Strange (bizarre) and mysterious occurances when renting out villas/apartments

[Chris_S]

This may be a strange idea, but...

Instead of 'giving' away plug adaptors, why not fit a surface mount 3 pin plug next to the standard 'continental' socket , with a fly lead and plug into the standard socket?  If a renter wishes to plug into a 3-pin UK socket, all they do is use the UK surface mount one and plug the flylead into the non-UK socket.

I can't see many of those would go 'walkies'......

[Anne]

We gave up providing plug adapters after they just kept disappearing.  We change all appliances which have English plugs on for continental plugs and trust people will bring their own adapters, not had any complaints about that.  We also gave up providing a Turkish mobile phone as we had the SIM card stolen twice, we now leave our landline available for local use only, with a block on any call beginning with '0' , so people can call our agent or take away place etc. and that seems to work.

[Bee]

One of the strangest things we once found, when we visited the villa at the end of the season were 4 "huge" footprints on the bedroom ceiling. 

[maryjane]

I also agree with Helshe.  I always rent a property when visiting Kalkan, and I  always make sure it is immaculate (unlike my home ) during my stay and when leaving.  Even went to Kas  to replace a particular broken glass (an accident), last time did have to buy a corkscrew, but left it behind for the next guests.  Alas, there is always going to be a certain risk when renting out property, but I would like to think the majority of us care for other peoples property.   Will not go into details, but I used to own a rental property in the UK, one lot vanished with the dishwasher!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Alas, the breakage deposit did not cover the replacement cost/insurance excess for a claim,  and they had an assumed name as well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[itstime]

 

One of the strangest things we once found, when we visited the villa at the end of the season were 4 "huge" footprints on the bedroom ceiling. 

[Kalkan regular]

We lost adapters but wondered if perhaps people thought they were their own if they had brought some with them. At the start of this season I wrote the name of the apartment on them between the plug holes with permanant marker and haven't lost any since. The rest is just replacing the odd breakage, smoe of which we have been responsible for.

[Babs]

I'm quite shocked at the number of things that go missing.....we always rent and take as much care as possible! I always take my own adapters.....and have never walked on a ceiling!!

[jayne]

We superglued an adaptor to the ipod dock we provided and a guest managed to prise it off. We find we are constantly having to replace coat hangers and clothes pegs - I know they're cheap to buy and not a big deal but it is a bit annoying.  On the whole our guests are very respectful and we have not had many issues over the last 5 years or so we have been renting it out.

[Cosetta]

Anne, how did you block calls beginning with 0 ?  I was told that's not possible with Turk Telekom.  We don't provide plug adaptors and no one has yet complained.  We have offered a local phone but no one has wanted it since they come with and use their national phones.

[brian j p]

I too am shocked at the amount of things that disappear   in villas ,I once heard a rumour  someone even lost their viginity, not sure if they managed to get it back though -- ha ha

[Anne]

Cosetta,  the phone is not in our name, it is the name of our management agent and he applied to Turk telecom to have the line barred for all but local calls.  It was quite a hassle to get it done, took weeks.  One pain is that when we come out it takes just too long to get the barring turned off, so we rely on Skype for calls to the UK and for dialing mobiles.  Ideally we would like a pin number which we can dial to access international and mobile calls, but that seemed even more of a hassle and at the time we just didn't have enough time to pursue that.  I am not sure if guests do use the phone for local calls, obviously it is much cheaper for them to call our agent on our landline if there is a problem than use their English mobiles.

[kalkanbabe]

I'm with Helshe and Maryjane,
I take more care of the accommodation than with my own home.
Even bought a new frying pan on our last trip as the one they had was a bit knackered!
Kalkanbabe

[anne41]

So agree kalkanbabe the things I've had to purchase for villas that I've rented the list is endless ..... Maybe we should start our own post!!!!!
Please don't get annoyed villa owners I was also horrified at what you guys have lost. I also treat villas I rent better than my own home. Have had one really bad experience renting a couple of years ago that's why I posted but this year all was redeemed found a lovely Villa.... Really well equipped so booking it again for next year.

Guess there is always two sides to every story!

[darknight]

good, thanks ... 

[Christina]

I am grateful that there are people like you all who are willing to share your property with me so that I can enjoy Kalkan.
Is there a way that you can let each other know if you have someone in your property that causes damage or steals from you so that other owners know not to rent their property to those people?

I re-read this thread with renewed interest, as I've recently invested in some lovely new soft furnishings and equipment for my rental apartment in preparation for the season, and want my guests to have the best holiday experience possible.  However, Chris S's story about the cigarette burn artist and Cosetta's shocking tale about the jewellery thief, have brought me to Helshe's question - is there anything we can do to 'warn' each other about such guests? - which didn't seem to get any responses. I am sure it is totally unethical/illegal/uneccesary to compile some kind of blacklist, and other owners tell me that such extreme occurrences are few and far between, but if the phantom curtain burner was planning to rent my place, I would certainly want to know about it. 

On a lighter note - can you imagine browsing through the EK photo gallery to find pictures of a drink-fuelled, rip-roaring party going on in someone's house - only to realise it was your house! 

[MartynE]

Self- tanning lotion is the bane of our lives. We have had to replace countless white sheets and towels because of the evil brown/orange stains it leaves behind - sometimes when the linen is  only a few weeks old.  Most guests are careful but a small minority don't seem to realise (or care) about the state of the linen they leave behind.

We use white linen so it can be bleached if necessary, but even that won't remove it... it looks horrible for the next guests, so we have no option but to replace linen on a regular basis.

Apart from that, just the usual missing cutlery and crockery and adaptors, but that all just gets replenished every season.

[onelove]

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