end of summer rental

Leave the place perfect, and the owner may give you a good deal next year.
The $200 cleaning bill will pay for itself.

Agree w/ dealbooy - have it cleaned professionally

Leave it tidy with beds stripped, and a written note thanking the owners and, if necessary, politely pointing out any maintenance they may want to look into or other comments. Professionally cleaned is excessive and unnecessary, and will indicate to the owners that you have money to throw away and can afford to pay more next year.

Check your rental lease to see what's expected. Usually owners simply specify broom clean with beds stripped. If you do the laundry, fold all linens and make sure the oven, tubs, fridge and sinks are clean you should be fine. Other than that, I don't know that you need a full-on pro cleaning unless you've created an unusual mess and are concerned they will keep your security deposit.

Keep in mind that the owners probably add cleaning fees to your rental total cost (often this is specified as a separate charge). Likely they'll have their own pro come in and give the place a full top-to-bottom.

Good luck finding a housecleaner out there at that time. You might have to bring your staff from New York out there.

But frankly I'd just call the owner and hash out expectations ahead of time, then exceed them by a bit. Both gestures will put her in a more favorable frame of mind for deposit return and for future rentals.

The waves are expected to be magnificent next Monday, by the way.

Agree with ah - how much is a "professional cleaning" ? The owners must use some service out there, so just work it out with them.

Dealboy's got the right idea.

You just spent $20K minimum for the summer, maybe $50K, maybe more, I dunno. And now you're sweating over $200? Priceless. Penny-wise, pound-foolish.

Spend whatever it takes to make the place sparkle. You'll leave an impression of tenants who took real nice care of the place. Then when you go to negotiate next year, they'll be willing to just rent to those sweet, wonderful neat tenants rather than try to squeeze another $1000+.

He might even save realtor/broker fees by renting to you directly next year. That's gotta be worth thousands of dollars taken out of those greedy overpaid middlemen leeches.

And yes, you just spent $50k to rent an overpriced shack, and now you're worried about paying a cleaning lady $200? What gives, big spender?

Maybe the reason Village has money for a summer rental is he/she doesn't piss away money unnecessarily. Seriously people - somebody asked a reasonable question - no reason to be snarky.

I'm not being snarky, that's my opinion. Not cleaning place to level handed to you => inappropriate & rude. Not cleaning place that you'd like to rent again next year => pissing money away.

>Not cleaning place to level handed to you

The apartment was not handed to the tenant. The tenant paid for it

>inappropriate & rude

Wow

>Not cleaning place that you'd like to rent again next year => pissing money away.

Stupid. She said she'd otherwise leave it tidy. And I doubt that she's left the place a pigsty over the summer.

get it professionally cleaned and leave fresh flowers, a hand-written note saying how much you enjoyed the summer and a thank you bottle of good vintage wine. or maybe chocolates, just in case they are AA. you never know!

Agree with Glamma except for the flowers. You don't know when they will be out there and dead flowers--no matter how well meaning the intent--are never attractive. If you know for a fact they will be there in the next few days by all means include the flowers. And definitely chocolate over wine, even though some people are diabetic, its less risky than giving wine to a recovering alcoholic.

i once house-sat for a couple and it turned out they were both in AA. thank god we took the recycling out before they got back!

Cult members don't necessarily expect you to follow the crazy protocols of their dangerous cults.

Why not save the hassle and just leave money. Surely they like money, after all you probably gave them some before moving in.

I assume your lease does not spell out any specific obligations when it comes to cleaning.

We have the same situation for the 3-bed house we rent most summers on Fire Island (Fair Harbor).

Here is what we do when we leave:

* Empty the frig and wipe it out.

* Throw all the sheets and towels in the laundry and when they are done, fold them and put them in cabinets. (leave the beds stripped)

* Get a broom and sweep the wood floors. If you have carpet and a vacuum, run the vacuum over the carpeted areas.

* Wash all the dishes, including the utensils you used for grilling, and put them away. Wipe down the kitchen counters.

* Scrape the grill with the grill brush and then put the cover on the grill and put it away.

* Put away all the beach chairs, boogie boards, etc. in the storage shed.

That's about it. The house always look neat when we leave, and we always rent the same place the next year, so it seems to work.

We do it on the last day, as we are packing up our own stuff, and it doesn't seem to take too long. A few hours, I guess.

Hope that helps.

I'm curious GraffitiG... when you clean the fridge, why don't you leave some extra money in the crisper? After all, you need to kiss the owner's ass, because we all know that landlords have the upper hand because of the great shortage of good places, and the overabundance of qualified tenants who are reliable, have a proven track record of paying the rent [to that specific owner, no less], and caused no damage or other problems and left the place at tidy at the end of the term.

ask your LL for the name of his/her cleaning people, and pay them to clean--make sure LL knows you had his people clean sop that cleaning wouyld be to LL's spec--if you want to rent again, that is

Are people such slobs that they need to hire professionals to come in and clean at the end of the season?

Agree