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What’s Under the Bed?

Managing Your Rental Property

underbed When was the last time you checked under the beds in your vacation rental home or cottage?

Did you check the bathroom cabinet; the dresser drawers and the shelf in the nightstand?

I hope it was on the last changeover day. If not, how do you know what your last guests left behind. Dust bunnies and candy wrappers; used Kleenex and items of clothing; medications and empty shampoo bottles are just a few of the things you might find. Others I will leave to your imagination but trust me…if you aren’t looking, your next guests are.

Never underestimate how important it is to do a thorough check on each changeover and using a checklist can be the best way to ensure nothing is missed. Reminding your caretaker or cleaning team to do this can save you from complaints, negative and damaging reviews and feedback you would prefer not to have.

Photo by Mavis on Flickr

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Heather Bayer

  • I check every drawer, under the beds, under couch cushions, and under the couch between guests. I have found religious material in drawers, food stuffs under couches and cushions, lost earrings, etc. I also check my DVD and CD players as I have found many movies and CDs left behind.

    While staying at another vacation rental I found condom wrappers and honeymoon grade underwear. Eeewww. Not what I wanted to deal with on my vacation!

  • CottageGuru

    Eeew indeed! So far in comments on here and on Facebook we uncovered all that you have mentioned plus pornographic magazines, half eaten dog chews, socks, and a variety of underwear. So worthwhile checking! Thanks for mentioning under the couch cushions – I found $5 there last week!

  • I forgot to mention; I found a couple of grapes behind the TV last month in the game room. Every now and again I am greeted with something new, just to keep things interesting 🙂

  • I have found many an item in strange places when we rent a vacation home or even hotel room. From the guest’s point of view when I find articles or ‘trash’ it makes me think that the cleaning was not very well performed and what else is really ‘dirty’ in the place that I cannot see.

    While I don’t ‘squabble’ about it- it still is a little creepy.

    finallygettingtoeven.com’s last blog post..A little disturbing news on keywords

  • We have found everything imaginable under the beds, in dresser drawers and in the back of refrigerator drawers. There has been more weekly left behind in 2010 than any other year we have been renting. MP3 players and scarves are apparently easy to forget. Guests have recently decided it isn’t worth taking home their half empty shampoos, olive oils, etc. Recent discoveries have also included imported beer and cottage grade wine (unopened) and an empty water bottle with Viagra pill just beside it. The last discovery has us pondering the implementation of a “no sexual activity of any sort” policy at Turtle Point but we decided it would be too difficult to enforce and would dramatically limit potential clientele.

  • CottageGuru

    We had a call from an owner recently wondering what to do with a few items of a very personal nature left by their departing honeymooners. We suggested waiting for the guests to call and ask for them rather than packaging and mailing them which might be even more embarrassing. Very funny! We’ve experienced more things being left behind too this year.
    I’m not sure a No Hanky Panky clause would be too viable either but it made me laugh nonetheless!

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