So, for 25 years I have been “just keeping the credit card
number until we check out the cabin after you leave.” I rarely have to charge for cleaning or
breakage as MOST people are aware that they are using SOMEONE’s Mountain Home
and they treat it gently. I have had to
charge for broken windows on three occasions in the SAME WINTER, and for the
SAME CABIN!! It was an icy year and
those “snow balls” were more like baseball-sized ice balls!!
I have also charged on two occasions that I recall for
CLEANING!! One was a ski team who stayed
here for a Jr. Race Team Race at Dodge Ridge.
They did NOTHING and I charged them for cleaning, including all the beer
bottles on window sills and tables, cigarettes in a NON-SMOKING cabin, and food
crusted dishes on every flat
surface!! I also sent a note criticizing
their “drinking on the job” when they had children other than their own IN
THEIR CARE with the credit card receipt!!
The other cleaning charge was an Easter Weekend when ALL THE
FURNITURE had to be moved and vacuumed under thanks to the Easter Basket
HAY!! It was EVERYWHERE!!
I hesitate to run a second credit card amount after the
person leaves as they ALWAYS call me to complain that “we left it cleaner than
when we arrived” and then I am called a lier and reported to the credit card
company who, of course, always believes the card holder and never the merchant
who takes the card. So it ends up
costing me fees for the rental, fees for the cleaning charge, and fees for
reimbursing the complainers!!
This new attitude regarding using the property of others
leaves me scratching my head. One of our
owners said that she always pays $150 cleaning fee when she rents a place, a
house, a condo. And the most popular
question I am asked when people call to reserve a cabin is: Are there any extra fees? To which I reply, “Not if you leave the cabin
CLEAN, just the way that you found it!!”
I also send an email confirmation with our expectations. While it isn’t a SIGNED CONTRACT, they can’t
say that they didn’t KNOW what we were expecting, unless the email is not
shared with all the people IN THE CABIN!
SOO, my cleaning staff has been leaving a COPY of that
information under the key in the cabin where it can be seen by ALL. STILL, no one wants to be Cinderella!! Not even the person whose card is “on the
line” for the cleaning charges/ damage deposit!! No, they take photos when they arrive and
claim that is what it looked like when they LEFT!! What a scam!
We do allow pets in MOST of our cabins so vacuuming is an
important part of the cleaning before the group leaves, as is wiping up the
kitchen appliances as well as the floors, except the bathroom(s) My cleaning agency is paid to change linen
and clean bathrooms and we EXPECT the other cleaning to be done by the guests
on the way out the door!! So if people
are RUDE and ignore the requests/ expectations for CLEANING the cleaning agency
actually has to do MORE than they have scheduled time and staff to do!! It is not fair to them, and it delays the
readiness of the facilities for the next guests.
SO they bill us for MORE than the normal cleaning charge for
that cabin because they had to DO MORE!!
Enter the cleaning deposit problem, the credit card charges
and the keeping of the “security deposit” or at least a part of it!!
I even had an owner say that they had never been required to
do the floors, whereupon I FOUND a 1983 price sheet with the line “Housekeeping
is required; the cabin must be left the way you FOUND IT!” In other words CLEAN, even the floors, and
most especially if you are some of our “PETs are members of the family”
guests. It would be nice if a trip to
the groomer was part of the preparation for a trip to someone else’s mountain
home!!
I wonder if I am just getting OLD, or if attitudes really
have changed. LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS
– www.mweathers@mlode.com. I know that NO ONE LIKES CHANGE, except a wet
baby! But perhaps it is time to charge
the cleaning fee as part of the rental amount!!
Of course, if there is a cleaning fee no one will even empty
the trash on their way OUT or clean up after their pet.
