Made a mistake at Xmas

[drifting]

I did my usual and did not research on here before going at Xmas. Have to say the last two houses we hired from people on this site were great. However this time my wife made the booking as she wanted to make sure that the house would be big enough to take all our UK Family, and most of my American family. Anyway to cut a very long story short we stayed at STALAG Weston Hills! Quite a nice house, but it was the stupid notes everywhere, don't do this, don't do that, if you do we charge you, type of thing. The worst thing of all was that we asked for a heated pool, it was just off cold, we complained and got told it was on ! Next plastic sheets under every bed, found it hard to sleep with all the rustling. House was freezing cold, and we could not up the temp gauge, as another note pointed out Electricity in Florida is expensive! Good grief they ought to try it here in the UK where we get 8 Months of cold weather (Seems like more just lately, perhaps I'm getting old)

But I think the one that takes the cake was aimed squarely at us Brits, describing how to use the toilet, I kid you not....Ok I know they block easy, we travel to the Florida at least twice a year, my family are also American, and Floridians as well. Told the owners that as well.

So for you American owners, Brits are resonably intelligent, tend to travel quite a bit (That's how you lot got there!) and do know how to use a toilet rather than the bed [:O]

Sorry to blast off, but this ruined our holiday, and has put me of renting from Americans again.

Now positive feedback. We stayed at a fantastic comfortable, warm pooled, warm house last March, everything you could possible want. Dave & Linda (Loma Linda), we'll be back.

Drift

[Nostromo]

It still does not justify the patronising notes, but maybe the owners had a bad experience from their previous tenants....who could have been their fellow countrymen!

[Ray&Sarah]

It might not have been the owners who put the notes up, our previous management company had notes up around our villa which we were not aware about.[msnoo][msnsmile2]

[drifting]

Never thought of that. You could have a point, as another of the many notes also stated that the beds had to be stripped, and the sheets put in the washing machine (Which we did as that incurred another fine) All in all there was not one item that did not have a restriction on it, or some form of fine. In the end we felt like we were intruders rather than guests. We were getting rather wary as we felt a bit like it was revenue generation. We had similar problems in California when my daughter was working there on a research project, all this sudden very fine print charges, bit like buying a car over there, but don't start me on that one..

Ranting on about the above so much, even forgot that the owners failed to tell us it backed onto the main road, and traffic noise throughout the night was irritating.

I must sound like a bit of a moaner? But the house was the worst I have ever stayed in, 10 years of flying and staying in Florida.

Not that it's going to stop me, expect I will get itchy feet real soon, and expect my sister will need help moving house in Sept (She's in Heathrow, No the one in Orlando [)] )

Drift...

[ctgirlscout]

I must say that we do have some notes up in our villa, and although we are American, it is not aimed at any one nationality. The reason for putting up the notes (ours say "no Smoking", and "do not set thermostat below 70 degrees"), is because a lot of guests don't take the time to read the "house book". So with some of the really important things that could become costly, it makes sense to post a note that will be seen. I would rather have a note on the wall, than have an argument with a guest who cranked the AC down and froze up the unit, and then didn't want to pay for the repair. We also do provide plastic mattress covers, but it is up to the guests to put them on the children's beds if they need them. My guess it that they owner you stayed with, or their management company, had some bad experiences in the past with people clogging the toilets, or playing with the thermostat. I wouldn't take it personally. Even hotels will have signs directing you on what not to do, or how to do something.

[steph_goodrum]

In our "checkout day notes" we ask the guests to strip the beds which have been used and put the sheets in the laundry as it is sometimes difficult for the cleaners to see which have been used and to wash 6 sets of bedlinen when only one or 2 may have been used is an unnecessary waste of time, water and electricity.

We do however try to keep the notices to a minimum and certainly wouldnt dream of "fining" guests - only if damage which is clearly malicious or plainly careless would we ever stop any money from their security deposit.
For instance one friend had a guest staying who decided that with no chip pan available the only way he could have his chips was to pour oil into a shallow baking tray put the chips in to cook and then go off into the pool to play with his children leaving it to catch fire and melt the microwave over the top and other damage. This in our book amounts to negligence and he was lucky the smoke alarms alerted him and it was contained but the whole $200,000 home could easily have been destroyed.

As someone else said though it is sometimes the MC who puts up notices unbeknown to the owners till they arrive with the intention of making their own job as easy as possible.

[christhear]

We have small notes by each loo roll holder requesting people not too put too much paper down the toilet and a small noter above the thermostat explainging how to change from heat to cool. These have been put up my the MC. We also have no smoking signs and the necessary Pool notices. Bur we certainly don't have plastic sheets on the beds. This reminds me of the old fashioned holiday camps.

