning things.
So I should imagine you will be extremely lucky to get cleaners that will have the same high standards as yourself.
Continually checking up on them and calling them back to complete their work must be stressful.
It would seem you should find other cleaners who would do the job better, or failing that, do what a friend of ours does. She follows the cleaners after they have left and finishes off the work they have 'missed'.
Keep your powder dry.
Penlan
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:55 am
Location: North Wales

Re: Am I “too fussy” with cleanliness?

Post by Penlan »

I think owners are likely to do a better job than any professional cleaner, it's your business and it's your customers not theirs. I also think the cleaners are on a time limit, which straight away will encounter issues, they will be in a hurry to get on to the next clean.
Two weeks ago I complained to the manager and told her that I mentioned to the cleaners that I expect under the beds to be cleaned every changeover, her reply astounded me, she said that's why they missed things, she said let them get on and clean, and that I should complain to her not her staff. So basically what she was saying was, it's my fault.
Anyway, I've cancelled this weekends scheduled clean and I'm doing it myself, it usually takes me 7 hours not including linen, I'm always absolutely shattered afterwards, I will have to make compromises, somewhere, to reduce the time it takes because since I've had cleaners in I reduced the check time to 4pm, so this weekend is a tester.

Any ideas where these compromises can be made? Because I'm so fussy, it's going to be very difficult.

I do appreciate the time taken to respond.
farley
Posts: 169
Joined: Thu May 29, 2014 11:14 am
Location: Poitou Charentes

Re: Am I “too fussy” with cleanliness?

Post by farley »

Maybe employ one cleaner and work alongside them?
That would reduce your workload and give you control over standards.
I fully understand your concerns but doing the whole changeover single handed is exhausting and probably isn’t the answer going forward.
Pengman
Posts: 115
Joined: Mon Apr 22, 2019 4:54 pm
Location: Portland, Dorset UK

Re: Am I “too fussy” with cleanliness?

Post by Pengman »

Drax wrote: Fri Apr 29, 2022 9:17 am My wife and I clean and maintain our holiday let but unlike yours Penman, our let is just a small 2 bedroomed bungalow that sleeps 3.
The time spent cleaning it takes us approximately 4 hours to complete, which equates to 8 hours (2 X 4 hours). This does not include the laundry of bedding, towels etc. which my wife does the following day.
Our property is a two bedroom cottage on three floors and, now that we’ve emerged from Covid, our cleaner rarely spends more than three and a half hours cleaning it, less if only one bedroom is used. I’m sure it’s not immaculate, but it’s pretty clean and scores pretty highly on cleanliness with the OTA reviews. We sourced her through Facebook and just got lucky I guess. She used to work for one of the big cottage letting companies so she brought that experience with her. She cleans, does the laundry, and provides the Welcome Pack. She’s full of good ideas and we let her have her head with them. She spends far more time in the property than we do, we value her input, and she's very much part of our team. Her husband’s quite good at DIY too!
I came, I saw, I bought it.
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AngloDutch
Posts: 727
Joined: Fri Jul 11, 2014 10:25 pm
Location: Netherlands

Re: Am I “too fussy” with cleanliness?

Post by AngloDutch »

Penlan wrote: Fri Apr 29, 2022 5:47 am I’ve been cleaning my own let for 7 years now, it’s a large house with 5 bedrooms, but reduced it to 4 to try and reduce the workload a little. There are three en-suites with shower and a master bathroom, kitchen diner and lounge.

I have now decided to try a cleaning firm to take all the workload, but they keep missing little things like dusting the tops of fire extinguishers, they don’t always do under the beds, a common one is they don’t empty the fluff out of the tumble dryer. Door rails on the odd occasion, they don’t do a thorough clean of the cooker and don’t check the crockery.

I do all the maintenance and repairs myself, so I’ve been there while they were there and pointed out the things they were missing, I’ve called them back every other week after I’ve done checks.

The cleanliness is not anywhere near the standard that I used to do.

Is it me being too fussy?
Should I be complaining all the time to them?

Cleaners are not easy to find especially on the coast.

We are now in our 18th year and still doing all the changeovers ourselves here at our 5-bedroomed farmhouse. It is getting more difficult to get everything cleaned and ready in time. Last year, we decided to bring the linen to a local company to help remove some of the work load. We are glad that we did that, as I had a heart ablation back in February, and it is taking much longer to regain my strength than I thought it would. :shock:

We have had 3 changeovers over the last 8 days. All are bookings that originated in 2019 and 2020 and all large groups (including some now with additional babies!) First, 8 adults and 2 babies, then followed by 9 adults, 2 children and a baby that checked out today and a new group of 9 adults and 2 dogs that arrived this afternoon.

