I’ve had a go at my own bathroom… felt it needed a spring-clean… anyway, worn out but triumphant… and even got OH to mend a bit of flooring which has been niggling for months…
… with the best will in the world… I reckon to thoroughly clean a bathroom from top to bottom… to a standard which will please the most niggly Paying Guests, 2 hours would see you right… possibly more and possibly less depending on the state it was left in by the previous Guests…
OK perhaps I am not a professional… but I like to think that every inch of the bathroom has been “touched” by my magic-wand and is now clean and sterile. It was astounding to find just where the dust (and worse) was hiding
So imagine the speed you need to go at to clean 2 bathrooms, 3 bedrooms, kitchen and living room in two hours (and that includes taking a toothbrush to the grout in the corners of the shower)…
Mmmmm… I find that timescale a little tight surely not just 1 person…
Friends in the Charente have ***** gites and the wife + a small team of cleaners keep them shining like a new pin… they work so hard because they would be gutted if a guest could find fault…and they lost a * (bit like a restaurant I suppose)
It’s mainly me. OH does the garden and also does the wood stove but I do the rest, tho’ these days I normally take 3 hours. When we turned it into a gîte we thought hard about cleaning. For example suspended toilets and italien style shower so no shower doors. After that it’s a well rehearsed routine with me and my cleaning bucket… we’re 4**** and keen to keep high standards. Just had our 5year control visit of the 112 criteria and scored full marks happily.
I started this topic sometime in 2011 when we were living in France, albeit a five hour drive from the apartment we were renting out. We found via this site an amazing couple who took over our hand overs, hitch free for several years. The apartment is modern, open plan and I deep clean it four times a year so hand overs are really a hoover, polish and bedchange. We now have a different company doing hand overs , only because our great team branched out into different work. We now pay considerably more. We have had one person who ‘forgot’ to prepare the apartment…another who though paid to come out in an emergency, wouldn’t, to the usual poor cleaning jobs. I asked a friend who we gave the apartment to on mates rates to feedback for the cleaning and presentation. She has her own rental gites. Apparently everything from mouldy jam left on the table to crumbs over the floor, ring round the bath, hair on bathroom floor and toilet not bleached. Honestly, it’s a nightmare trying to find a company or individual you can rely on.
I don’t often stay at gites but my gut feeling, backed up by experience on, is to feel more confidence in places where the owner is there. You can’t always tell from the adverts but it’s a plus point for me. You can’t expect a cleaner paid by the hour to have the same committment as a person who has put thought, time and money into planning and setting it all up - and who stands to reap the benefits of going that extra mile…
It was astounding to find just where the dust (and worse) was hiding