Stories of horror stays in holiday lets, with guests opening doors on unclean apartments, battling with rude hosts and being refused refunds, aren’t uncommon.
But what about the other side of the holiday rental scenario? Reports about what it’s like to be an owner or manager left to clean up the nightmare scenes guests leave behind, and tackle the chaos they might cause during their stay, are much less frequent.
The Daily Mail has spoken to multiple experienced hosts in the industry, who’ve recounted some of the worst situations they’ve found themselves in over the years.
From properties being used as a brothel to pandemic parties, it seems running a short-term let on the likes of Airbnb, Booking.com and other rental sites isn’t for the faint-hearted.
Husband-and-wife team Mark and Caroline Winship have been in the short-term rental business since 2016 after they quit their jobs to oversee holiday properties.
Their portfolio includes luxury lets in the New Forest, some purpose-built apart-hotels, and a new development in West Sussex.
Although most guests enjoy their stay without a hitch, they say, some have caused major issues for the couple in the past, including one weekend birthday party that left them £2,000 out of pocket.
‘Unfortunately, there is a 1 per cent where it doesn’t go quite so smoothly, and they tend to be the ones that occupy all of your time, energy and headspace,’ Mark explains.
Husband-and-wife team Mark and Caroline Winship (pictured) have been running a short-term rental business together since 2016
Most guests stay at their lovely properties without an issue, but the couple have seen some bizarre scenarios
‘But the vast majority of guests are absolutely lovely, and they’re the ones who respect where we’ve gone the extra mile, and the love and care and attention that’s gone into the property. They treat the place like their own, which most people do.’
What kind of problems have they encountered? In one example, a guest managed to put so many wipes down the toilet that the drains couldn’t handle it and backed up, creating an unpleasant scene all over the bathroom floor.
Someone else kicked a door in because the access code wasn’t working, but it turned out they were simply entering the wrong number.
For one stay in a holiday let in Hampshire, the couple adorned the place with birthday decorations especially for the guests as a surprise – only to find they themselves were also in for a surprise.
The couple arrived when the guests had left to find it wrecked. Mark says, ‘They’d completely trashed the place, they’d damaged furniture, left indoor furniture outside.’
Caroline adds, ‘We’ve got a really nice coffee table which is really heavy and made of oak, which they’d carried outside to put next to the barbecue. Then it started raining, so it was out there and it was just awful.’
Aside from the mess, Mark and Caroline say they also found themselves falling victim to a scam by the same guests.
‘We were shocked to find the condition they left the property in, particularly as we’d gone above and beyond. But the real kicker was that they then processed a charge back on their card,’ reveals Mark, adding that it has become a common problem for many holiday let hosts.
The scam involves the guest processing a chargeback against the cost of their stay and claiming the transaction is fraudulent.
‘It’s quite difficult to make a case against that, because the bank in question will always immediately refund without any fact checking and then it’s up to you to make your case, to prove that they did stay there,’ he continues.
One memorable incident for Caroline and Mark involves a guest who put too many wipes in a toilet, causing it to back up and create a mess all over the floor
Another guest kicked in the door thinking the access code wasn’t working, but it turned out they were simply entering the wrong number
The pair fell victim to a scam where a guest wrongly claimed back the cost of their stay
Now that they’re more experienced hosts, Mark and Caroline know the steps to take to ensure this doesn’t happen so much.
They use a ‘rigorous online check-in process’ that involves collecting certain data from the guests.
This helps to ‘make sure that firstly, they realise that we’re a professional operation, but also so that we’ve got all of the evidence that we would need, should we ever have to prove that the stay actually happened’.
The birthday weekend left a ‘particularly sour taste’ for Caroline and Mark, as in the end they lost the ‘best part of £2,000’ after accounting for the cost of the stay, cleaning and replacing damaged furniture.
Many guests leave surprising things behind too, including a set of false teeth, which the couple describes as ‘slightly bizarre’. In other instances, they’ve had ironing boards, hair dryers and fans go missing.
Another wacky situation led to the couple’s two-bedroom apartment in Nottingham become the site of a 25-person party during the Covid-19 lockdown.
‘We got a slightly panicky call from a neighbour, who we have a really good relationship with and who keeps a good eye on the place for us,’ Mark shares.
The neighbour revealed there were ‘approximately 25 people in this two bedroom apartment’.
‘This is in the middle of Covid,’ he continues. ‘This is when we were all being particularly careful about social distancing. They were out on the balcony playing loud music. This was not under the radar at all, put it that way.’
After the guest checked out, they left a positive review but with one cheeky comment that the apartment wasn’t ‘very spacious’.
