Subletting guests

Recently our housekeeper informed us that the guests who had booked to stay for a fortnight had left after 7 nights. The house was empty of all belongings and the fridge and cupboards were all empty except for a bottle of milk in the fridge.

Both keys had been left behind, one in the key safe (the house rules stipulate not to do so unless checking-out) and one inside the property. They had left the windows open and unlocked.

I sent a message to the guest to ask if all was OK and to inform him that the linen and towels had been changed as standard service for the second week of stay. He replied that yes all was OK but they had been out for the day and had not yet returned.

We thought it strange that someone would empty the holiday home of all their belongings and take them with them just because a housekeeper would be visiting to change bedding and towels.

Later that day he called me to ask where the spare key was as it was not where he left it. Giving the benefit of doubt I informed him that the housekeeper would return the next day to drop one off (she had found it and rightly put it away as she believed the guests had left).

As it turned out, the guest wasn't him, the car parked outside was different from the first week - according to neighbours.

He was obviously lying about being in the property trying to find the spare key. If he was merely sharing the fortnight with other family members or even friends, why all the secrecy and lies? It's not as if he got a discount because he booked  a fortnight instead of two seperate weeks. Perhaps it was to save on the agency booking fee, but that's a lot of deceipt to save a few quid.

Apparently, according to the holiday letting agency that took the booking, the guests had not done anything wrong. Should anything untoward have happened then the original guest that made the booking was ultimately responsible. They also informed me that since early 2018, holiday letting agents and owners are not allowed to ask details of the guests staying in their properties. Huh? So we are supposed to let our holiday home to people whose names and addresses we don't know and are not verified, and it would be considered illegal if we did so?... this is privacy laws gone bonkers!

I find it incredible that someone can give our security code to someone else to gain access to our property. Isn't that trespassing or illegal entry by the second party? We the owners did not give them any permission or instructions on gaining entry.

So watch out, now a complete stranger to you can book your holiday home but not stay there, and instead sell that week to complete strangers for more money. Who is to say whether any name they give is real, that their mobile number isn't just a temporary one and that their email is an anonymous one used only for the purpose of this fraud.

The name of our guest was a famous name, maybe these people use well known names deliberately. We have since tried emailing and calling the numbers without any response.

All we can do is change the security code for entrance to the property and double check that nothing is missing or damaged.

If you get lots of messages or calls from a guest in the weeks and days leading up to their stay, beware. They may be just insecure and need reassurance that their booking is going as planned, but questions about when the changeover day and precise time for fresh linen could be a clue that the second week will not be the same guests.

In fact who is to say that both of these weeks weren't sublets?

4 simple improvements

Try leaving some personalised postcards for your guests to send to friends and family

There are many improvements you can make to increase customer satisfaction and gain new and repeat bookings, here are 4 simple ones:

• Remember that cleanliness really is the big issue. Keeping your property spotless and well maintained is vital so if you’re unable to do it yourself, make sure you find someone you can trust. A dirty bathroom or fridge makes for bad reviews, which could deter future customers from booking.

• Consider installing a hot-tub if you have space. Adding one to your holiday home is likely to increase its desirability. We did not have the space however we fitted a large wide bath with a luxury overhead rain shower, it gets most of the glowing comments in our guest book.

• Providing a welcome pack including locally sourced fresh products, a bottle of wine and the local paper (with a 'what's on' guide) is a nice touch. We also leave a few postcards. Since the cottage is in Cornwall, guests also receive a Cornish Cream Tea of scones, clotted cream and jam which helps make guests' arrival more welcoming, easier and creates a lasting impression. If you can accommodate guest dietary preferences in this that will also illustrate your willingness to understand their needs. It's amazing how much thoughtful touches like these can increase the likelihood of your guests re-booking or recommending your property to others.

• Most holiday makers expect the same mod cons they'd use at home, so a washing machine, dishwasher, microwave and free Wi-Fi are pretty essential, and a tumble dryer a bonus. You may also want to consider a coffee machine, sandwich toaster, slow cooker and other technology such as a DVD/Bluray player and Xbox.

I bought a Sony Blu-Ray and DVD player which has been perfect, no complaints from the guests, easy to use and takes up little space. I bought it from Amazon and this link takes you to the newer release of the same model. You may find something here more suitable, I just went for the simpler less expensive model.
We don't provide a sandwich toaster but the toaster makes 4 slices at once, we've had it since 2010 and it's still working fine, looks new, just remember to empty the crumb trays every week.
For coffee, we provide two types of coffee percolators rather than a larger machine with capsules. The most popular which works best on gas or induction hobs is this Giannini caffettiera or this one by Bialletti, if you want to know why, you can read another of my blogs at "So you want to live in Italy".