Ups And Downs Of Vacation Rentals

The best day is when the guest leaves. The worst day is when the guest leaves. Today was that day.

It is the best day because I get to see my house again and what condition it is in. The house looked good. Dirty but good. They had been there for a month so it is understandable that it had a month's worth of dust and grime. They left me a present too besides the $100 bill for the extra night.


They left me a pebble from Madagascar. It's cool.

After they left I began to find other things that they left behind like extra sheets, towels, a robe, books, 3 mismatched socks! I took a picture of the stuff so they could tell me if they wanted any of it back. They left me a deposit for next year too so at least I know I will have one renter next year. That's my best time-slot too because it covers 5 months of morgage payments, yea!

The worst part is cleaning. I'm glad I have a carpet cleaner because, wow, I am going to need it. Rentals should not have carpet, especially cheap carpet. At least it is brown carpet, not white. I had hoped to bring some of my RV trash if there was room in the trash cans.

I didn't think there would be but I thought for sure there would be room in the recycle bin. Bummer, it was almost full. I managed to squish some more in though. I was doing laundry all day today. Some of the sheets were stained (maybe that's why they bought more sheets, but why purple sheets?) and I started thinking about the cost of maintenance of my house. Perhaps I provide too much for my guests. I could tell them to bring their own sheets!

I am also glad that I still have some of the original interior paint because I don't think anyone can bring a suitcase in to that house without scraping the walls. Black suitcases and white walls don't mix. I have to do some major touch-ups tomorrow.

And now the house is vacant which makes me sad. I either want another renter or to move in myself. All of that comfortable living space should not go to waste. I came back to my RV tonight because my computer is here and I don't have any food at the house except for some frozen pizza and veggie burgers that my guests left behind. One of my coworkers is going to lend me her laptop so I might be able to get on the internet next week. If I don't get another renter soon I will move my mammoth computer and my cat in for the summer.

My next potential renter told me to call when the house was available for viewing so I put the comforters on the beds to make them look made up, scrubbed all of the visible surfaces and then gave him a call. He wasn't there and didn't call me back. At least I was motivated to clean the house for the most part. I still need to clean the other parts like inside the fridge, the bath tubs, etc...

When I got back to the RV this evening I had an email from someone wanting the house for March 2009. Well, it's kind of early but since the last guest already reserved February 2009 I suppose it would be ok. I hope they go through with it. Then I would have 7 months of next year's mortgage covered. That would be wonderful!