As Mumsnet shows, self-catering demands to clean and exit put tourists off – Jayne Dowle Yorkshire News

And I’ve always followed the rules, replacing broken glassware, once even an Ikea TV cabinet that ‘just fell apart mom’. Until now, when I start to feel less welcome than a positive Covid test at a holiday camp.

Hotel stays, though rare, were stressful affairs involving many whispered threats to behave at the breakfast table and impromptu ‘quiet corners’ of so-called ‘family bedrooms’, cramped, hot and suffocating, bound together with blankets and towels. of a travel cot so that at least someone could get some sleep. As my two have grown older (they are now 19 and 16), renting a cottage, apartment, cottage or caravan has given us all the freedom to afford to take short breaks and vacations. in the UK, often in Yorkshire or Lincolnshire. coast and explore other countries as well.

When we traveled by train through France in 2018, we stayed in apartments in Paris and Marseille and at a caravan site near St Tropez; It would have been simply unaffordable to do this nine-day family vacation any other way.

However, as with so many things since Covid, this once-for-granted thing suddenly seems that much more difficult. I know people invest and run vacation rentals like a business and the overhead is getting higher, but having guests do all the work is a very cynical way to get your money back.

And it seems that I am not alone in my concerns. Mumsnet, that reliable barometer of Middle England’s woes, is currently up in arms over an ‘Am I Being Unreasonable’ (AIBU) post titled… ‘To think so many people have mistaken paying for their house rent? vacation with housekeeping?’.

The Mumsnetters adamantly agree that yes, it’s not reasonable.

The last time we booked a caravan on the Yorkshire coast, we were told check-in time was not until 4pm to allow for a ‘deep’ cleaning. And we had to leave at 10am sharp on the day of departure, with a long list of household chores to complete before putting the key back in the wall safe. How long does it take to ‘deep’ clean a 35ft x 12ft space, I was wondering? This was a pretty stylish caravan, although it was pet friendly, there were also strict warnings of penalties if the only dog ​​allowed was found to have put a tentative paw on the sofa, and it was beautifully decorated.

But I must say I was longing for the more relaxed affair we had previously rented.

There is nothing worse than a dirty or disheveled vacation rental. Once I was alone with my two in a converted train car near a historic railway; the closet stank and the latch on the nursery window wouldn’t lock. After the first restless night, I left the camp and spent the rest of the week sleeping on the children’s floor with my feet against the window; this was around the time Madeleine McCann disappeared from a vacation rental in Portugal.

Paranoid from lack of sleep, he couldn’t be too careful.

And there’s nothing worse than a paying guest trashing the place. I have several friends and acquaintances who rent vacation rentals and the stories they tell give you goosebumps; condoms left under beds, toilets not flushed or apparently not cleaned for a week, fatbergs in pipes, and chewing gum stuck to bedposts are just a few that I can share in a family newspaper.

My husband grew up traveling in caravans with three brothers, who were instructed to always leave a place as they found it; this explains why he willingly whitewashes everything in sight wherever we are. Yet this new obsession with requiring guests to do all the work strikes me as spectacularly ill-timed, considering that the British tourism industry, estimated at £9bn in Yorkshire alone, should be bracing for extraordinary times, having taking into account the cost-of-living crisis, airport hassles and lingering fears about sudden and draconian Covid prevention measures stranding tourists abroad.

Why then, this apparent disregard for making paying customers feel welcome and comfortable, valued guests rather than guilt-stricken underpants? Especially when the cost of self-catering accommodation in some of our region’s most popular coastal and rural areas can now exceed that of a hotel. It’s not unusual to find cottages or two-bedroom cottages asking for more than £1,200 a week in high season. And there’s often a £100-£200 ‘cleaning fee’ on top of that, and always a hefty ‘damage’ deposit hanging in the balance until your own efforts have passed the test.

There are so many rules and regulations that a visitor can take; and plenty of British hotels and guest houses ready to pamper us.