Sarah Stanton, 42, and Alex Roberts, 46, co-founded The Holiday Cottage Collection and manage properties on behalf of owners through the holiday letting agency.
Business partners Alex Roberts and Sarah Stanton manage properties on behalf of owners through The Holiday Cottage Collection
One of the beautiful holiday homes that welcomes guests in Smarden, Kent, managed by Sarah and Alex
Another property, in Saltwood, Kent, operated by Sarah and Alex, who say they ‘don’t generally have really bad situations’ but have experienced a few stand-out moments
The business partners have experienced a range of bizarre guests since launching their site, but one particular incident in a block of flats in Canterbury, Kent, stands out.
‘We had CCTV cameras all over, there were six apartments in a building that have been converted,’ Sarah explains.
‘I get a phone call from one of our maintenance guys that we use, who said, “Do you know that there are men going in and out of apartment six every four minutes?”‘
The person who had booked the property had claimed he was a guest university lecturer and needed to stay for 10 days. Sarah said he was ‘really well spoken’ on the phone beforehand and that she didn’t have any initial concerns – but ended up finding out the home had been used as a temporary brothel.
‘Anyway, I text him and I said, “Listen, there are only two things that are going on in that apartment, and both of them are illegal, and it needs to stop now,”‘ Sarah recalls.
The man was ‘polite’ about the situation and apologised, confirming he had ‘taken the website down’ and was ‘no longer trading’ from the apartment. He had three days left on his booking and departed the next day.
‘They left it absolutely immaculate,’ Sarah reveals. ‘What are you going to do? So, for a short window we had a little brothel going on.’
But, she emphasises how serious the situation was and says, ‘The second I know that there is illegal activity happening in a property, that has to be shut down.’
Plenty of guests have left items behind too, including one woman who forgot to take home her £200 coffee machine, and another who left an engagement ring in the bedsheets.
Overall, the pair admit they ‘don’t generally have really bad situations’ due to the customer base they try to target, but they still open the door to some messy situations.
Richard Young, CEO of selfcatering.co.uk, has been in the short-term rental business for years and previously offered serviced accommodation in the West Midlands that was sometimes let to people on holiday, or for longer-term uses
Cleaners reported back to Richard their discoveries of sex toys and mess – all left behind by guests
One guest who stayed at a property for a couple of weeks checked out leaving ‘so many pieces’ of linen and towels damaged in various different ways.
‘I can’t believe how she managed to damage so many pieces of linen and towel in one stay,’ Alex exclaims. ‘It was things like the dressing gowns and the towels and the bed sheets, but it wasn’t all the same stuff.’
One item was covered in fake tan and another appeared to have stains from takeaway food.
‘She just hadn’t taken care and also hadn’t even mentioned anything,’ Alex adds.
In situations like this, Alex says the management company will contact the owners but resolve the situation beforehand, such as replacing the linen using the guest’s deposit.
Richard Young, CEO of selfcatering.co.uk, used to offer serviced accommodation in the West Midlands that was sometimes let to people on holiday, or for longer-term uses, such as people who had experienced a house fire or flooding.
The experienced holiday let businessman, from Norfolk, recalls guests leaving a ‘horrendous mess’, and in one instance, it looked as though they had a food fight.
‘We had one time when it looked like they had a pizza or a food fight, just everywhere,’ he says.
Richard, 51, continues, ‘In some instances, we’ve had to give the next guests a little bit of a discount or something to say, “Look, very sorry this has happened, whatever has been damaged, we’ll get that fixed for the next two days,” because it’s not fair on the people coming afterwards.’
An example of a comfortable holiday let room freshly cleaned and ready for a guest to stay
The aftermath of a guest’s stay, with items and rubbish left behind, as well as furniture moved
It got to the point that he had to ‘assume that there’s going to be some problems’ with the property and have back up supplies like cutlery, bedding and plates to quickly replace.
‘I have had calls from the cleaning staff when people are still in bed and you have to sort of work around the rest of the house because you can’t actually physically throw them out. But it comes to a point where you can get a bit annoyed,’ Richard shares.
Other discoveries include cleaners finding anything from ‘dirty knickers’ to ‘condoms’ left behind by guests and then communicating the horrors with Richard over text message.
There was another situation where a guest tried to put themselves on the council tax so it would look like they were living at the property and stay there, something which he says was ‘difficult to deal with’.
From crazy parties to leaving a huge mess behind, it seems holiday let hosts never know quite who they’re opening the doors of their properties to.
What should holiday let owners do when guests seriously abuse their trust?