[chrizzy100]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by drifting
I did my usual and did not research on here before going at Xmas. Have to say the last two houses we hired from people on this site were great. However this time my wife made the booking as she wanted to make sure that the house would be big enough to take all our UK Family, and most of my American family. Anyway to cut a very long story short we stayed at STALAG Weston Hills! Quite a nice house, but it was the stupid notes everywhere, don't do this, don't do that, if you do we charge you, type of thing. The worst thing of all was that we asked for a heated pool, it was just off cold, we complained and got told it was on ! Next plastic sheets under every bed, found it hard to sleep with all the rustling. House was freezing cold, and we could not up the temp gauge, as another note pointed out Electricity in Florida is expensive! Good grief they ought to try it here in the UK where we get 8 Months of cold weather (Seems like more just lately, perhaps I'm getting old)

But I think the one that takes the cake was aimed squarely at us Brits, describing how to use the toilet, I kid you not....Ok I know they block easy, we travel to the Florida at least twice a year, my family are also American, and Floridians as well. Told the owners that as well.

So for you American owners, Brits are resonably intelligent, tend to travel quite a bit (That's how you lot got there!) and do know how to use a toilet rather than the bed [:O]

Sorry to blast off, but this ruined our holiday, and has put me of renting from Americans again.

Now positive feedback. We stayed at a fantastic comfortable, warm pooled, warm house last March, everything you could possible want. Dave & Linda (Loma Linda), we'll be back.

Drift

[/quote]

Did the notes say they were for Brit renters only...and that if you are American you could pee in the closets without a fine and that would be OK..?? if not then the rules were for anyone renting the home.....I think you are being a bit hard on the American home owners......all rental homes have rules....owned by Brits and Americans.....you should try living in FL with the heat they have there for months on end and see the bills you end up paying to keep cool.....in the end rules are there to keep rental costs down....and so you don't damage something and end up losing your deposit.....

[floridadreamvilla.co.uk]

I totally agree Chrizzy...the last thing we want to see on here are unsubtantiated attacks at Americans, or Brits, or any other nationality. I think the question of where the owner or guest lives is totally irrelevant in the case mentioned.

As others suspect, I'm pretty sure it was the owners MC that was responsible for all these signs etc etc and not the owner themselves. All the owners I know are only too keenly aware not to put too many signs up as we want the guest to feel at home and comfortable - alienating a guest in this way does nothing to help anyone.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by chrizzy100
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by drifting
I did my usual and did not research on here before going at Xmas. Have to say the last two houses we hired from people on this site were great. However this time my wife made the booking as she wanted to make sure that the house would be big enough to take all our UK Family, and most of my American family. Anyway to cut a very long story short we stayed at STALAG Weston Hills! Quite a nice house, but it was the stupid notes everywhere, don't do this, don't do that, if you do we charge you, type of thing. The worst thing of all was that we asked for a heated pool, it was just off cold, we complained and got told it was on ! Next plastic sheets under every bed, found it hard to sleep with all the rustling. House was freezing cold, and we could not up the temp gauge, as another note pointed out Electricity in Florida is expensive! Good grief they ought to try it here in the UK where we get 8 Months of cold weather (Seems like more just lately, perhaps I'm getting old)

But I think the one that takes the cake was aimed squarely at us Brits, describing how to use the toilet, I kid you not....Ok I know they block easy, we travel to the Florida at least twice a year, my family are also American, and Floridians as well. Told the owners that as well.

So for you American owners, Brits are resonably intelligent, tend to travel quite a bit (That's how you lot got there!) and do know how to use a toilet rather than the bed [:O]

Sorry to blast off, but this ruined our holiday, and has put me of renting from Americans again.

Now positive feedback. We stayed at a fantastic comfortable, warm pooled, warm house last March, everything you could possible want. Dave & Linda (Loma Linda), we'll be back.

Drift

[/quote]

Did the notes say they were for Brit renters only...and that if you are American you could pee in the closets without a fine and that would be OK..?? if not then the rules were for anyone renting the home.....I think you are being a bit hard on the American home owners......all rental homes have rules....owned by Brits and Americans.....you should try living in FL with the heat they have there for months on end and see the bills you end up paying to keep cool.....in the end rules are there to keep rental costs down....and so you don't damage something and end up losing your deposit.....
[/quote]

[Snapper]

Hey Drift,

I too have a short note on each toilet and another asking guests not to set the air-con too low otherwise the unit will freeze up and break.

I'll give you a different point of view on this though, which is that these notes are there not for my benefit, but for my guests' benefit. If a guest blocks up a toilet and calls out the management company to fix it I get charged for the call-out, and I would pass this cost onto the guest concerned. Similarly if they set the air-con to Arctic temperatures and destroy the unit I will pass on the cost of repair to them, and they would also be without air conditioning until it's fixed. So from my point of view it doesn't really make any difference how many times a guest clogs up a toilet. From the guest's point of view though, this can easily become a big issue. Imagine getting home and finding out that half of your security deposit wasn't being returned because of 3 calls the the management company to come un-block toilets? Not good! So the most sensible approach is to errr on the side of caution, and where there are some gotchas a short note tries to help avoid any surprises on the guests' behalf.

The notes aren't intrusive. Let's face it, you don't spend your holiday looking at the top of a toilet now do you? I also explain the reasoning behind them in the guidebook I've written for the villa, so hopefully guests take them in the spirit in which they are intended.

I know this approach may not be perfect for all guests, and frequent villa renters like yourselves know these things already, but we have to cater to everyone and while the villa rental market is developing the majority of guests we get are first time renters.