Visting the accommodation providers at last

Finally I am getting out from the office to say hello to

some of the accommodation providers on my website.

Last Saturday, when she had just cleaned through her holiday let, in those precious few hours that cottage owners have from waving goodbye to one set of holiday makers and smiling hello to the next lot, I called in to see Hilary Jarvis and her family.

This few short hours when anyone in the family that can be rallied to push a hoover or wash a few windows is rallied, is called the changeover. Usually from 10 or 11 in the morning to around 4 or 5 in the afternoon and the amount of work to be carried out to get the holiday let back into pristine condition depends entirely on the state in which the outgoing guests leave the place. Some really nice people will leave the place almost as they found it a week ago, with just a neat pile of outgoing soiled linen by the back door ready for you to deal with as you carry in an armful of clean linen.
Others of course, fortunately not so many, walk out to their cars with a 'you're having a laugh aren't you ' brave face with hardly a backward glance at the dishevelled mess of unmade beds and occasionally dishes in the sink. Which is stupid really because home owners are quite at liberty to withold some of the damage deposit that these days all incoming holidaymakers have to pay. We once delivered a narrowboat back to base after a party of youngish (in their twenties) delivered a hire boat back to base on a sunny Summer morning, and the boat base was not at all happy about the state of the boat. The final night of the holiday had culminated in a boozy party and the crew had finished off the holiday with full on hangovers as one of their party manouvered the boat back to base. They foolishly thought that all they had to do was transfer their tatty belongings into their cars and drive away home. But the boatyard staff had other ideas.

A stand off ensued once the cars were packed and the party made to depart......
But a barrier had been lowered from the boat yard car park, and the manager, a big bloke went about his work and totally ignored them. Brilliant !

We watched all this from the grandstand position on the top of our own boat as we took a final mug of tea at the end of our clean out.....

It was just like a wild west shoot out... the kids were full of muster, determined to be off, but penned in by the metal bar. Three male members of their party studied the locking device and scratched their heads whilst the females slumped on cars smoking and goading their men folk on to bring about what they saw as their right to be released and away.

It was at this stage that I was dragooned by the lady cleaners to go and witness the state of the boat, in case of any comeback, and I was completely stunned at the state of it. The galley was just a sea of dirty dishes, bottles and cans, the beds looked as if they had been used for a month, and the bathroom, well I won't bother telling you.

After some time, one of the lads came and talked to the cleaning ladies, offering them money to clean up the boat, but they referred him to the boss, who was in full view but back turned with his total attention seemingly on other things......

The boy didn't have the bottle to go on his own, and went back to the car park to reinforce himself with the other 2 boys, and in a threesome they approached Mr. Chunky.

The first thing we heard was "I'm gonna phone my Dad"

Chunky came back with "Good, I look forward to meeting him"

There then followed some debate as to the likelihood of the deposit being returned.....
"No there will be no return of the deposit. Plus there will be an extra charge to be paid right now, for the work that the cleaners have to carry out to turn the boat around ....... or else"

"Else wot ?" asked the mouthiest of the bunch.

"Or else you can get those girls off their backsides and back into that boat to clean it. Your choice"

It was pure theatre to watch. I loved every minute of it. And you know what happened don't you. Just what we guessed. They paid up and ran. They had to pool money together so that they could leave, and that is what they did !
But the cleaners had the last laugh, because after we had loaded our car to go and went back to finalise things at the desk, the cleaners took a coffee break from the worst of their endeavours and came into the office in a happy mood. Not only were there toiletries and food to be divvied up between them, they had found a pack of cards and quite a bit of money on the floor under the fixed table. They did well out of that day, but they deserved every penny.

Anyway, to get back to Hilary. ...
I found her on her hands and knees washing the floor to the hall in her self catering cottage, working backwards with the bucket as she came towards me. ....

This was her last job in getting things back to normal. She had asked me to take some up to date shots for her website, and with this in mind she brought out the welcome cake that she cooks each week 'for the next lot' It looked utterly delicious. See above. click the pic to see it in all it's glory. The dog in the pot is Harvey who gets on with all visitors and visiting dogs, and the hens are her free range flock fully free ranging and looking in the peak of condition. If you stay in the her self catering you can buy some of the eggs...
Take a look at Hilary's website http://www.pittpark.co.uk/ to see for yourself how inviting it looks....

Not far from Widecombe, very family minded.

Fortunately Hilary's Mum was busy in the home kitchen making fresh bread and carrot soup, and the new ice cream maker was being put through it's paces, so I had a very tasty lunch before I journeyed home.
I still reckon this is a great job. Only one drawback. If I told you that the time is now past midnight, and that I never seem to fully get through all my little jobs, I think you will understand. Goodnight one and all.