Today, the guests finally left half an hour late at 10:30. It took the 2 of us around 4.5 hours to do the changeover (including a 20-minute stop for lunch). One of our daughters helped with the making up of the beds as well. We have been lucky with these last groups as they didn't leave the accommodation very dirty, but young kids can create extra cleaning such as dirty doors and walls and dirtier than normal carpet on the stairs.
We, too, are very thorough with our cleaning, and I spend around the last half hour checking everything in case something has been overlooked by either of us.

On a direct changeover, we always work the same. One of us first sprays disinfectant on all table clothes and kitchen surfaces, clears and disinfects the 5 recycling containers, goes through the inventory (refill, and check complete) and moves everything back to its correct place (including cots and high chairs cleaned and put away, or readied), cleans and restocks the bathroom and both separate WCs and cleans the sinks/mirrors in the bedrooms upstairs, at the same time putting all the towels, kitchen linen and under sheets (normally 45 kg in total) through the washing machines and dryers and then will wash down the glass garden tables, check garden chairs clean and finally will properly clean the BBQ (guests only clean the grill, don't they, that's if you're lucky :D ).

While the other will begin with cleaning the kitchen and dining -room (placing all chairs and benches on the now dry tables), followed by dusting and then vacuuming the entire accommodation (as it's a 200-year-old farmhouse, each corner of every room often gets occupied by a spider, which extends vacuuming time), making up to 12 beds with the help of one of our daughters (if the daughter is available, otherwise not), followed by washing down the entire flooring (laminate and stone) downstairs and upstairs.

Before the floors are washed down (if in a rush, 1 room ahead of the wet floor!) I will do the end check (such as beds sheets straightened, all drawers and cupboards checked empty of rubbish/guest personal belongings, electrical equipment switched off and tv screens checked clean (plus dishwasher emptied and check filter clean, DVDs and CDs ejected, wifi extenders throughout the accommodation all on 'green'), burnt down candles replaced, the 'hurricane' that has taken place in the toy cupboard resolved, all crockery, cutlery and pans are checked clean/in logical order, drink coasters washed down, visible marks on the inside of windows, doors/walls and carpet on the staircase removed).
If pets were present, check all hair removed from furniture after departing pets or if pets due to arrive, switch to pet-friendly doormats. If there is time before the next guests arrive, we will take all rubbish to the recycling point in the village (access is by card only, so why we can't get the guests to do this) and bring the linen to be cleaned.
We will always try to get an ETA from our guests (around 16:00 or later on) which helps us to know at what speed we have to work. If there is time during a direct changeover, important maintenance will be done inside and outside the accommodation, including cleaning outside windows and gardening work as well.

I think after doing more than 600 changeovers, each of us knows what has to be done. As we all know, direct changeovers can be extremely stressful if either departing or arriving guests do not follow what is asked of them. Not just by leaving on time and not arriving early, but also when departing guests do not follow what we require them to do before departure or if they don't report damage or problems before checkout (examples of what we don't want to face are the dishwasher running with a full load, beds not stripped, furniture moved inside rooms or to completely different rooms, dirty crockery in the kitchen sink and the kitchen left in a general filthy state plus having to deal with extra work such as leather sofas covered in rings from spilt drinks and children's' handprints all over the windows).

I can understand, Penlan, that you are concerned that other people are not cleaning as well as you do. It takes time to get to know a particular property and if a cleaner has no or little experience of cleaning a rental, or your particular rental accommodation it can be a complete disaster. It is not their business after all and when guests hit you hard in their reviews when the accommodation is not clean, it matters little to them.

Near to us, there are two very large properties that are rented out to even larger groups (it's very popular in the Netherlands to spend a weekend with all your relatives, groups often numbering 50 relatives will congregate together to celebrate a birthday or anniversary). One of these properties sleeps 42 (including having 20 shower cubicles and WCs), the other sleeps 25. They both have terrible reviews because their owners cannot clean them properly in the time they have between guests. When you have reviews stating that the place was so dirty that guests cut their holiday short and just left the following day, then you really have failed as a holiday homeowner....
newtimber
Posts: 1945
Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 5:57 pm
Location: Brighton
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Re: Am I “too fussy” with cleanliness?

Post by newtimber »

I'm sure you'll do a better job if you do it yourself. I expect the cleaners in a busy area have to clean and get ready another property the same day and they may not have the time to spend an extra half an hour on yours. Perhaps the answer may be to get the cleaners to do the majority of the work and you come in after they've been and do the final touches?
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